Disney+ and Kermit specials

[Matilda]

I'll be curious to see whether two Henson TV specials are streamed on Disney+. There are different issues with each of them.

My all-time favorite Muppet show, beyond any of the Muppet movies, is Muppet Frog Prince ("Bake the hall in the candle of her brain!"). For some reason I don't know about, it has never been released on DVD. (I have transferred my VHS copy to DVD.) I'm hoping this will show up on Disney+, so that a new generation of kids can enjoy it.

I actually wish someone would do a comics adaptation of Muppet Frog Prince. I think it could work very well in that format...though I would miss the music of Sweetums' lullaby. "Sweetums lay your ugly head/ down upon your wretched bed...."

The made-for-TV Christmas special "The Christmas Toy" has appeared on DVD, twice, but both times without the Kermit intro and song finale, due to Disney's ownership of the Muppets. I don't know whether the Jim Henson Company--which seems to still have rights to the story minus Kermit--and Disney will find it possible or in their interest to cooperate in allowing it to be streamed on Disney+, so that we can finally see the whole thing again.

[Mesterius]

May 4, 2019 4:48:34 GMT Matilda said:

My all-time favorite Muppet show, beyond any of the Muppet movies, is Muppet Frog Prince ("Bake the hall in the candle of her brain!"). For some reason I don't know about, it has never been released on DVD. (I have transferred my VHS copy to DVD.) I'm hoping this will show up on Disney+, so that a new generation of kids can enjoy it.

Never seen this special, but could it be that Disney just doesn't see enough money in releasing it to DVD? They never released the last two seasons of The Muppet Show to disc either.

Speaking of Disney, I still remember back when the 2011 Muppet Movie came out. It was released to theaters all over Europe, but went straight to DVD here in Norway. Why? Because someone in charge somehow had managed to calculate that in Norway, specifically, it wouldn't make enough money to make it worthwhile to release theatrically. (Denmark and Sweden on the other hand, no problem.)

[Matilda]

May 4, 2019 19:40:45 GMT Mesterius said:

May 4, 2019 4:48:34 GMT Matilda said:

My all-time favorite Muppet show, beyond any of the Muppet movies, is Muppet Frog Prince ("Bake the hall in the candle of her brain!"). For some reason I don't know about, it has never been released on DVD. (I have transferred my VHS copy to DVD.) I'm hoping this will show up on Disney+, so that a new generation of kids can enjoy it.

Never seen this special, but could it be that Disney just doesn't see enough money in releasing it to DVD? They never released the last two seasons of The Muppet Show to disc either.

Speaking of Disney, I still remember back when the 2011 Muppet Movie came out. It was released to theaters all over Europe, but went straight to DVD here in Norway. Why? Because someone in charge somehow had managed to calculate that in Norway, specifically, it wouldn't make enough money to make it worthwhile to release theatrically. (Denmark and Sweden on the other hand, no problem.)

That's a funny story, about how it's not easy being green in Norway.

I've never understood why Disney doesn't release certain things on DVD, e.g. all of DuckTales '87 or Darkwing Duck. It doesn't seem to me like it would cost them that much to put something on DVD, especially if they're not adding bonus features. Maybe preparing the subtitles costs significant money? But as GeoX has said, it seems like they just have an aversion to printing money.

I was very glad recently to find out that the DT87 episode "Ducky Mountain High" was one of the original DT episodes put on the DVD with the first of the DT17 episodes. That was the episode I most wanted of DT87 that had not been released on DVD. I bought the DT17 DVD for that episode alone! I had bought it from iTunes, but I just feel more secure owning it rather than (you might say) leasing it. I can't help worrying that there would be some change in corporate licensing or whatever and the digital copy in my iTunes library would be revoked.

[squeakyboots]

Disney actually did finally release the final volume of DuckTales 87 on dvd last year but it's currently an exclusive title for Disney Movie Club which means you have to live in the US and be a member of that service in order to purchase it. We also just recently got the two Goofy Movies on blu-ray from them so hopefully there will be more Disney Afternoon content coming to physical media in the near future.

I think one of the main problems here is that Disney is just too big of a company that owns so many properties right now and has too many bigger releases to tackle right now. Making sure Avengers Endgame gets a good blu-ray release is a higher priority for them right now because that's going to sell significantly more copies than a dvd of old and obscure Muppets tv specials. There's more to releasing something on dvd than just slapping the content on a disc and Disney can only push so many things out at a time without over saturating the market.

I think the best one can hope for with the Muppets right now is for Disney to include the last two seasons of The Muppet Show along with any other currently unreleased content that they have the rights to on Disney+ when it launches. I'm assuming Disney doesn't have the rights to The Christmas Toy if the previous release of it had to edit out Kermit. The Frog Prince sounds like it should be good as the Wikipedia page for it claims that Disney and ABC are the current "distributors" of it and that it's part of The Muppet Show's syndication package. (And while looking up that info, I found a video of the special from a Disney Channel airing so yeah, pretty sure they own it now.)

[Matilda]

Thanks for the info! So if I could find someone who is a member of the Disney Movie Club and get them to buy it for me.... Though my need for the rest of DT87 is less urgent, now that I have "Ducky Mountain High" on DVD.

Yay, there's hope that we'll see Muppet Frog Prince on Disney+. For The Christmas Toy to be shown in its entirety, Disney and another company would have to cooperate, and I suppose that's not likely! As you say, Disney has PLENTY of wholly-owned content to manage.

I'm not surprised that Disney didn't release Muppet Frog Price recently, but I am still sorta surprised that they didn't release it on DVD shortly after they acquired the Muppets. I recently lent my transfer-to-DVD to a family with two young girls, and the girls watched it 2-3 times a day throughout spring break!

[Mesterius]

May 5, 2019 22:39:15 GMT Matilda said:

Thanks for the info! So if I could find someone who is a member of the Disney Movie Club and get them to buy it for me.... Though my need for the rest of DT87 is less urgent, now that I have "Ducky Mountain High" on DVD.

I'm surprised you didn't know about this already! Though, I guess it depends on what forums or animation sites you happen to read.

You don't necessarily have to find a member of the Disney Movie Club to get hold of DuckTales Volume 4. What always happens when something is exclusively released through the DMC is that tons of people start selling it on eBay. A few of the ones listed there seem to be decently priced too.

Plus, there's a good chance that this fourth DuckTales Volume will eventually get a general retail release. That's what happened with the final TaleSpin and Gargoyles volumes, as well as the two 3-disc Goof Troop volumes (which I picked up in their DMC editions on eBay).

[duckman87]

Disney has confirmed that Ducktales, Rescue Ranger Talespin and Darkwing Duck will be availiable on Disney+:


Edit: the link wasn't working, so I tried this new one... CONFIRMED: Classic Disney Afternoon Cartoons coming to Disney+!

 

[Matilda]

Sept 11, 2019 20:16:08 GMT duckman87 said:

Disney has confirmed that Ducktales, Rescue Ranger Talespin and Darkwing Duck will be availiable on Disney+:

www.cbr.com/disney-shares-its-ideal-disney-afternoon-lineup/  

 

Link didn't work for me ("not found"). Are you speaking of DuckTales '87? I assume so, given what you're listing it with.

I'm glad to hear this. There are a few episodes of Darkwing Duck which aren't on DVD and which I haven't seen and wish to see (e.g. Paint Misbehavin'). And I'd be happy to view more of Talespin, too--I've only watched the last of the DVD collections of Talespin.

[Mesterius]

Sept 11, 2019 22:24:07 GMT Matilda said:

Sept 11, 2019 20:16:08 GMT duckman87 said:

Disney has confirmed that Ducktales, Rescue Ranger Talespin and Darkwing Duck will be availiable on Disney+:

www.cbr.com/disney-shares-its-ideal-disney-afternoon-lineup/  

 

Link didn't work for me ("not found"). Are you speaking of DuckTales '87? I assume so, given what you're listing it with.

I'm glad to hear this. There are a few episodes of Darkwing Duck which aren't on DVD and which I haven't seen and wish to see (e.g. Paint Misbehavin'). And I'd be happy to view more of Talespin, too--I've only watched the last of the DVD collections of Talespin.

Hopefully working link: www.cbr.com/disney-shares-its-ideal-disney-afternoon-lineup/

[duckman87]

Sept 11, 2019 22:24:07 GMT Matilda said:

Sept 11, 2019 20:16:08 GMT duckman87 said:

Disney has confirmed that Ducktales, Rescue Ranger Talespin and Darkwing Duck will be availiable on Disney+:

www.cbr.com/disney-shares-its-ideal-disney-afternoon-lineup/  

 

Link didn't work for me ("not found"). Are you speaking of DuckTales '87? I assume so, given what you're listing it with.

I'm glad to hear this. There are a few episodes of Darkwing Duck which aren't on DVD and which I haven't seen and wish to see (e.g. Paint Misbehavin'). And I'd be happy to view more of Talespin, too--I've only watched the last of the DVD collections of Talespin.

   It wasn't working for me either, so I put another one. Yes, it's the original Ducktales. Curiosly enough, 30 of the last 35 classic episodes and the season one of the reboot are available on Netflix (at least in Brazil). I couldn't find the last episodes of Darkwing Duck for DVD in Brazil, and only a few random episodes of Talespin were released, so I'm looking forward for this when Disney+ finally arrives here.