Available for pre-order on Amazon; release date, Aug. 21 2012

Amazon.com has the 2-Movie Collection now available for pre-order. For some reason, Disney decided to alter the previously announced cover art to enhance Bernard and Madame Medusa's facial expressions and to replace Miss Bianca's charming expression with a completely off-model replacement. Anyway, the film is to be released, along with its blasted sequel, on August 21st of this year, along with several other Disney Blu-ray/DVD combo releases. Three editions will be made available, a 3-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo in Blu-ray packaging and one in DVD packaging, as well as a DVD only 2-disc set. My pic will be the 3-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo in DVD packaging, as I abhor Blu-ray packaging.
www.amazon.com/dp/B0084IHVQG/

I'm not particularly thrilled about this release. The trailer seen on the recent Studio Ghibli releases used clips extracted from the old VHS and DVD print, which should have been retired long, long ago. The presentation, therefore, appears dark, over-saturated, with bleeding and inaccurate colors. Here's a video clip from 1977 extracted from the Disneyland special "Disney's Greatest Villains" which shows what the film's color palette was like in the year of its release, prior to the saddening deterioration of the print, and the clumsy 2003 DVD "remastering" (for lack of a better word; "screw up", perhaps?): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEfZ_idcsjc This special (this is the Italian-dubbed version) was released in 1977 as publicity for the new feature and the newest Disney villain, and would make a wonderful bonus feature on the Blu-ray, but yeah, the likeliness of that happening is slim.

http://www.petitiononline.com/drescuer/petition.html Sign petition, save The Rescuers!