Hey guys, how were your weekends? Mine was pretty good. I decided to shuffle some things around for this week and I'm going to be finishing up History of Disney Movies on Home Video series this week with the final three parts coming out today, Wednesday, and Thursday, with a comic book review to finish the week off on Friday. Right now it's time to take a look at the end of the VHS era and the beginning of the Blu-ray era with the Walt Disney Platinum Editions. Let's get into it.
Following the end of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection line in early 2001, DVD was starting to replace VHS as the preferred home video format, with added behind the scenes documentaries, and audio commentaries from the filmmakers that just couldn't be available on VHS. Laserdisc had these special features but that format was expensive and had all but died out by the late 90s. While the Gold Classic Collection had bonus features on both the DVDs and VHS tapes, they were still pretty barebone releases. However, with the Walt Disney Platinum Editions Disney almost went overboard with how much bonus material they included on the DVDs. The few VHS releases in this line each got a music video mostly featuring a then contemporary Disney Radio or Disney Channel star singing a song from the movie in question. I say mostly because Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs has a music video for "Someday My Prince Will Come" sung by Barbra Streisand.
The original idea for the Walt Disney Platinum Editions was for the lineup to consist of Disney's ten best selling VHS titles, with one title being released a year for ten years, with that movie being released again ten years after the previous release, with the Platinum Edition line being permanent for these films. According to the Disney Wiki Fantasia, Dumbo, and Alice in Wonderland were supposed to be released as part of the Platinum Edition line, but for whatever reason there was a mix-up with the schedule and the three movies were released on special edition DVDs that were separate from the Platinum Editions, with Fantasia being the first to be released in 2000 and Dumbo not coming out until 2006, and Alice in Wonderland not coming out until 2004, with another special edition DVD coming out in 2010. So with that little bit of history out of the way, let's dive into the titles that were released as part of the Walt Disney Platinum Editions.
Like the Masterpiece Collection had back in 1994, the Platinum Editions launched with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, with the DVD released on October 9th, 2001. My sister actually has this DVD release. I think she got it for Christmas in 2001 or for her birthday in 2002. She spent a couple of years in China, and while she was away she gave me this DVD to watch. There's so many bonus features on it too. On the first disc there's the Silly Symphonies cartoon, The Goddess of Spring which had been originally released in 1934, a Making Of documentary called "Still the Fairest of them All: The Making Of Snow White" which is hosted by Angela Lansbury, the voice of Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast and the lead in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which includes interviews with many Disney and Animation historians, including film critic Leonard Maltin, the Sing-Along Songs and Karaoke versions of "Heigh-Ho", the Barbra Streisand music video that I mentioned earlier, a game featuring Dopey, and an audio commentary by Disney historian, John Canemaker and Walt Disney. Yes, I know, Walt has been dead since 1966, but there are so many interviews with him where he talks about movies like Snow White and Pinocchio that the team working on this DVD release were able to piece together audio clips of Walt to include in the commentary whenever Canemaker thought Walt's perspective would be useful or important.
The second disc contains various art galleries, still images, radio interviews, news clips from the movie's 1937 premiere, deleted scenes, trailers, and "Disney Through the Decades" which has various Disney alumni including Angela Lansbury, Dean Jones (Jim Douglas in The Love Bug), Roy E. Disney (Walt's nephew), Fess Parker (Davy Crockett), John Ratzenberger (every Pixar feature film ever), Robbie Benson (the Beast in Beauty and the Beast), Jodi Benson (Ariel in The Little Mermaid), and Ming-Na Wen (Mulan in Mulan) as they talk about the history of the Walt Disney Company from the early days of the Alice Comedies in 1923, until the Platinum Editions release of Snow White, including the film's theatrical releases in 1944, 1958, 1967, 1987, and 1993). An updated version of this feature would appear on the 2009 Diamond Edition DVD and Blu-ray releases.
The VHS release however wouldn't come out until almost two months after the DVD release. This is the only release to not have a day and date release of the DVD and VHS editions. As mentioned, the only bonus feature on this VHS is the Barbra Streisand music video. I have this release in my current VHS collection as I got it while I was out and about with Brad and Jonathan one day (pre-pandemic obviously) before I recovered the Masterpiece Collection VHS release from my grandparents's place last year before the pandemic hit. While the tape itself only comes with the music video on it, the release has a Disney Through the Decades booklet included inside the clamshell. Now let's move on to the next release. I won't spend as much time on the bonus features going forward, I just wanted to give you an idea of what the Platinum Editions had on the DVDs all through the line.
The next release in the line is Beauty and the Beast. Along with the usual bonus features, this release has three different versions of the film. The first is the special edition which had been released to theatres in 2002 not long before this DVD was released. The second is the original 1991 theatrical version. The third is a special work in progress version that was shown at the 1991 New York Film Festival. This DVD was also available in a trilogy box set with the special edition DVDs of Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, and Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Magical World. I have this DVD in my collection and it's pretty good. I think the Platinum Editions are my favourite DVD releases that Disney has put out. In fact I think the 2000s is my favourite decade in terms of Disney's DVD releases just because the bonus features are pretty spectacular on them.
I don't have anything to say about the Platinum Edition VHS because, once again, the music video for the movie's titular song, "Beauty and the Beast" by a pop group called Jump 5 (does anyone remember them?) is the only feature on the tape, and the only version on the tape is the 2002 special edition, which restored a song and sequence called "Human Again" into the movie between "Something There" and the "Beauty and the Beast" ballroom scene. The song was performed as part of the Broadway musical based on the movie.
Up next is The Lion King, which is also a special edition release. While there's no work in progress version of the movie, there are still two versions of the movie on this release. The first is the special edition version which includes a song called "The Morning Report" sung by Zazu during Simba's pouncing lesson with Mufasa near the start of the film. The second version is the original 1994 theatrical version. It's actually a pain to switch versions on this than it is to do so on the DVD for Beauty and the Beast. So if I just want to watch the theatrical version I'll just pop in the 1995 Masterpiece Collection VHS and watch it that way and then just watch the special edition version when I want to watch this DVD.
The VHS, which was released with the DVD on October 7th 2003, contains only the special edition version of the movie and the usual music video. This time we have "Circle of Life" sung by the Disney Channel Circle of Stars, which consists of Disney Channel alum Hilary Duff (Lizzie McGuire), Raven Simone (That's So Raven), Christy Carlson Romano (Even Stevens and Kim Possible), Tahj Mowry (Smart Guy), Kyla Pratt (The Proud Family), Anneliese van der Pol (That's So Raven), Orlando Brown (That's So Raven), and A.J. Trauth (Even Stevens). I love this music video (it's on the DVD as well obviously).
Next is Aladdin which came out on DVD and VHS on October 5th, 2004. I also have this DVD in my collection. While there's only one version of the film on this DVD, the theatrical version, there is a deleted song in the bonus features on Disc 1 called "Proud of Your Boy" which Aladdin was supposed to sing to his mother, who was supposed to be in the film. However, that entire storyline was cut from the movie, probably at the request of Jeffrey Katzenberg since he was still the head of Walt Disney Feature Animation at the time. I also like the documentary on here called "A Diamond in the Rough: The Making Of Aladdin" because it's actually set up as a college lecture for Animation students, hosted by Leonard Maltin (he was EVERYWHERE on Disney DVDs in the 2000s) and featured the cast and crew of the film (minus Robin Williams of course). So that's pretty cool.
The VHS release came out on the same day as the DVD. I've never seen the VHS release in person so I don't have very much to say about it. The music video is for "A Whole New World", sung by Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson.
While Bambi is still a 2-disc release, it seems to be lighter on bonus features. There's still the usual bonus features on the second disc, but there's nothing on the first disc except the movie and a featurette called "Inside Walt's Story Meetings". There's no audio commentary, no music video, nothing. There's actually no music features on this release at all. Mind you this is the only movie in the Platinum Editions that isn't a musical and doesn't have any characters singing at all.
The VHS release has nothing on it. By the time Bambi was released on VHS (for the final time) and DVD, I was almost finished high school. My sister had just started high school and my brother was just finishing middle school so we were all "beyond" the age where Disney movies were bought for us on the regular as they had been in the 90s. So these releases weren't really on our radar past 2002 or 2003. I do remember seeing the commercials for them on TV though. Usually in the evenings during That '70s Show, Smallville, and Star Trek: Enterprise but also during Power Rangers Dino Thunder on ABC on Saturday mornings in 2004.
Next is Cinderella. Now, I can't remember if it was this DVD that I got for my sister for her birthday one year or if it was the Diamond Edition release that I got her. I think it was this one but I don't remember for sure because I can't remember when I got it for her. This release came out on October 4th, 2005 and as with the other releases we've had so far, this was the first time that Cinderella was released on DVD. By this point the Disney Princesses had become a franchise all of their own and so their movies tended to get the...ahem...royal treatment when it came to their DVD releases. Which means tons of bonus features.
The VHS release was notable because it was the last VHS release in the Walt Disney Platinum Editions to have a full retail release. The remaining two VHS releases were both Disney Movie Club Exclusives in 2006 and 2007. Also the Disney Channel Circle of Stars return to sing "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" in the music video for this release. However there's a slightly different lineup this time around. Christy Romano, Hilar Duff, Tahj Mowry, and A.J. Trauth are out, and joining Orlando Brown, Kyla Pratt, Raven, and Anneliese van der Pol are Amy Bruckner (Phil of the Future), Alyson Michalka (Phil of the Future), who is also the older sister of AJ Michalka who played Lainey on The Goldbergs and Schooled, Ricky Ullman (Phil of the Future), Cole and Dylan Sprouse (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody/Suite Life on Deck), Brenda Song (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody/Suite Life on Deck), and Ashley Tisdale (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody/Suite Life on Deck and High School Musical)
Next is Lady and the Tramp. This is another one that we didn't have when I was in high school and I haven't found it out in the wild either. Not that I was looking for it specifically, but back when I was going thrifting and going to geek sales and flea markets before the pandemic, I never came across this release of the movie. I came across the Diamond Edition Blu-ray at least once, but otherwise it's mainly been the Masterpiece Collection VHS that I've come across the most (and I own it as well). There's the usual bonus features on the two disc set. According to the Disney Wiki, all of the bonus features are on the second disc, with no audio commentaries or anything else on the first disc. The Making Of documentary, "Lady's Pedigree: The Making of Lady and the Tramp" is originally from the deluxe widescreen edition of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection release that came out in 1998, seven years earlier. The music video is "Bella Notte" sung by Steve Tyrell, who isn't associated with Disney in any other way interestingly enough.
The VHS release came out on May 16th, 2006 as a Disney Movie Club Exclusive. By 2006 Disney was the only studio that was still releasing movies on VHS with most everyone else having converted completely to DVD in 2004 though Batman Begins, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, War of the Worlds, Fantastic Four, and Elektra having been released on VHS in 2005. I think Disney stayed with it through to 2007 when they released Pixar's Cars on the format, because they'd been releasing movies on it since 1981, and their first two DVD lines, the Walt Disney Limited Issues, and Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection lines didn't sell very well in 1999 and 2000. But the thing is not very many people actually owned DVD players in 1999 and 2000, and most people were still watching movies on VHS at that point. My family didn't get a DVD player until 2004 at the latest. There also wasn't alot to attract them to DVD in 1999 and 2000 because the bonus features were minimal and studios like Warner Bros. were still using flimsy cardboard snapper cases as their packaging and would right up until at least 2005. So I can see why Disney wouldn't want to continue using VHS to release their movies on as long as possible.
Next up is The Little Mermaid and this is probably my favourite release of the movie ever. By this point Disney was starting to go more in depth with the Making Of featurettes on their DVD releases, often making full blown documentaries on the making of the animated classics. While Aladdin had an almost two hour documentary on the making of the movie, The Little Mermaid's feature, "Treasures Untold: The Making of The Little Mermaid" goes more in depth into the history of the film getting greenlit by Peter Schneider and Jeffrey Katzenberg just after The Great Mouse Detective came out in 1986, including an interview with both of them, amazingly enough even though Katzenberg was basically in a feud with Disney, specifically with Michael Eisner, over his grab for power at the studio following Frank Wells's death in 1994, around the time The Lion King was coming out theatrically. Though Eisner isn't mentioned at all as he was no longer CEO of the Walt Disney Company by this point, having been replaced by Bob Iger. There are plenty of other bonus features on this DVD as well, though I haven't explored all of them. I have watched the music video for "Kiss the Girl" sung by Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical) though. The DVD came in a trilogy box set along with The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea and The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning. My sister has the box set and I have the individual release of the movie.
Now we come to the end of the VHS era at Disney with the Walt Disney Platinum Edition release of The Little Mermaid which came out as a Disney Movie Club exclusive on January 3rd, 2007. While Cars was the last movie that Disney released on VHS, this release was the final release for a movie in the main Disney Animated Canon. One thing I find interesting about these last few VHS releases is that they were all in the standard slipcover cases instead of the clamshells that Disney is mainly known for. Also I find it interesting that Disney started releasing their animated movies on VHS in earnest when Michael Eisner was about to join the company as CEO, and they stopped releasing them on VHS as Bob Iger came in to replace him. It's like the VHS era was also the Eisner era at Disney.
The first release in the Walt Disney Platinum Editions line to have a DVD release only was Peter Pan. There aren't a whole lot of bonus features on this DVD, but the one it does have is "You Can Fly!: The Making of Peter Pan", which has been on just about every home video release of the movie since the Masterpiece Collection VHS and Laserdisc in 1998. This is actually the third time that Peter Pan has been released on DVD. The first was back in 1999 when it had a release as part of the Walt Disney Limited Issues line, and then in 2002 it had a special edition DVD and VHS release. Some of the bonus features on this release were actually ported over from the 2002 DVD while a few are brand new to this release including a music video for a song called "Never Land" sung by Paige O'Hara (Belle in Beauty and the Beast) and the Platinum Edition music video for "Second Star to the Right" (the movie's title theme) by T-Squad, I have no idea who they are, I just know they aren't associated with Disney in any other way.
Of course The Jungle Book got a new DVD release in 2007. It had been eight years since the Limited Issues DVD had come out and the movie got the same treatment as the other Platinum Editions DVDs. The behind the scenes documentary, "The Bare Necessities: The Making of The Jungle Book" is pretty neat. I've never owned this DVD, though trust me I have been looking for it, but the documentary is on YouTube so I've watched it there a few times. Again, it delves into the history of how Walt decided he wanted to make this movie, and even talks about how Walt's death in 1966 affected the movie's production and release. Especially since the movie's director, Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman became the producer for the animated Disney movies going forward until The Fox and the Hound in 1981. The music video on this release is "I Wanna Be Like You" by the Jonas Brothers as weird as that sounds.
Next is 101 Dalmatians. Again there really doesn't seem to be as many bonus features on this release as there have been on previous ones in the line. If you look at the list on the Disney Wiki, there definitely isn't as many as there were for Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, and The Lion King. Even Bambi doesn't seem to have as many as the first four in the lineup did. And I think that's just because we're into the mid-2000s by the time Bambi came out on DVD and 101 Dalmatians didn't come out until 2008, right around the time Blu-ray was starting to gain traction as a viable home media platform, with DVD now being ten years old at this point. Amazingly enough 101 Dalmatians didn't get a Blu-ray release until 2015 when it was released as part of the Diamond Editions, which I'll be talking about next time. Most fitting is that Selena Gomez (The Wizards of Waverly Place) sings "Cruella De Vil" in the music video on this release.
Second to last in this line is Sleeping Beauty. This was the movie's second DVD release as it had gotten a two disc special edition DVD and VHS release in 2003. The Making Of feature is different, but I think the rest of the bonus features were ported over from the 2003 DVD. This release came out on October 7th, 2008. The music video for the film is "Once Upon a Dream" sung by Emily Osment (Hannah Montana). Yes folks, we've now entered the era of High School Musical, Disney Channel sitcoms, and Hannah Montana (and the Jonas Brothers). It's an era of Disney that I'm least familiar with as I was in my early 20s by the time Sleeping Beauty came out on DVD as part of the Walt Disney Platinum Editions and so I wasn't exactly keeping up with what was airing on TV at the time, though I did see bits and pieces of Hannah Montana on Family Channel, as we didn't have Disney Channel here in Canada until 2015 so all the Disney stuff was either on Family Channel or ABC Kids.
Now we come to the first Blu-ray release in the Walt Disney Platinum Editions line, which is Sleeping Beauty. There isn't actually anything to say about this release because all of the bonus features are ported over from the DVD. I don't own this release and I've never seen it so I don't know how good the picture quality is compared to the DVD release.
Lastly we have Pinocchio on DVD and Blu-ray. It was released on March 10th, 2009, closing out the 2000s. I think the Platinum Editions is the only home media line to be confined to a single decade and to actually be around for that entire decade as the Walt Disney Classics started in 1984 and ended in 1994, the Masterpiece Collection started in 1994 and ended in 1999, the Limited Issues came and went in 1999 and the Gold Classic Collection started in 2000 and ended in 2001. The Pinocchio DVD has some really cool bonus features, including the Making Of feature, "No Strings Attached: The Making of Pinocchio" which would later be ported over to the Signature Collection Blu-ray in 2017. The music video for this DVD is "When You Wish Upon a Star" by Meaghan Martin (Camp Rock).
The Blu-ray release for the movie basically has all of the same bonus features as the DVD release. So there really isn't a whole lot to say, since I've never owned this release nor do I really need to since I already have the Signature Collection Blu-ray, which includes all of the bonus features from the Platinum Edition DVD and Blu-ray.
It's also interesting to note that while the Platinum Editions line was coming out, major changes were happening at Disney. Walt Disney Feature Animation switched from traditional handdrawn Animation to 3-D Animation, Michael Eisner got kicked out and Bob Iger took his place, Disney bought Pixar and the Jim Henson Company, and Disney Feature Animation became the Walt Disney Animation Studios after John Lasseter and Ed Catmull took over as the heads of both WDAS and Pixar Animation Studios. It also meant the end of the direct-to-video sequels that had started coming out in 1994 with the sequel to Aladdin, The Return of Jafar, as well as many other changes at the company. Also, the Platinum Editions is the second longest home media line that Disney has had. Not in terms of the number of releases, but in terms of how long it came out for. It went on for eight years (2001-2009), falling behind the Walt Disney Classics which ran for ten years from 1984-1994. Disney learned from the poor sales of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection that quality is much better than quantity as this line is a pretty solid line of releases. Too bad they can't apply this lesson to their live action remakes...
And that folks is the Walt Disney Platinum Editions. Between the bonus features and the fact that I have so many of these releases in my own collection means I had quite a bit to say even though it's a much smaller line compared to the Classics, Masterpiece Collection, and Gold Classic Collection, but what it lacks in quantity it more than makes up for it in quality because, like I said, this is a pretty solid line. Also it helps that there's actually a bit of background information on Disney's original concept for this lineup, which is missing from the Masterpiece Collection, Limited Issues and Gold Classic Collection. The Classics had a little bit about that, but this line is the one where we get a bit more of a behind the scenes glimpse into the decision to produce this line the way they did.
Alright guys that's going to be it for me for today, but I will be back on Wednesday with a look at the Walt Disney Diamond Editions, which is a weird one. Then on Thursday I'll be finishing off this History of Disney Movies on Home Video series with the Walt Disney Signature Collection. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. Take care.
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