Disney discontinues DVD & Blu-ray production in Australia

[on:]

Disney has started cancelling production of home media. At the moment, it's in Australia, but presumably it could spread to other parts of the world. See here for the article.

Hopefully the new Futurama seasons get released (with commentary!) while disk production is still active.

[Reply #1 on:]

I certainly hope that Futurama gets a proper release before this goes global. I wonder if they're doing this to try and make their streaming service seem more appealing than it is. How I logic it out is: if you can't ever buy a movie old or new on disk, then the only place you can purchase it or view it is on Disney+. Of course that doesn't fool the consumer.

Problem is, the average, modern flesh-bag like you and me understands how to use libraries, who lend out movies for free. And of course there are also, ah- alternative libraries.

Edit: Read through to the article, indeed it's a pitiful attempt to make D+ look more appealing. No matter how you feel about The Mouse... Good luck with that, Disney.

[Reply #2 on:]

I mean, they stopped releasing new Simpsons DVDs several years ago—even before Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox, I think—so I’m not necessarily holding out hope for the new seasons of Futurama to get the box-set treatment of yore.

[Reply #3 on:]

But wasn't all the good seasons of The Simpsons released anyway?  It's not like anyone is going to buy The Simpsons' DVDs past season 15 or some such.  According to Wikipedia, they released up to season 20.  No wonder, they were seeing declining numbers.

[Reply #4 on:]

Oh, no argument here: you’re looking at someone who only owns seasons 1-15 (minus season 14, for no particular reason other than I could never grab it for cheap enough), plus the barebones season 20 box set because I got carried away by the anniversary hype. I’m just saying that if a show like the Simpsons—which, quality notwithstanding, has far more cultural name recognition and cache than most other animated shows—doesn’t warrant continued DVD releases, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t bother with Futurama, either.

I just did a quick search to see if Fox still releases Family Guy and Bob’s Burgers on DVD, and results were…inconclusive.

[Reply #5 on:]

It's too bad they probably won't get to do commentaries, then. That felt like such a vital part of Futurama to me. I feel like they really ought to at least put out some limited edition DVD set, considering the series has always done well on physical releases, but Zoidy is probably right, they might want to keep it digital to promote buying the service. Ah, well. Bootlegs it is.

[Reply #6 on:]

One thing I will say (and then I'll shut up, because I realize I'm crowding this thread with my dumb conjecture) is that Hulu itself has been promoting the shit out of the new season on social media, YouTube, etc. Recognizing that they're the distributor, not the production company, they do seem to be investing a lot of capital (and promise) into the show; if it performs well enough on streaming, maybe the Fox/Disney goons will get visions of dollar signs dancing in their otherwise empty heads and greenlight a DVD release.

As for the commentaries, I agree that they've always been the main selling point for both the Simpsons and Futurama box-sets. I think Matt Groening and company may have final say on that aspect of it: if I recall correctly, having audio commentary on every episode was more the writers'/producers' decision than Fox's mandate. I don't know that recording commentaries comes with a high production cost—it's more just the logistics of getting the relevant people in the same room at the same time—so if Disney is willing to release the show on DVD I don't think it would take much convincing for them to go the extra half-step of including commentaries on each episode.

[Reply #7 on:]

I'd add that the lower season count for Futurama works in favour of physical-media-release, at least in comparison to huge number of seasons for The Simpsons. The people actually making the show are probably more willing to put in extra time, and the viewers are (pure speculation) probably more likely to buy DVDs than the average current Simpsons fan.

[Reply #8 on:]

That would suck. I'm not really a physical media kinda guy, but I have all the other seasons on DVD, so I'd want these seasons, if only for completeness (and to rip them onto my media server).

[Reply #9 on:]

I am a physical media person. And like you, rip some percentage to my media server, including all my Futurama episodes, with commentary tracks and subtitles. I do enjoy watching most of the bonus material on discs, sometimes not until years later. e.g. I finally watched extras from some Star Trek movies earlier this year, along with stuff from various movies in the Alien universe. And learned that Gene Roddenberry flew Boeing B-17 heavy bombers in WW2. I'd had no idea.

I want to support the artists and writers which is way I almost never consider alternate means of acquisition. I also want the best possible video and audio fidelity and NO GODDAMN ADVERTISING during a movie. Tachy has been around a ｌｏｎｇ time, and have seen online services come and go (mostly for music) and I'll be damned if I fork over my hard-earned money for something which might be defunct a few years from now. I spent pretty big bucks getting the first three seasons of The Expanse on blu-ray, and waited for Season Four to be released for home video. And waited. When it was eventually released it cost a small fortune even though they added it to the box set and didn't meaningfully raise the box set price. Grrrr.

Then I was incensed to hear that the last two production seasons were never going to be released on disc and could only be watched on Amazon Prime video streaming. WTF, people? That was too much. I guess I'm just a bitter old idealist.