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| Disney Zorro DVD Collections | |
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| Topic Started: Nov 10 2009, 06:53 AM (444 Views) | |
| JazzGuyy | Nov 10 2009, 06:53 AM Post #1 |
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I watched the first couple of episodes from the new complete seasons collections of the Disney Zorro TV shows from the 1950s. I hadn't seen any of these in many years since I refused to watch the colorized versions. I have to say that so far (after 2 episodes) that these are amazing. For one, the shows are better than I remembered. I tended to only remember the antics of Sgt. Garcia and some other things. Well, for one thing, other than the opening titles, these shows look magnificent. The clarity, contrast and detail of the black & white images is as good as anything I have ever seen on a standard DVD. The legendary Disney Studios care for their legacy material is very much in evidence. Secondly, the production values for these show were clearly a cut above that of most '50s TV shows. The sets are really good and the matte paintings show the skill of the Disney artists. Finally, Guy Williams is clearly having a lot of fun with the part and is a natural. He is much better in this than in "Lost In Space" (which I have to admit is one of my least favorite old TV shows). Consider these sets a must-have. |
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| CliffClaven | Nov 10 2009, 12:04 PM Post #2 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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One little note: The hour-long episodes that ran on the Sunday night hour turn out to be in black & white. I had always assumed they were filmed in color like the other Sunday episodes, but there's a mention in one of the documentaries that these were intended to be part of Zorro's own third season. Evidently they were already in production when Zorro was iced by the Disney-ABC breakup, so they were edited into the hour format. The special features are fun, including Guy Williams Jr. showing off some of his own Zorro collectibles. Surprisingly (or not), their history of the Zorro character doesn't mention the post-Disney Zorros. There were movies, at least two animated series, a fairly successful show with Duncan Regehr, and the two Antonio Banderas epics. There are passing mentions of Disney's own short-lived Zorro and Son sitcom, which clearly took some inspiration from the unmentioned Zorro: The Gay Blade. |
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| JazzGuyy | Nov 10 2009, 12:47 PM Post #3 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Cliffy, You've obviously gotten farther into these than I have. I was surprised that Maltin's intro mentioned the serials and that the credits give a nod to VCI for the footage from "Zorro's Fighting Legion". I think Zorros after this set were not mentioned because they were only trying to show the precedents to the TV Zorro, not what followed. Not everything shot for the Disney shows was in color. Much of the original material for the ABC-era shows was B&W, as past Disney Treasures releases have shown. One of the reasons Disney went to NBC is because he wanted to show off his stuff and promote Disneyland and the new movies with color and ABC had no color broadcasting at the time. When you were making stuff for TV though, B&W was a whole lot cheaper than color anyway and most studio heads still had a pretty low opinion of TV at the time except as a promotional medium. BTW, according to the certificates packed with these sets, there will only be 30,000 issued (at least in the tin cases) so, if you plan to get these, you might want to act soon. Finally, these are part of the annual Disney Treasures series. After all these years and annual releases, I can't imagine that there is much left in the vaults for a release next year. Anyone who is a Disney expert have any ideas what's left besides maybe some stuff from the Mickey Mouse Club and "Song of the South", which the Disney folks have vowed never to release? Edited by JazzGuyy, Nov 10 2009, 12:48 PM.
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| rodney | Nov 10 2009, 01:18 PM Post #4 |
Charter Member
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I know the Ludwig Von Drake stuff is scheduled for release next year. |
| Raise a toast to St. Joe Strummer! | |
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| cinemalover | Nov 10 2009, 02:06 PM Post #5 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I was in my local Costco this morning and they had both Zorro seasons for a reasonable $38.99 each. I picked up season one, I probably just should have gotten both while I was there. The Disney tins don't usually last long in Costco. All the tins I saw were in perfect condition, which has not always been the case in the past with other tins at Costco. |
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| Speedy | Nov 10 2009, 05:53 PM Post #6 |
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Balcony Gang
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The Zorro sets are already listed as out of stock at DeepDiscount and DVDPlanet. The Swamp Fox and Elfego Baca DVDs were left off the giant limited edition set of Disney Treasues that came out this year. So, I am hoping that is a sign, a complete set or, more Swamp Fox and Baca will show up in the next Treasure Wave. Zorro season two ended filming in Feb 1959. The episodes that became the four hour shows were filmed between May-Nov. 1960. That was a long enough gap, for the De La Vega patio set to have been taken down from the stage it was on. When the hour shows went into production the patio was set up outside. When the gate is open you can see the outdoor Los Angeles set through it. I like to see the rest of the Walt Disney Presents mini-series westerns that appeared on ABC in black and white but actually filmed in color: Texas John Slaughter, Daniel Boone, and the Saga Of Andy Burnett (which features the character Joe Crane, that appears in "Zorro and the Mountain Man"). Edited by Speedy, Nov 10 2009, 05:55 PM.
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| riddlerider | Nov 10 2009, 07:30 PM Post #7 |
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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That makes me nervous. I was supposed to get a free copy of the box because I gave the "Legend of Zorro" producers a scan of my copy of the 1919 pulp magazine that introduced Zorro and featured him on the cover. But the set hasn't arrived yet and I understand the damn thing is selling like hotcakes. It would be just my luck for the DVDs to go out of print before I get mine. Guess I'd better make a phone call tomorrow.... |
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| CliffClaven | Nov 11 2009, 12:33 AM Post #8 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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I must confess, I went straight to the bonus discs. I had the colorized versions from Disney Movie Club so I've already seen all of Season One and a chunk of Season Two -- although I'll probably go back to the beginning on Season One in B&W. Interesting that they rebuilt sets for the hour-long episodes. Perhaps they shot them as hours with a plan to recut them as half-hours if Zorro resumed. The first hour-long does fall neatly into two pieces as Zorro outwits a gang of bandits twice. First season is the best, playing like a serial without actual cliffhangers -- Zorro will win a victory, but still has to deal with the bad guy's larger plan next week. The first dozen or so episodes focus on an evil commandant. The rest of the season involves various villains, some for several episodes, who all answer to a mysterious mastermind called The Eagle. The Eagle finally appears in person, setting the stage for a season finale that wraps things up with no cliffhanger for Season Two. Swordplay every episode -- a nice change from the usual gunfights -- and some unusual gloss for a TV series, like matte painting effects, elaborate stunts and novelty songs for Sgt. Garcia. The most frequent directors seemed to be Norman Foster, who prior to Disney made Mr. Moto and other B movies look better than their budgets, and William Witney, who directed lots of solid westerns and serials for Republic. The second season, as far as I got, doesn't have any season-long themes like The Eagle. While the quality level is still up there -- albeit a hair less extravagant -- it felt like they were doing shorter story arcs and more stand-alone episodes. |
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| CliffClaven | Nov 11 2009, 01:42 AM Post #9 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Maybe they did do a lot of black & white, but in those ABC seasons they still shot plenty in color. This is often offered as proof that Disney was getting ready for color television, but he also turned a lot of these early episodes into theatrical releases for foreign (and occasionally American) markets. Just as old features were being sliced into Disney hours, new Disney hours were being spliced together into features, or edited down to featurettes. Davy Crockett was just the most famous of the TV-to-theater transfers. Johnny Tremain was shot as a TV show, but actually saw theatrical release first. Many single episodes, such as Mars and Beyond and Disneyland After Dark, went out as featurettes. Possible theatrical use justified spending more money than was usual for television. And color, as it turned out, dramatically increased the rerun value when color TV did arrive. Shooting a 39-episode show like Zorro in color must have been prohibitively expensive. And since Zorro, unlike Swamp Fox and the rest of the Sunday night headliners, would be on every single week, they probably didn't expect much demand for a theatrical version (although in time they did paste up a few episodes from the first season). |
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| shelbyvinje | Nov 18 2009, 02:46 PM Post #10 |
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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To add to a previous quote, the reason there is no mention of the Post-Zorros is because of copyrights and competition. Why would Disney mention Sony's Bonderas efforts? Pulp covers and cliffhanger serials are public domain for what they want to use, but they always cite the source for the materials. Best quality of ZORRO'S FIGHTING LEGIONS was put on VHS by Rhino and then copied for numerous DVD releases since. The Goofy Cartoon tin sets was $130,000 and the price got marked up to $80 a set so yes, 30,000 quantity of each is a must-grab before the out-of-print sets go up in price. Rodney is correct, the Ludwig Von Drake cartoons, while not yet promoted or advertised, is the next tin set, but may be the last for a while. While Disney does have plenty to put out on DVD for their tin sets, the economy is playing a toll and they are waiting to see how sales are for their tin sets. |
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| cinemalover | Nov 19 2009, 08:28 AM Post #11 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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As of last night my local Costco still had multiple copies of Zorro Seasons 1 and 2. Normally the Disney tins don't last that long (for example, the Scarecrow tin lasted about 2 days around here). It may still be the best bet for anyone looking to pick up copies. |
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| Zodiac | Nov 19 2009, 04:04 PM Post #12 |
Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Our Costco does not have them- but the B&N had them for $60 each. How much did Costco want for them? |
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| CliffClaven | Nov 19 2009, 06:49 PM Post #13 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Barnes & Noble tends to carry videos at list price, although you can find very competitive prices when they put specific stuff on sale. I pre-ordered the Zorros at Amazon for just under $40 each. |
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| cinemalover | Nov 20 2009, 02:26 PM Post #14 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Costco's price is $38.99. |
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| Zodiac | Nov 21 2009, 05:49 AM Post #15 |
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Balcony Gang, Foist Class
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Thanks! |
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