Is Disney Backing Away from Physical Media?

 Hey guys! How's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I finished reading the fourth Animorphs book, The Message before I went to bed last night so my plan was put the review out today. But as I was watching some YouTube videos this morning, I got to thinking about how most of Disney's physical media releases have pretty much dried up since 2019. So I decided to talk a little bit about Disney's history of releasing (and re-releasing) the animated movies on home video and what it means going forward now that the entire Disney Animated Canon is on Disney+. So let's get into it. To start out let's go back to 1985 when a particular Disney classic received it's first home video release.

It was a big deal when Pinocchio was released on VHS as part of the Walt Disney Classics line for the first time on July 16th, 1985. Robin Hood had sold pretty well when it was released on VHS in 1984 and both Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland had done well when they'd been released in 1981. But this was huge because Pinocchio had been considered to be one of the "untouchables", the movies that Disney would never release on home video under any circumstances. And yet it was released as the second release in the Walt Disney Classics line after Robin Hood. 

As the 90s wore on and transitioned into the 2000s, Disney started putting more and more effort into the DVD and VHS releases they were putting out, often putting bonus features onto the releases. Though if you had the Walt Disney Gold Classics Collection DVDs you didn't need the VHS releases since the bonus features were the exact same on each. By the time the Walt Disney Platinum Editions launched with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the VHS had fewer features on them while all of the DVDs in this line were 2-Disc editions. By the time the line ended with Pinocchio in 2009, VHS was gone, DVD had replaced VHS, while Blu-ray had begun to replace DVD as the primary home media platform.

When Pinocchio was released on Blu-ray in 2009, it contained all of the bonus features that the Platinum Edition DVD, which came out at the same time as the Blu-ray, had. So when Disney switched over from the Platinum Edition line to the Diamond Editions where all the movies had DVD and Blu-ray releases, the DVDs started having less features on it while the Blu-rays got the deluxe treatment.

The thing about the Blu-ray releases is that by 2014 when The Jungle Book was released on Blu-ray for the first time and re-released on DVD, alot of the bonus features stayed the same and nothing new was added that people didn't already have if they had previous DVD releases of the movies. For example, one of the bonus features on the Peter Pan Diamond Edition Blu-ray is the featurette, "You Can Fly!: The Making of Peter Pan". However if you had the Masterpiece Collection VHS, the Masterpiece Collection Laserdisc, or the Platinum Edition DVD, you had this featurette already. In fact if you had any of the DVD and VHS releases from the Masterpiece Collection onward, except for the 1999 Limited Issue DVD, you had this featurette, and other bonus features that didn't change. This wasn't always the case as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Dumbo, The Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast got all new bonus features for the Diamond Edition DVD and Blu-ray releases. Though some of them were ported over from the Platinum Edition and Special Edition DVDs. 

By the time the Signature Collection line started in 2016, none of the releases got all new bonus features. They were a mix of the old ones from previous releases, with one or two brand new bonus features that were really short, keeping in line with bonus features for current movies being released on physical media platforms. Unless you wanted the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit pilot cartoon, Poor Papa, you didn't need to buy the Signature Collection Blu-ray release of Pinocchio if you had the 2009 Platinum Edition Blu-ray or DVD because the majority of the bonus features were the same. 

From 2018 to 2019 Disney started re-releasing some of the animated classics on Blu-ray through the Disney Movie Club as exclusive releases, unless they were part of the Signature Collection line. While Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Aladdin, 101 Dalmatians, and Sleeping Beauty were all re-released on DVD, Blu-ray and Digital in 2018 and 2019, there's one movie that was supposed to be part of that line, but ended up being removed from that lineup. That movie is The Jungle Book. Instead it was released as a limited edition through the Disney Movie Club, but if you already had the Diamond Edition Blu-ray from 2014, then you didn't need to buy this release because they were the exact same, just with different cover art. Which brings me back to the question. Is Disney backing away from physical media now that Disney+ is up and running?

The answer is yes and no. For the classic movies like Snow White, The Jungle Book, The Lion King, and the classic Pixar films, it definitely looks that way. However, Pixar's newest release, Soul is getting DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K releases next month. As did the live action version of Mulan and other new movies that came out between 2017 and 2018. But, will Raya and the Last Dragon? Or any of the other upcoming films from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar? I honestly don't know. 

Another question that I have about this is, did Disney start shying away from re-releasing their classic films on physical media because of Disney+ or because of the pandemic? I'd say neither. They started re-releasing the classic movies on Blu-ray exclusively through the Disney Movie Club in 2018, before Disney+ launched and before the pandemic hit. It's not impossible though since they knew Disney+ was happening by then, I mean I remember hearing rumblings about Disney+ from Disney itself as early as 2016. So I think Disney was always going to start backing away from physical media, even before they decided on doing Disney+, because of other streaming services like Netflix and Hulu. At least in terms of their older movies since like I said, they continue to release their new movies on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K. So far anyway. I guess only time will tell.

Anyways guys that's all I have to say on this topic for now. I just thought it was interesting because I realized that it's been a minute since I saw any commercials on TV for the latest physical media release of a classic Disney animated movie. Whereas I remember seeing home video commercials for any Disney feature film that was released on VHS, and then later on VHS and DVD when I was growing up in the 90s and 2000s. This is what I want to be talking more about on the blog, because physical media has been an important part of my life since I was 3 years old. Not just VHS, but DVD as well, with Blu-ray being to a smaller degree. 

That's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow for my review of The Message. On Thursday I'm starting a four or five part series on the Disney Sing-Along Songs video series, where I talk about the tapes and DVDs in an overview style rather than a review style. On Friday I'll have a comic book review coming out, with a movie review coming out on Saturday. So it's going to be a busy week here at the Review Basement. Until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.