First off, Scuttle doesn't swim (but Flounder does!).
I'm so upset that the artists had to change things in this movie...did anything but the bishop's knees get changed?  First the Beast's castle gets cleaned and an audio "hiccup" gets changed, then dust and alligators and waterfalls changed in "The Lion King", and Aladdin's line to Rajah gets changed...geesh.  I know some people might say, "Lighten up, nothing significant has been changed", but, even if one frame has been changed, they should let us know.  It's worth keeping the original VHS versions, since those truly are the original films the way they were seen in the theaters.
Anyhoo, I'm really excited to pick up my copy of "The Little Mermaid" on Tuesday; I think it'll be the best-selling Platinum Edition yet.

That's a riot. I'm not even a Little Mermaid fan, but now I'll be picking up a disk on Tuesday.

Is there going to be a Disney Geek equivalent to the well-loved "Han Shot First" t-shirt? ( http://www.thinkgeek.com/pvp/swag/712c/ ) I dunno, but I don't think I want to be walking around in a shirt that proclaims "The Minister Had A Boner."

I'm with blackcauldron85 on this one; I think it's only fair to the animation buffs and hardcore Disney fans to leave every single frame uncut, uncleansed, and untouched. Restoring everything is fine, but for a Platinum Edition it's not exactly fair, seeing how it's going to be the truely dedicated who are going to buy this newly released version.

Anyway, I'm really excited about the Platinum Edition; it's probably going to be the first of my new Disney DVDs collection that I'm saving up for. After all, I have to start getting my own copies of all of the movies so that I have plenty of Disney of my own to take with me when I move out. Ack, I can't wait to get a hold of those special features!

Considering that Eisner ended up on tv some years back with that scene running to point out it was just the minister's knees, I can't say I'm surprised.

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Variety just had an article today about how both Wal-Mart and the studios are trying to figure out just how much longer packaged content like DVDs are going to be around before content suscriptions take over. When that happens, there's bound to be uncut Disney available for hardcores- knobby knees and all- and more sensitive revamps for kids and the casual adult fans.

You can still get the 1998 DVD of Little Mermaid to see the  the uncut erection priest filled film. THe only thing is the credits were redone. Was there ever a Little Mermaid LD done? I've been buying all the reedited films on LD with hopes of one day putting them on DVD in all their audio hiccuped, dirty dust saying, Aladdin suggestive, glory! I hate it when Disney edits stuff. Aladdin and Little Mermaid have SIGNIFIGANTLY reanimated scenes. AS all the Imaxed films did. You can only get the untouched up films on LD.

Yes, there's a Little Mermaid LD, if the ebay listings are any indication.

Anyone know if these visual changes are put on DVDs overseas? Disney's bordering on 4Kids terrain.

blackcauldron85 said:
First off, Scuttle doesn't swim (but Flounder does!).
I'm so upset that the artists had to change things in this movie...did anything but the bishop's knees get changed?  First the Beast's castle gets cleaned and an audio "hiccup" gets changed, then dust and alligators and waterfalls changed in "The Lion King", and Aladdin's line to Rajah gets changed...geesh.  I know some people might say, "Lighten up, nothing significant has been changed", but, even if one frame has been changed, they should let us know.  It's worth keeping the original VHS versions, since those truly are the original films the way they were seen in the theaters.
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First off, B&tB and Lion King had mostly been "cleaned" up for their IMAX reissues--Blowing 70mm up to IMAX size meant that a few details had to be re-detailed for clarity (as those who saw "Sorcerer's Apprentice" in the IMAX Fantasia 2000 will note)...

As to why knees and tiger whispers get changed...well, take a big fat whopping guess who's responsible for THAT one:  9_9
If a million Disney-fans and Disney-bashers hadn't been giggling over what they -thought- they saw, and each thought they were the first person in history to start telling all their friends about it over the net, Disney wouldn't have noticed them either...And they changed it to STOP all the easily-amused dopes from giggling about it.  Disney didn't change the films, Idiots changed the film when they got too attached to cheap jokes--I believe the expression is, "Don't come running to the rest of us".  :)
(And besides, half of the "erection" jokes had been overlapped with Cheap Disney TLM Urban-Legend Joke #3, the idea that the original designs for distant shots of King Triton's palace spires had originally seemed a bit, er...phallic--Which was also changed later after a lot of adult third-graders started giggling about it in public.)

Alot of this has to do with the limitations of video versions, particularly when pan-and-scan distortions are made. http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/ozsuicid.htm http://www.snopes.com/movies/films/3menbaby.htm That said, improvements in home viewing tech may well reveal more of this sort of thing: http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/rescuers.htm

<i>Jim Hill's back with even more answers to your Disney-related questions. This time around, Jim talks about how Disney Consumer Products tries to influence the films that the studio makes, why you weren't able to spy any naughty bits in "Mulan"

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