Hey everyone! Happy Star Wars Day to those of you who celebrate it. I'm not doing any Star Wars Day posts this year. At least, not today. My buddy Jonathan and I are watching the premiere of Star Wars: The Bad Batch on Disney+ tonight and I'll be talking about the episode tomorrow. As you know I'm not interested in the show as a premise, for reasons I will get into when I talk about the show tomorrow, but I decided to at least watch the first episode, as I did with WandaVision, and as I will do with Loki next month. Since Jonathan was going to be watching it anyway, I figured I'd have more fun if he and I watched it together virtually. So I got my fingers crossed for that.
Today I'm here to end my overview series on the history of Disney movies on home video. I began in 1984 with the Walt Disney Classics and ended in 2019 with the Walt Disney Signature Collection. But what about the releases that came out from 1980 to 1984? What were they and how and why was Walt Disney Home Video established? That's what I'm going to be talking about today. Originally I was going to talk about every single release to come out between 1980 and 1984, but because most of the releases are primarily for live action films, I decided to narrow things down to the three live action/animation hybrid films that were included in the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection and the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, the five animated movies that were released on home video, two cartoon shorts that were originally part of an animated package film, and two cartoon featurettes that were released along with theatrical re-releases of Disney animated classics. So without further ado, let's talk about the Neon Mickey era of Walt Disney Home Video.
The reason these tapes are commonly referred to as the Neon Mickey releases, is because of this logo at the beginning of each tape. This is the very first Walt Disney Home Video logo which debuted in 1978 when Disney began releasing cartoon shorts on Laserdisc through MCA DiscoVision. What's interesting about this logo is that it says Walt Disney Home Entertainment on it, rather than Walt Disney Home Video. Possibly because Disney hadn't actually established Walt Disney Home Video yet, but they needed a logo to differentiate the seven Disney DiscoVision releases from other studios's movies released on Laserdisc around the same time. The 1984-1986 variant, which says Walt Disney Home Video, and has the more well known Walt Disney signature typography rather than the one used on Disney movies since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, used on any VHS, Betamax, and Laserdisc releases that weren't part of the Walt Disney Classics, is the one I grew up seeing on my early VHS releases of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too. Disney established Walt Disney Home Video in 1980.
The first Disney to be released on VHS was Pete's Dragon. It was released on March 4th, 1980. I did some preliminary research and I can't seem to find why Disney chose Pete's Dragon for their first VHS release. According to Wikipedia though, while Critics liked it, the movie didn't do well at the box office and Disney had hoped for a box office return on the level of Mary Poppins back in 1964. Which is reasonable. The problem with that thought, is that not only could nothing Disney put out match how popular and successful Mary Poppins was in 1964 in terms of their live-action films, but Pete's Dragon came out in 1977. That's a thirteen year difference between the two films and box office numbers can change drastically in those thirteen years in terms of what is considered to be a flop in box office returns. I know, all that to say that Disney executives, who were nowhere near sold on the idea of their movies being available for the home video market, particularly in 1980, figured it would be safe to release Pete's Dragon on home video since it wasn't one of their popular titles. Which is the same mentality which led to the Walt Disney Classics starting with Robin Hood four years later.
Up next is Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which came out the same day as Pete's Dragon. When my parents rented this movie for me when I was a kid, I'm pretty sure it was the 1986 VHS release they rented, not this one. However, the covers are similar.
This is the 1986 release of the movie. As you can see the cover art is similar, though the font used for the movie title is different, and the design is slightly different. Plus, this release is a slipcover release, while the 1980 release is a clamshell.
I'm not sure how well this release did, but again, with the executives's mentality being that the live-action films are safe to release on home video as many of them wouldn't get theatrical re-releases, unlike the animated movies, it's not surprising that Bedknobs and Broomsticks would be one of the earliest home video releases that Disney would put out. Which doesn't explain the next release.
The next animation related release to come out was Mary Poppins. It was released on December 30th, 1980, almost a full year after the other releases that came out on March 4th 1980. Because it was one of Disney's more popular live-action movies, and the one that the company compared all their other live-action films to, it's a bit surprising given it had two theatrical re-releases prior to it's home video debut.
Next on my list of Neon Mickey home video releases came on June 26th 1981. This was a major turning point for the company, because thus far Disney had not released any of their animated feature films on home video. However, Dumbo made the grade. It had theatrical re-releases in 1949, 1959, 1972, and 1976, and had two television broadcasts. One in 1955, and another in 1978. Both were on the Disneyland TV series. But I guess that's why executives were okay with releasing it on home video in 1981. Walt had okayed the film's 1955 television broadcast, as he was the host of Disneyland at the time and at the time the early VHS releases were coming out, the mentality was, if Walt okayed it, then it was fine. Even though Walt had been dead for fifteen years at this point.
Also released on VHS and Betamax on June 26th 1981, was The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This wasn't a surprise as this was only two years before Disney would release Winnie the Pooh and A Day for Eeyore theatrically, and Welcome to Pooh Corner would debut on the Disney Channel. This movie also didn't have any theatrical re-releases, and the individual shorts that make up the movie had probably aired on TV at some point in the 70s. Personally, I would love to have this release in my collection, but it's probably really hard to find.
Next is Alice in Wonderland. Released on October 15th, 1981 it's another movie that Walt had decided to put on Disneyland in the 50s. In fact, it actually aired as the program's second episode in 1954. Naturally, the execs in 1981 felt it was okay to release it on home video since, again, it wasn't as popular a movie as something like Pinocchio or Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Something that I talked about at length in my Walt Disney Classics overview is the fact that no new animated movies were being released on home video at this point. While The Fox and the Hound had been released on July 10th 1981 to theatres, it did not get a home video release at all in the 80s. As I showed in the Walt Disney Classics overview, the movie didn't get a home video release until 1994 as the final release in the Walt Disney Classics collection. While it's predecessor release, The Rescuers, also didn't get a home video release in the 80s, being released as part of the Walt Disney Classics in 1992, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh did have a home video release and up to this point was the most recent Disney animated movie to get a home video release as Alice in Wonderland had originally been theatrically released in 1951 and Dumbo in 1941.
The next Disney animated movie to get a home video release was the 1945 package feature, The Three Caballeros. It was released in November 1982. According to the Disney Wiki, the 1977 print used for the film's theatrical re-release was used, which is why the Buena Vista logo is before the movie on the tape.
Also released in November 1982 was Fun and Fancy Free. The reason these two package films were released on home video this early is because they were two of the more popular ones that Disney had been airing on TV. Neither of them had theatrical re-releases so they hadn't brought in any more money than they had during their theatrical releases in the 40s. Not to mention The Three Caballeros starred Donald Duck and Fun and Fancy Free starred Donald, along with Mickey Mouse and Goofy. What's interesting about this release is that the title "Mickey and the Beanstalk" is more prominent than the film's actual title "Fun and Fancy Free" is.
Next was The Wind in the Willows which was the first half of the package film, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. It was also released in November 1982.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which was the second part of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad was released at the same time. While the full film wouldn't get a VHS release until the end of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection in 1999, it did get a Laserdisc release in 1992, though it's not part of the Walt Disney Classics collection. Both The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and The Wind in the Willows would each get a VHS re-release as part of the Walt Disney Mini Classics collection, as well as the Favorite Stories collection in the late 80s and the 90s.
Mary Poppins got a VHS re-release in November 1982. I think this was the first Disney movie to get a home video re-release, though Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh all got re-releases in 1982 as well, as their original 1981 releases were for the rental market only, while the 1982 releases were for the retail market only. People bought them despite the almost $80 price tag on these early home video releases. This price tag wasn't limited to Disney movies. Most movies on home video were expensive in the early 80s. Because of this most people's VHS collections were limited to the movies they absolutely had to own.
On December 3rd 1984, the same day that Robin Hood was released on VHS for the first time, launching the Walt Disney Classics, Mickey's Christmas Carol was released on VHS for the first time as well. Both films were part of Disney's Wrap and Ready-to-Give Christmas promotion that year. The packaging for this short was closer to the one used for Robin Hood rather than the design used for the releases up to this point. Except it was in a white clamshell instead of the black clamshell used for Robin Hood.
Finally, on December 3rd 1984, Winnie the Pooh and Friends was released on VHS. This is a compilation of Winnie the Pooh and A Day for Eeyore with the three Humphrey the Bear cartoon shorts that came out in the 1950s. It was the first time that Winnie the Pooh and A Day for Eeyore was released on home video, and I think the only time the Humphrey the Bear cartoons were released on home video outside of the Disney Rarities set from the Walt Disney Treasures DVD series. Winnie the Pooh and A Day for Eeyore was re-released on VHS in 1986 to coincide with the first individual VHS releases of Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day, and Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too.
And that my friends is the end of my look at the history of Disney movies on home video. There are several collections of cartoon shorts that came out over the years like the Walt Disney Cartoon Classics, the Walt Disney Mini Classics, and the Walt Disney Favorite Stories collection. However, I decided to end things here because it feels like everything has come full circle now. This has been alot of fun to do. As I said at the beginning of the Walt Disney Classics segment I started doing these on my old blog in like 2018 or 2019, but I only got as far as the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection and stopped. This time I managed to go through all of the releases I wanted to talk about.
That's it for me for today. I'll be back tomorrow though for my review of the first episode of the new Disney+ animated series, Star Wars: The Bad Batch. So until then have a great evening and I will talk to you all later. May the Fourth be with you!
Image Credits
Thanks to Kyle O of Imaxination's Video Corner for the use of the cover images for Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland. They were all on the Disney Wiki, without credit attributed to anyone, so if there are any here that Kyle also took besides those two, thanks for the use of them too. Check out his blog here:
http://imaxination1980svideocorner.blogspot.com/
And check out his other blog here: https://kylelovesanimationnmore.wordpress.com/
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