With the $80 million domestic box office success of The Lion King 3D still fresh in people's minds, Disney announced today plans to bring four more catalog titles back to theaters in Disney Digital 3D.
The animated films lined up for limited theatrical engagements include the already announced Beauty and the Beast, the 1989 classic The Little Mermaid and two Pixar favorites, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo.
First up will be Beauty and the Beast, which has been scheduled for a early 2012 release on January 13th. This will be followed by Finding Nemo, which will see a September 14th re-release. Hopefully this announcement precedes one for the release of Finding Nemo on Blu-ray, as it is currently the only Pixar film that has not been released on the format.
Monsters, Inc. has been slated for January 18th, 2013 (about six months before its prequel, Monsters University hits theaters). The last confirmed re-release is the Disney animated classic The Little Mermaid, which has been scheduled for a September 13th, 2013 opening.
Alan Bergman, President of the Walt Disney Studios, issued a statement saying, "Great stories and great characters are timeless, and at Disney we're fortunate to have a treasure trove of both. We're thrilled to give audiences of all ages the chance to experience these beloved tales in an exciting new way with 3D – and in the case of younger generations, for the first time on the big screen."
Well Lady and the Tramp is the Spring 2012 Diamond release, and Cinderella is the Fall 2012 Diamond release. I feel that the re-release of The Little Mermaid will coincide with its Fall 2013 Diamond Release. I mean no offence to Disney Movies but I have noticed that the more requested Diamond Editions have been the fall ones. That is how I am guessing that The Little Mermaid will be out in Fall 2013.
with new 7.1 soundmixes for Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc. and Little Mermaid ??? I'd re-see these in 3D - where's Aladdin? Given the recent stupid movies that have been released in IMAX - Disney should have gone that route as well.
The timing for The Little Mermaid is almost certainly tied to its BD release, which has been scheduled for 2013 ever since the Diamond line was first announced back in 2009, and was already likely to be the fall release for that year (Peter Pan is the other Diamond scheduled for 2013).
It's also the last to hit 3D, more than likely because most of it was composed from traditional cels, not a digital-ink system like CAPS (BatB, TLK) or a CGI system like Pixar's (FN, MI, TS, TS2); only the final rainbow scene of TLM was done in CAPS. That means it'll take a lot more time to convert to 3D; it might require going back to the original cels and scanning them for digital manipulation. If they're successful with TLM, that means *any* past Disney film with its original cels still in the *REAL* Disney vault (which is deeper than even the metaphorical "Disney Vault" moratorium--Walt's head isn't there, but it's mighty close) can be redone in 3D.
FN being the only other film on the list not yet on BD, I suspect its BD & BD3D versions will come a few weeks after the 3D re-release. MI may also get a BD3D version shortly after its release. (BatB is already out in BD3D; it first hit theaters in 3D some years back.)
Give us our Finding Nemo Bluray 2D first and you can do all you want with your 3D releases at your own leisure. Don't upset the Blu ray 2d fans. Thank you, Disney!
Yeah no kidding. I work at an aquarium and have been waiting for 2 years to see this again on Blu-ray. I finally gave up and recorded it off ABC Family HD last week. Really too bad. Would look so much better on disc.
I will go see all of these again. Could care less about the dimensions, but Lion King was done very well.
I wish Aladdin was coming out for its 20th anniversary though! WTF? That's my fav
sounds good to me. While it sucks that this is also an indication of how long we'll have to wait for the blu's, I did have a great time with Lion King 3d in the theater. The depth it provided was a nice thing to see and it was also fun to be able to check this out in the theater again. Now that I think about it though, why should this hold up the blu release of these films, and for me especially Finding Nemo? I mean, Beauty and the Beast 3D will be in homes BEFORE theater.
Well I only care for the 2D version of Finding Nemo, so I don't see any problem unless Disney decides to add exclusive special features to the 3D version (like with Cars 2), the other problem is that the Disney coupon (if they release one) will most likely only work for the 3D version.
I thought they would release 2D versions first. With the pretty penny they made off Lion King 3D release, this was to be expected. I wonder if the eventual Blu-ray releases will be 4 disc combos as well as just 2D release.
perhaps it will be as others have adopted....putting the 2d version on the 3 disc. i know this is true for avatar and how to train your dragon. it asks at the menu which version you would like to watch. here's to hoping both get included on the disc and then it won't matter....one day if you upgrade your tv...it may have 3d and you now have a disc.
Is there any hope for 'Aladdin' making it to Blu-ray, or is that one being buried? I've gotten the impression from discussions I've read that it's no longer considered "politically correct." :/
If they do the Pixar films they better do them all! And I hope they rerelease all the 90s films as well- I would love to see them in the theater as long as the sound is really good, I heard it wasn't great in The Lion King in some theaters.
Just an excuse for Disney to be lazy. Maximum profits derived from old releases therefore incurring no new production costs. I know we're in a recession but this is ridiculous.
Not a 3D guy. I like choices, so good for those who are fans of it. But I don't like special features exclusive to the 3D Blu versions. I also don't like the digital copy being exclusive to 3D versions. Pretty sure "Cars" did that. The 2D was Blu/DVD only. They're doing it with "The Lion King" now too. Ugh. I like features. I like digital copies (without making my own). Don't need the DVD or the 3D.
I suppose this means Finding Nemo Blu in 2012, and Little Mermaid in 2013? Just saw in the Lion King BD that Lion King 1 1/2 and Lion King II will receive 2012 separate releases; glad I didn't get the poorly packaged Trilogy set.
Here's hoping that they would release Finding Nemo before theater like they did with Beauty and the Beast 3D, since that was just release and announce that its going to theater next year in 3D. Maybe they will do the same with Finding Nemo. Kinda funny how all people are screaming about is getting Nemo release, and now since we can see its going to be around theater release probably at the latest, all people care about complaining is Aladdin. I think Aladdin will be release to bluray sometime in 2012 maybe in the Fall for its 20th anniversary edition.
wookieaz,
Originally B&B 3D was going to be in theatres for a limited 2 week engagement last year for Valentines day, but when Rich Ross came on board as the man in charge of theatrical distribution he ditched the idea of it being released in theatre Domesticly cause as he put it"My gut just tells me the audiences dont want to see our older films in the theatres" after it had a decent international run there was some talk of it getting a release in theatres for its 20th anniversary this year. But then Ross once more nixed the idea.
Meanwhile it was decided to go ahead and release it on 3D bluray, around the time they announced that Lion King 3D was going to hit theatres.
As is usual prior to a home video release disneys El capitan Theatre booked the Lion King 3D for what was going to be a month long engagement to have begun on Sept 2nd, and pre order tickets for the screening went through the roof, THAT WAS WHEN RICH ROSS said ok perhaps we should give a limited theatrical release of Lion King 3D, once that happened it was decided that El cap should have it for the same span of time as the us limited theatrical release. So B&B 3D was then booked at El cap for 2 weeks leading up to Lion King 3D and it to went through the roof in advanced ticket sales. in fact B&B 3D played to mostly sell out crowds the entire 2 weeks it played Sept 2nd till Sept 15th
Rich Ross the man who thought people would rather see "Original" and "Creative" new stories like his pet project "Disney's Prom" rather than proven animated Disney classics, and also had the genius idea
of dumping Disneys 51st animated feature "Winnie the Pooh" in a no way it can win at the box office slot opposite of Harry Potter, so that it would effectively "prove" his misplaced view that audiences dont want to see hand drawn animation any more. really shouldnt be in charge of theatrical distribution at Disney.
Hopefully Aladdin wont get cheated out of a box office re release like it was back in 00's
When it was originally suppose to get a Imax release, but due to the poor ticket sales of Lion King Imax experience, they ditched the plan and went straight to the DVD release instead.
Aladdin would look amazing in 3D. cross fingers that we will eventually get such a release
Good to hear, I'm not big on 3D, but getting Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, and Little Mermaid on Blu will be awesome. I haven't seen Mermaid since I was a kid, and it's been years since I've seen the other two. Looks like it's a good time to be a fan of Disney, can't wait to see more of their catalog titles released on Blu.
Little Mermaid wasn't worked with caps (I understand one /few scenes were as a test run) so this is gonna be interesting. And PLEASE DISNEY don't make this grainless
Watched Beauty and the Beast 3D last night and it was beautiful! I wondered why they didn't show this in the theater before it's release, but I'm glad they will in the future. I thought this benefited from the 3D more so than The Lion King.
excellent news! dont care about the 3d. did not buy TLK 3d or BaTB 3d, nor did i see TLK 3d in theaters. i did pick up the 2d TLK tho!
i could only hope that maybe they would release finding nemo on the same day as little mermaid. with a buy both promotion and DMR coupons for both! haha woop woop.
i know im getting my hopes up
i sure do hope these do release in 2012 tho, cause we all know we all wont be alive to see them if they release in 2013, with doomsday on 12/21/12 and all!
3D MUST DIE. But fun for the kiddies to watch these in 3D...
Expensive for the parents who have to pay up Ridiculous Sums for watching these (again) in theaters and getting nothing back for it. Not even a stupid voucher. We live in a capitalist world.
I didn't bother seeing The Lion King in theaters, since I'm not a big 3D fan -- but I'm glad it compelled them to release it on BluRay, since that's the only Disney movie I don't own on some kind of video format. However, since I already have The Little Mermaid and Beauty & the Beast on DVD, there's no need to double dip.
Disney has always re-release old movies to the theatre... just not as much in the past 10-20 years. If they can make money from something they should do it. Including re-releasing movies in 3D. Companies do "cash grabs" to stay in business. Disney in general puts out quality product. What's the problem? You don't have to like everything they do.
If Finding Nemo comes out into theatres next year, you can bet the 2D/3D Combo packs are going to be out for Christmas and Disney makes a massive killing on it.
i hate 3d. Its crap but if it gets The Little Mermaid on blu and Nemo then I'm all for it. After all its being released in the theaters . It has to mean Blu ray to follow. The Little Mermaid is my all time favorite Disney movie . I'm waiting for this big time. Then Aladdin. Please
It's funny reading ALL the comments about hating 3D but none of you clowns have ever sat down and watched Avatar in 3D, you'll be singing a different tune. Like Petra_Kalbrain said, LONG LIVE 3D!
Skullking you know that theatrical re releases of movies have been a staple of disney movies for over 70 years right?
it was only in the 00's that disney really didnt do that many theatrical re releases after the Imax rerelease experiments failed to motivate familys to go see Lion King.
right up to the turn of the century pretty much every disney movie would get a theatrical re release every 7 years introducing the films to whole new generation(even in the 80s and 90s when VHS was booming and disney animated films were always priced to sell day and date with the rental releases.
And even though they didnt have wide scale re releases in the 00's the re releases they did at el capitan were some of the highest grosses in the country besting out the per screen average of what ever big movies were playing nationally that same weekend.
SO i for one am glad disney is attempting a re release theatrically of its films once more. especially of the hand drawn films because it shows there is STILL an audience for hand drawn style animation. That right there is the biggest gift Lion King 3D could have bestowed upon audiences, because as a result Disney is once again seeing that after 17 years people still will pay money to watch classic animation. And that will help to ensure that we continue to still get animated features in that style such as frog princess and winnie the pooh and hopefully not just have them dropped in horrible release dates like winnie the pooh was.
3D will be forever. You 2D watchers are too cheap to update your old fashion hardware to 3D status. So shut up, go update your equipment to 3D and enjoy it... stop griping at something you know nothing about.
You're right! Spend thousands of dollars on 3D equipment and all the other 3D bashers complain. What's up with that? I think they are just jealous because some of us are serious about our entertainment.
Enjoy your equipment, I enjoy the hell out of mine.
With the $80 million domestic box office success of 
What are you talking about? 
