Walt Disney Home Video to Disney DVD
What feelings does this video bring you?
Walt Disney Home Video Introduction. Video from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOYzXYtbZfI
This very logo is the reason this blog runs in the first place, as all of my Disney content that I have collected over the years have all stemmed from those VHS tapes I used to watch as a kid. Aladdin specifically, I could watch nonstop. But when did Disney make the shift from VHS to DVD? Why did they start Walt Disney Home Video if they were doing so well just in the theatres? Could you rent Disney movies at your local Blockbuster or Rogers Video? Let’s talk about it.
Disney’s Laserdisc Releases
Laserdisc was introduced to the entertainment world around the same time VHS tapes were, in the late 1970s. It was successful and innovative in its prime near the beginning, but was quickly overshadowed by VHS tapes, CD’s, and eventually DVD’s. When Disney finally decided to release some films to the public to view at home, the partnered with MCA DiscoVision to release the film Kidnapped (1960), and some other Mickey Mouse shorts for $9-$15. Disney continued to do this until 1981 when they cut ties with MCA.
Walt Disney Home Video on VHS
Fotomat Advertisement. Image from: https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/opening-to-m-a-s-h-1977-magnetic-video-vhs-version.438083/
In 1980, Disney decided to test out what the VHS tape market would do for the company, and offered them as rentals to Fotomat, a kiosk people could drive to to rent VHS cassettes. Fotomat was one of the first companies ever to do this and Disney hopped on board. They didn’t go all in though and release all of their classic movies at once, but rather did a test in different states with a batch of carefully selected films to see how successful it would be. According to the Disney Fandom Wiki, the films that were released were:
Pete’s Dragon
The Black Hole
The Love Bug
Escape to Witch Mountain
Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Bedknobs and Broomsticks
The North Avenue Irregulars
The Apple Dumpling Gang
Hot Lead and Cold Feet
Mary Poppins
Disney’s Rental Program
6 months after this trial release, Disney decided to continue working with Fotomat and put a program in place for how the tapes should be sold. The rental companies would buy a film off of Disney for $65/per 13 weeks. Then, the retailers could sell it for however much they were able to to consumers. They also often ran promotions to get more consumers and retailers interested. Disney made their rental cassette tapes blue, and their sale tapes white in order to ensure retailers weren’t selling unauthorized films.
The VHS rental tape for Dumbo. Image from: http://www.45worlds.com/dvd/disc/dumbo
The VHS for sale tape of Mary Poppins. Image from: https://polybull.com/product/mary-poppins-vhs-1986-white-clamshell-walt-disney-home-video-023-case-nearly-new-202764971060
Walt Disney Classics - The Black Diamond Edition
Since ending their partnership with MCA in 1981, Disney started to release Laserdiscs on their own. They began with some of the films they had already released with DiscoVision, adding Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland to the list in 1982. By 1984, they compiled a list of animated features to be released over the next 10 years to create the Black Diamond Edition VHS tapes. These are all of your VHS tapes that have the Disney logo within the black diamond shape. Here is a list of all of the feature films they released in order:
Robin Hood (1984)
Pinocchio (1984)
Dumbo (1985)
The Sword in the Stone (1986)
Alice in Wonderland (1986)
Sleeping Beauty (1986)
Lady and the Tramp (1987)
Cinderella (1988)
Bambi (1989)
The Little Mermaid (1990)
Peter Pan (1990)
The Jungle Book (1991)
The Rescuers Down Under (1991)
Fantasia (1991)
101 Dalmatians (1992)
The Great Mouse Detective (1992)
The Rescuers (1992)
Beauty and the Beast (1992)
Aladdin (1993)
The Fox and The Hound (1994)
Alice in Wonderland, Dumbo, Robin Hood, The Sword in the Stone, and Pinocchio all had double releases a few years after their initial release as well. Disney began phasing themselves out of VHS tapes after this 10-year period, as Bambi II was the last one they put out to the general public. There is a rare edition of Cars that can be found on VHS from 2007.
A Black Diamond Edition of Aladdin. Image by The Disney Classics.
Within the coming posts, we’ll talk about Disney DVD, all of the special editions that have been released over the years, and what it means for the Disney Vault.
References:
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Walt_Disney_Classics
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Walt_Disney_Home_Entertainment
