Not content with having a piece of our hearts, the bigwigs at Disney are taking our wallets as well by releasing these gorgeous ‘Big Sleeve’ editions of six classic Disney movies. The 12″ vinyl-style sleeves will offer fans the opportunity to own the films on DVD and Blu Ray as well as a complete set of collectible and bespoke artwork. Now you can own your favourite Disney movies in 'vinyl-style sleeves'
I sort of do. (Note: Lifelong vinyl record collector speaking here.) Although these crazy kids will deny it vociferously, the "vinyl comeback" thing is mostly about packaging. A good 30% of the records being sold now are going to people that don't own anything to play them on. (Yes, there was a study. No, I can't find it now.) Disney's just taking things to the next level here ... record packaging without the record. My laserdisc comment wasn't just a random joke. Those aren't vinyl covers, they're LASERDISC covers - same layout and everything. (I believe it's even the original LD artwork in the case of Aladdin.) I'll just bet they showed some LD covers to a millennial focus group and they flipped. Obviously there's no sense in making LDs again (it's probably not possible anyway) so they're doing the next best thing. The DVDs and BDs themselves cost just about nothin' (and may very well be unsold overstock that's been sitting in a warehouse), and the covers and "artisanal laser-seri-magi-prints" (or whatever they're calling pictures on sheets of thick paper these days) are cheap too. I bet they make a killing on these, even if they don't sell all that well. Incidentally, that's a UK website, and those are UK Blu Rays.
To a degree, I can understand the interest in having something in nice packaging, especially if it really highlights the artwork that went into the creation of the film. That said, none of the packages shown look especially great; it's all just bland mass-produced stuff that could be a part of any old release. Why not use some of the production concept art? Why not have some niche artist (like Shag or Noah) make something? Why just the same old images we've seen countless times before and some awkward headshots of the characters? If it were full of neat artwork for a project like Fantasia or Sleeping Beauty, I could definitely see the value in it, and may even be convinced to buy it myself. But this just looks like the same old crap in a bigger format. I don't get it.
I'd argue that the cover of that album has a lot more artistic value than an oversized version of the regular old DVD cover, but I guess art is in the eye of the beholder. I'm certainly not against Disney selling these (especially if they're popular/profitable), I just don't understand it as a consumer
Going back and buying record albums and playing them on a record player makes no sense to me. I bought vinyl records the first time around - they were great for exactly one play, and then had hisses and pops and skips that just got worse with each playing. The first time I heard a CD in the early 80s, (Donald Fagen's 'The Nightfly') - that was it for me. No more vinyl. Maybe if you're an audiophile or Neil Young, you need to have higher quality sound and you can detect subtleties and so forth, but I don't care. Going back to vinyl is the equivalent of building an outhouse in your backyard because it's more efficient than that pesky indoor plumbing. PS: the above rant is available to listen to on cassette or 8-track.
"they were great for exactly one play, and then had hisses and pops and skips that just got worse with each playing." Only if: (1) It was a styrene 45 pressing or (2) Your equipment was absolute garbage. I think the vinyl resurgence is silly, but let's don't get carried away.
That's my point. I had a better than average system and vinyl records purchased from MusicPlus and the like. I'm guessing my experience of purchasing records and playing them in the late 70s - early 80s is very much like most people. Most of us didn't have special equipment or special albums. That's my point.
