The Early Days of Walt Disney Home Video

I had officially started collecting videocassette releases of Disney films in the summer of 2005, and I was mostly interested in getting the Classics titles along with releases from the 1980s. This is when I started to find out more about the early days of Disney's home entertainment division and how the history of it turned out to be something worth looking into.

Walt Disney Home Video was formed in 1980 by James P. Jimirro (the man who also came up with the idea of having a Disney channel), who served as the first president of the division. Walt Disney Productions had released a few titles on MCA DiscoVision prior to that in 1978 and 1979, and also struck a deal with Fotomat to get into the home video business. This went through in 1980 with live action titles like Pete's Dragon, The Black Hole, The Love Bug, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Apple Dumpling Gang. Released alongside those titles were some of the cartoon compilations that Disney released on DiscoVision like On Vacation with Mickey Mouse and Friends.

If you grew up in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you may remember seeing Disney videocassettes from this era. I remember my local rental stores had them too, and one of my neighbors had a pre-1987 VHS of Treasure Island. I saw them once in a blue moon, and most of the live action films sported this packaging. I had actually never watched one though when I was young.

When I started collecting, the first video I wanted to add to the collection was the pre-1989 Classics edition of Dumbo. You know, that one with the pink spine and the different artwork.

Then I came across this on eBay while searching for that said video release...

I had no idea that Dumbo was actually released with that kind of packaging, but I was still interested in getting the Classics edition, believing that it was THE first home video release of the title. A site accidentally stated that Dumbo hit home video in 1980, I assumed that the Classics edition was THE one.

A site that detailed logos that appeared at the end of television shows and in front of films, videocassettes and other media also helped. Most 90s kids have seen this logo somewhere, it was as common as ever...



I assumed it was probably the earliest logo in 2005, knowing that the Classics logo (featuring Sorcerer Mickey) dated back to 1988 thanks to a few viewings of the Cinderella VHS from 1988, though seeing the 1984 Classics logo on the Alice in Wonderland VHS made me wonder. This site actually stated that a logo existed before this one, and it dated back to 1978!

(uploaded by fellow Disney VHS collector Gabrielkat)

This is what you would see at the start of the Walt Disney Home Video releases prior to 1986. This logo, with its blaring fanfare and primitive graphics, was actually a modified version of this...

This intro appeared on almost, if not all

new releases in 1978...

As soon as I gathered most of this information, I had to find some videos that contained this and came in the packaging that featured Mickey and the Walt Disney Home Video logo on the box. I believe it was around January 2006, I visited a video rental store that was going out of business. By this time, the local mom-and-pop video rental places were closing up shop, while chains like Blockbuster thrived and On Demand got more and more relevant. It’s almost to the point now where physical media may cease to be... (shudders) I found two titles that fit the bill. They were Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

Both releases were from 1986, and in cardboard slipcover cases instead of clamshells. They bore the same packaging artwork, though. This was for Disney’s “Wonderland Sale” promotion, which they kicked off on May 28, 1986. This was also the first time I saw what the original Walt Disney Home Video looked like, since I didn’t discover YouTube until a month later or so. I know, odd right?

Then I really wanted to get my hands on an older release, which us collectors nickname the “Neon Mickey” tapes since the outlines of the spinning Mickey in the WDHV logo have a neon-like appearance. Others have called it “Laser Mickey”. The first clamshell Neon Mickey title I got was Alice in Wonderland, which must’ve been around February or so. I just remember that it took a long time to arrive. This was the sales only version released in November 1982, since it was available for rental only as far back as October 1981.

Rental only editions of Disney videocassettes came in plastic blue cases that lacked artwork, just a label with text. In the mid-1980s, Disney took back most of them and only sent the ones that were still playable to stores for sale only. They would receive the “sale only” packaging, which of course had artwork. Now in the 1990s, this was not the case. Your local rental place would have the cover and a case behind it that the video in question came in. Other studios did it too, but the “rental only” versions with the artwork-less cases are not easy to come across.

At the end of the Alice in Wonderland VHS, I saw this...



Talk about strange marketing... The titles they are hyping up here are probably not well known to casual Disney fans today: The Devil and Max Devlin, Condorman, The Watcher in the Woods... This was at the time Disney was trying very hard to push their contemporary image, as they were moving into the PG territory. When Tron, Tex and Something Wicked This Way Comes hit home video the year after (1983), they were promoted as the “new Disney”. Disney even tried to pass them off as “adult” films, whereas everything else for kids. Yeah, Disney marketing was harmful to animation (their own, mostly) long before Michael Eisner ever came on the scene. In the early 1980s, non-animation fans tended to view animation is “kids only” stuff, a mindset that continues to this day. Also, without any animated features to release, they focus on live action classics. They don’t get this kind of marketing boost nowadays, so it’s cool to see titles like Treasure Island, 20,000 Leagues and The Absent-Minded Professor get some sort of promotion.

Why no animated features except for Dumbo, Alice and a few of the package features? Walt Disney himself never wanted his films to be shown on the small screen, he wanted them to make money through theatrical re-releases, especially since theatrical re-releases saved Pinocchio and Bambi. It would bring in revenue for the studio, and keep the titles fresh for generations to come. When home video came about in the mid 1970s, Disney most likely saw it as something that was yet to bloom.

Dumbo and Alice were available first because Walt had actually shown them on television. Dumbo was a very short film and Walt most likely showed the film on the Disneyland series because it had already turned a profit in both releases prior to 1955. Walt himself disliked Alice in Wonderland, and the film was a critical and box office failure, so Walt showed an hour-long version on Disneyland instead. Alice in Wonderland was never theatrically re-released in Walt’s lifetime, it got a theatrical re-release in 1974 when Disney realized that it caught on with the young adult crowd that made Yellow Submarine and the Fantasia re-issue successful.

Consumers would have to wait until the mid-1980s to get the classics. By 1984, home video was becoming the new thing and Disney executives soon realized how lucrative that business could be, especially if they treated the titles like they were being theatrically re-released. Ever wonder why the Disney Vault strategy is a reality?

A Disney VHS Collection Update

Here's a new Disney VHS collection update for you...



When I got my current YouTube channel back in February of 2010, I immediately filmed myself demonstrating the collection all over again like I did on my old account. Then I filmed a much more in-depth series in December, but during that time, I didn't really get any new VHS tapes or Beta tapes for the collection. I only got the super rare 1986 Walt Disney Classics box set and two more other Classics editions after that. I did an update for the box set, of course, but for the other two VHS tapes, they just appeared in a video where I showed the entire collection...

So this is my first real Disney VHS update that's done like a Blu-ray or DVD update would be done. Suffice to say, I'm glad I went to that yard sale. I also scooped up a non-Disney animated classic too, so enjoy. More updates should come later on this month if I find anything.

A little more about the tapes themselves:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs 1994 VHS - For many years, Disney refused to release this film on home video since it was one of their highest grossing titles of all time (adjusted, it's the highest grossing animated film of all time) and it continued to do extremely well when theatrically re-released. They had the same attitude towards Fantasia as well, but they finally released that film on video in 1991 and it became the best-selling home video of all time until One Hundred and One Dalmatians hit home video months later. So with that, Disney re-released theatrically one last time and had this begin the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection, replacing The Classics.
- Originally released on October 25, 1994

Fantasia 1991 VHS - One of the only Disney films actually packed in the black clamshell case (not counting the first four releases in the Classics line, and the Limited Gold Editions). The version of the film on this video release was the 1990 50th Anniversary print which added end credits to the film. The cut itself is the same as the 1946 "general release" version, running 120 minutes. This would also be the first release of Disney animated classic that came as a part of a deluxe box set.
- Originally released on November 1, 1991

Old Yeller 2002 VHS - Made a big mistake in the video, accidentally saying it came out in 2004. Not much to say about this one, considering that Old Yeller was one of those titles that didn't go back in the Vault.
- Originally released on May 7, 2002

The Rescuers 1999 VHS - Of course, we all know the controversy surrounding this video release. Oddly enough, the VHS uses the 1989 theatrical re-release version of the film on here. It doesn't open with the Buena Vista logo, but instead the 1985 Walt Disney Pictures logo. The Buena Vista logo appears at the end, much like it did for the 1991 theatrical re-release of One Hundred and One Dalmatians and very early printings of the 1992 VHS (without the previews that follow).
- Originally released on January 5, 1999, clean version released March 23rd

The Little Mermaid 1998 VHS - The version of the film used on this video release is that of the 1997 theatrical re-release, with some minor alterations to the end credits plus the priest's knee altered since that also caused a lot of controversy.
- Originally released on March 31, 1998

The Secret of NIMH 1994 VHS - Not much to comment on here, as the film had been released on home video twice before this was released. In fact, there were plans to theatrically re-release it sometime in the late 1980s. If that happened, maybe the film would've gotten more popularity.

The Magic Lives On...

Though I don't plan to go a completely different direction here, I felt I dedicate a good chunk of this place to my #1 hobby: Collecting videocassettes of Disney films, both animated and live-action. It's been something I've been doing for nearly seven years now and much of my YouTube channel is centered around that.

As a big collector, I look into all the little things about these videocassettes. Some might look at that and say, "What's the big deal?" and so... Well, it is a big deal if you collect and look for these little things. I see it as being no different from another collection. I also collect vinyl records, as I've shown many times on YouTube (both successfully and unsuccessfully), and I notice that people in those circles tend to look for tiny details to find out which variation or pressing they have. I do the same for my tapes.

Over the years, a lot of people have come out of the woodwork to reveal their passion for Disney videocassettes made in the 1980s and 1990s. Many 90s children look back on these videocassettes with fond memories. I remember when YouTube wasn't the go-to place for other people's collections of Disney videocassettes. There were a few videos here and there. When I got a YouTube account way back in 2006, I was considering showing my tapes, but I didn't have the means to do it. Then in October 2007, a good friend of mine and I decided to film a few videos of it and show it on YouTube. I was young, they weren't anything professional, just a taste of what my collection was like...



Anyways, I followed that up with more videos as I kept collecting and such. When I got my new channel in February of 2010, I started over and simply showed all my tapes while explaining some of the histories behind them and such. I sought to improve the videos and focus on the history of the home video division and the films themselves, in my upcoming series. More on this later...

So why do I collect the videocassettes of these films when you can own them on DVD and Blu-ray? Well, the videocassettes have always fascinated me. I grew up with them, I grew up in the good old days where you didn't access movies through menus and you had to fast forward through the previews. When you were a kid, the previews were often a required viewing, one way or the other.

At the same time, the packaging fascinates me and all the different lines that some titles were issued under. The animated classics are a fantastic example. The first line was The Classics (or Walt Disney Classics) in 1984, and that was replaced by the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection in 1994. Then came the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection in 2000, when these films were starting to hit DVD for the first time, and then so on... Platinum Editions, Diamond Editions, Special Editions...

Back to the previews... The previews on these tapes give you a good look at how Disney was back in the day. Take this chestnut for example...



Now how about that? Look at those titles they're hyping up! Though we get some live action classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mary Poppins and of course three animated titles. We also get such "classics" like The Devil and Max Devlin and... Condorman.

This promo was produced back in 1982. At the time, only three animated features from the Disney animated classics "canon" were available on home video: Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. At the time, Disney was trying to push their contemporary image with films like Condorman and such. In fact, they continued to do that when films like Tron, Tex and Something Wicked this Way Comes hit theaters. This is when Disney was moving into PG territory (back before PG-13 was invented) before Touchstone, so it's an interesting era to look into.

Again, this is just one example of many. I'll be looking into all of this for my YouTube series... As of now, I've only gotten around to doing three "test" episodes. They serve as a glimpse to what the series will be about. They are amateurish, yes. They are a bit embarrassing, yes, but... Whenever the final product comes, it'll be miles above these tests. In the mean time, check them out and see what you think.







Of course I did these last summer. They aren't the best of quality, but they are basically a preview of what's coming. If you have comments or suggestions for the series, fire away! I'm all for suggestions. I'm not sure when this project will ever come to fruition, but I'm hoping it happens soon.

As for everything else about these cassettes, more on that later...