Saturday, March 07, 2009

Two Rivals, Rivaling Again

Now with Add On!

Pinocchio and arch-rival Gulliver's Travels, get simultaneous launches on Blu-Ray this next week. Pretty much like they got (almost) simultaneous launches in theatres 69 years ago ...

The two studios struggled for supremacy through much of the 1930s, until Disney played his trump card: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” (1937), a feature-length animation in glowing Technicolor. A phenomenal success, “Snow White” changed the game, forcing the Fleischers to abandon their urban turf and play on Disney’s field. Rushed into production in a new studio built in Miami, the Fleischers’ “Gulliver’s Travels” (1939) made money at the box office but not enough to put the brothers on sound financial footing ...

So the Fleischers are long gone, but the Mouse marches on. Yet I see billboards around town, touting the "70th" anniversary of Pinoke.

Can't the people at Disney marketing count? We're 70 minus a year from original launch. Or do they just have an aversion to the number "69"?

Add On: Well now. We rummaged around the TAG blog attic, and came up with some Pinoke antiques. Here, here and here ...

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

They also released Oliver and Company (1988) this year, claiming it was it's 20th anniversary. I guess they just like to round up/down whenever they're ready to released the movie.

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