The "Disney Vault" was a term formerly used by The Walt Disney Company for its policy of regularly imposing sales moratoria on home video releases of specific animated feature films. Each Walt Disney Animation Studios film was available for purchase for a limited time, and then returned "to the vault", unavailable for retail sales, pending some future re-release.
Following the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney and the launch of the streaming service Disney+ in 2019, the notion of the Disney Vault has been used by journalists to describe practices by Walt Disney Studios restricting many more back-catalogue theatrical films from cinema screenings. [1]
This is the modern version of Disney's practice of re-releasing its animated feature films in theaters every several years, which began with the reissue of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1944. [2] During the 1980s, when the home video market was dominated by VHS systems, Disney films would be reissued every ten years, a time gap equal to that of their theatrical reissues. The moratorium period was continued with the evolution of home media delivery mechanisms, including DVD, Blu-ray, and digital streaming, which Disney itself mainly markets through its own Movies Anywhere initiative. Television commercials for Disney home video releases will alert customers that certain films will be placed on moratorium soon, urging them to purchase these films before they "go back into the Disney Vault", in the words often spoken by longtime Disney trailer voice-over actor Mark Elliott. Some direct-to-video Disney films, among them Bambi II , have also been released with a pre-established window of availability. [3]
Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland were among the first movies to be released on home video. Earlier, they were among the first Disney animated films aired on television. They had been chosen to premiere as part of ABC's Walt Disney's Disneyland in 1954 to promote Disneyland and its two popular rides based on these films. Disney has kept this "tradition" by having them permanently released to the public. Disney has never vaulted these two films because they have become so saturated in the market that vaulting them would have been meaningless. Nonetheless, they have been very successful on home video, in their own right. Near the end of the 2000s, they were announced on both Platinum and Diamond editions. They were only released on a special edition with similar marketing to the Disney Vault movies. In 2016, Disney released a Blu-ray/digital copy combo pack of the films, but only as a Disney Movie Club (DMC) exclusive, which was not released to the public. In 2018, Disney ceased to sell these editions to DMC members, and instead offers the regular Blu-rays as an option. Despite evidence that these two films were supposedly going to be part of the Diamond/Platinum line up, why it never happened is unknown. It is likely because the saturation in the market prevented the films from producing the same financial advantages of the other films. With the release of the Signature Collection in 2016, Disney released three movies per year instead of two. By 2022, all of the films that were vaulted had been fully released.
When Disney's streaming service and namesake Disney+ was announced in 2019, Disney CEO Bob Iger stated that the service would contain Disney's entire film library, which would de facto retire the concept of the Disney Vault as a home video control device. [4] However, the service fails to include much of Disney's library, and a separate practice restricting repertory screenings of films from the Disney back-catalogue remains in effect. Following Disney's purchase of 21st Century Fox for its entertainment assets, Disney withdrew the Fox film library from distribution to theaters (with the notable exception of The Rocky Horror Picture Show ), effectively locking the Fox back-catalog in the Vault. [1]
One Disney film that remains vaulted was Song of the South , based on the Uncle Remus stories by folklorist Joel Chandler Harris. The film has neither aired on television nor it ever been released on home video in the United States due to criticism of its portrayal of African Americans. In 2010 and 2020, Iger stated that the film would not be re-released on either DVD or Disney+. [5] [6] In 2023, Disney announced that it would permanently remove dozens of underperforming films and TV series from its Disney+ and Hulu streaming services, effectively vaulting those productions. [7] Disney incurred a $1.5 billion – $1.8 billion impairment charge based on the removed titles. This write-down allowed Disney to avoid paying ongoing residuals and reduced its tax bill. [8]
The Walt Disney Company itself stated that this process was done to both control their market and to allow Disney films to be fresh for new generations of young children. [9] A side-effect of the moratorium process was that videos and DVDs of Disney films placed on moratorium become collectibles, sold in stores and at auction websites such as eBay for sums in excess of their original suggested retail price. The practice had also made the Disney films a prime target for bootleg DVD manufacturers. [10]
The following films were considered to be subject to release and later return to the Disney Vault. [11]
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated fantasy drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The film is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, and illustrated by Helen Durney for the prototype of a novelty toy ("Roll-a-Book").
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Loosely based on Carlo Collodi's 1883 Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, it is the studio's second animated feature film, as well as the third animated film overall produced by an American film studio, after Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Fleischer Studios' Gulliver's Travels (1939). With the voices of Cliff Edwards, Dickie Jones, Christian Rub, Walter Catlett, Charles Judels, Evelyn Venable, and Frankie Darro, the film follows a wooden puppet, Pinocchio, who is created by an old woodcarver, Geppetto, and brought to life by a blue fairy. Wishing to become a real boy, Pinocchio must prove himself to be "brave, truthful, and unselfish." Along his journey, Pinocchio encounters several characters representing the temptations and consequences of wrongdoing, as a cricket named Jiminy, who takes the role of Pinocchio's conscience, attempts to guide him in matters of right and wrong.
The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation in association with Silver Screen Partners IV and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is loosely based on the 1837 Danish fairy tale "The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen. The film was written and directed by John Musker and Ron Clements and produced by Musker and Howard Ashman, who also wrote the film's songs with Alan Menken, who also composed the film's score. Featuring the voices of René Auberjonois, Christopher Daniel Barnes, Jodi Benson, Pat Carroll, Paddi Edwards, Buddy Hackett, Jason Marin, Kenneth Mars, Ben Wright, and Samuel E. Wright, The Little Mermaid tells the story of a teenage mermaid princess named Ariel, who dreams of becoming human and falls in love with a human prince named Eric, which leads her to make a magic deal with the sea witch, Ursula, to become human and be with him.
Cinderella is a 1950 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on Charles Perrault's 1697 fairy tale, it features supervision by Ben Sharpsteen. The film was directed by Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Clyde Geronimi. The film features the voices of Ilene Woods, Eleanor Audley, Verna Felton, Rhoda Williams, James MacDonald, and Luis van Rooten.
Bambi is a 1942 American animated drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. Loosely based on Felix Salten's 1923 novel Bambi, a Life in the Woods, the production was supervised by David D. Hand, and was directed by a team of sequence directors, including James Algar, Bill Roberts, Norman Wright, Sam Armstrong, Paul Satterfield, and Graham Heid.
Warner Bros. Discovery Home Entertainment, Inc. is the American home video distribution division of Warner Bros. Discovery.
20th Century Home Entertainment was a home video distribution arm that distributed films produced by 20th Century Studios, Searchlight Pictures, and 20th Century Animation and several third-party studios, as well as television series by 20th Television, Searchlight Television, 20th Television Animation, and FX Productions in home entertainment formats.
MGM Home Entertainment LLC is the home video distribution arm of the American media company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). It is owned by the Amazon MGM Studios subsidiary of Amazon.
The Old Mill is a Silly Symphonies cartoon produced by Walt Disney Productions, directed by Wilfred Jackson, scored by Leigh Harline, and released theatrically to theatres by RKO Radio Pictures on November 5, 1937. The film depicts the natural community of animals populating an old abandoned windmill in the country, and how they deal with a severe summer thunderstorm that nearly destroys their habitat. It incorporates the song "One Day When We Were Young" from Johann Strauss II's operetta The Gypsy Baron.
A moratorium is the practice of suspending the sales of films on home video DVD, VHS, and Blu-ray and boxed sets after a certain period of time. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment was famous for this practice, known as the "Disney Vault," in which it would only sporadically sell home videos of animated films in the Disney catalogue, until 2019 when a program of undeletions and re-releases ultimately restored all Disney titles into simultaneous print on home entertainment for the first time and on Disney+ streaming service. The 20th Century Fox film library was placed into moratorium and removed from theaters following Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox in 2019 according to a Vulture article; the decision noted the different policies between Fox, which had made most of its film archive available to theaters at all times, and Disney, which did not.
Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc. is the home entertainment distribution arm of the Walt Disney Company. The division handles the distribution of Disney's films, television series, and other audiovisual content across digital formats and platforms.
Disney Sing-Along Songs is a series of videos on VHS, betamax, laserdisc, and DVD with musical moments from various Disney films, TV shows, and attractions. Lyrics for the songs are sometimes displayed on-screen with the Mickey Mouse icon as a "bouncing ball". Early releases open with a theme song introduction containing footage featuring Professor Owl and his class, seen originally in 1953 in two Disney shorts, Melody and Toot, Whistle, Plunk, and Boom. Professor Owl hosts some of the videos, while either Jiminy Cricket or Ludwig Von Drake host others. Later volumes, as well as the two Christmas videos, do not feature a host at all. Scenes with Jiminy Cricket and Ludwig Von Drake were taken from television programs, including the Walt Disney anthology television series and The Mickey Mouse Club, which featured the characters in the 1950s and 1960s.
Classic Disney: 60 Years of Musical Magic is a five-volume compilation series, each containing 25 songs compiled from Disneyland and Walt Disney World, various Disney films in animation and live-action, and the Walt Disney anthology television series. Each volume was released individually on CD and cassette between 1995 and 1998. Volume I was released on March 28, 1995, Volume II on September 12, 1995, Volume III on July 2, 1996, Volume IV on July 15, 1997 and Volume V on September 22, 1998. In 2000, a box set was released containing volumes 1 - 3, followed by a box set containing volumes 1 - 4 in 2001, Finally, a box set containing all five volumes packaged in a slipcase was released by Walt Disney Records in Australia, Japan, North America and Europe in 2003.
Walt Disney Classics was a video line launched by WDTNT to release Disney animated features on home video. The first title in the "Classics" line was Robin Hood which was released towards the end of 1984. This was followed by 19 other titles until early 1994, with The Fox and the Hound. Disney followed up on the "Classics" series by porting over the released titles to the "Masterpiece Collection" line, while continuing to use the "Classics" moniker in countries outside North America until 2007. Starting in the 2010s these videocassettes also dubbed "Black Diamond" became highly sought-after due to a public misconception about their rarity and actual value.
Cinderella III: A Twist in Time is a 2007 American animated musical fantasy film produced by DisneyToon Studios and distributed by Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Directed by Frank Nissen from a screenplay written by Dan Berendsen, Margaret Heidenry, Colleen Ventimilia, and Eddie Guerlain, it is the third installment in Disney's Cinderella trilogy, and a sequel to Cinderella (1950) and Cinderella II: Dreams Come True (2002). In Cinderella III: A Twist in Time, set one year after the first film, Cinderella struggles with the repercussions of a time-reversing spell cast by Lady Tremaine to prevent her from marrying the Prince. The film's voice cast consists of Jennifer Hale, C. D. Barnes, Susanne Blakeslee, Tress MacNeille, Russi Taylor, and Andre Stojka, most of whom continue to replace the 1950 film's cast by reprising their roles from Cinderella II: Dreams Come True.
Home video is recorded media sold or rented for home viewing. The term originates from the VHS and Betamax era, when the predominant medium was videotapes, but has carried over to optical disc formats such as DVD and Blu-ray. In a different usage, "home video" refers to amateur video recordings, also known as home movies.
The Warner Archive Collection is a home video division for releasing classic and cult films from Warner Bros.' library. It started as a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment on March 23, 2009, with the intention of putting previously unreleased catalog films on DVD for the first time. In November 2012, Warner expanded the Archive Collection to include Blu-ray releases, Some Warner Archive releases, such as Wise Guys, previously had a pressed DVD release but have lapsed out of print and have since been re-released as part of the Warner Archive collection.
Disney Second Screen was an interactive application, released on a computer or iPad. This app provides onscreen film feature accessible download that provided additional content, and user can views a film released by the Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. The movie linked with the viewer's device through an audio cue, a manual sync, or with a visual sync indicator. As the film plays on a viewer's television, interactive elements such as trivia, photo galleries, and animated flipbooks appeared on the iPad or computer screen.
The Disney Collection: the Best-Loved Songs from Disney Motion Pictures, Television, and Theme Parks is a series of albums which were released three times. The first was a two-volume set released in 1987 from Disneyland Records. The second time was released in 1991 as a three-volume set from Walt Disney Records. The third time was released in 2006 as a four-volume set also from Walt Disney Records. It doesn't include songs from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Alice in Wonderland, and The Sword in the Stone.
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