Disney’s Superdad

[Mark McLaughlin]

Disney Super Dad has anyone seen this before? It was expensive with shipping from over the pond, but I had to get it. I have never seen this before and I have been an avid super 8mm guy for over 50 years now. It’s sealed and I’m sure the color has faded but I will watch it tonight! Curious if anyone knows more about this Disney release? I remember going to the theater as a kid when it came out. I haven’t seen it since and I do remember it didn’t seem very good to me But now what a nostalgia rush!

[Mark McLaughlin]

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Wow! A Kurt Russell movie that I haven’t heard of before! Looks like the film hasn’t been released in German cinemas in 1973, but only on TV in 1996?!

[Douglas Meltzer]

I have this one. It's a montage of the feature cut to the opening title song "These are the Best Times", sung by Bobby Goldsboro, who had a number of hits in the 1960s. The color is actually pretty good! Mark, I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it.

My print came from Mr. Barry Atwood.

[Brian Fretwell]

I believe Derann had lots of these and had trouble getting rid of them. Like others I had not heard of the film other than seeing these, or at least the boxes.

[Brian Harrington]

I remember a friend who saw it at the movies raving about it, but then when the Disney TV show aired it, I thought it was terrible. I don't remember seeing this extract in catalogs, and I still have most of them, going to about the late 70s. This must have been a later release; I've never seen it for sale on eBay, either.

[Brian Fretwell]

I seem to remember them being only 50ft reels.

[Brian Harrington]

Never liked 50 footers -- you no sooner thread them up, then they're done...
Usually companies who issued them also had 200 foot versions as well, like the Columbia Stooges silents. And Disney, too.

There's a full-length 16mm print for sale now on an auction site.

I'm sure the controversy surrounding Crane's mysterious murder in 1978 didn't help sales of this extract on Super 8, albeit the original film was released theatrically 5 years earlier.

[Ed Gordon]

Home viewing and copyright

After its theatrical release, it appeared on The Wonderful World of Disney. To date it has not been widely released on DVD (made available exclusively to members of the Disney Movie Club in that format), but it did have a limited release on VHS and BETA. It was also released on the digital format.

A copyright renewal for the film was registered on August 3, 2001.

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Superdad

It is not listed on https://www.super8database.com/

[Joerg Polzfusz]

BTW: What was its order number? There are several „complete“ lists of „all“ WDHM Super8-movies on the internet. But they don’t list „Superdad“?!

[Douglas Meltzer]

Joerg,

There is no number or copyright date on the box. There is also no information on the leader of my print.
One interesting note is that the box states the artwork was printed in the UK. A quick look through my other WDHM releases shows they all have "Printed in the U.S.A."

[Joerg Polzfusz]

That’s very strange!
(But thanks a lot for looking this up!)

[Brian Harrington]

BTW it was strange choice of a title by Disney -- I wonder how many people showed up at the theaters expecting to see Jor-EL and were disappointed to see Bob Crane? Although I've heard there are rumors that Kurt Russel will play Jor-EL in an upcoming movie, but those rumors have been squashed.