Browse: Home / Disney Byways: DVD Release

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here
  • Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

Disney Byways: DVD Release

Posted By Gillianren on May 31, 2019 in Features | Leave a response

It’s no secret that I’m a Disney fan. This is my 141st article for this column, in fact, meaning we’re getting quite close to three years of it. I’m one of those people who can speak with equal eloquence on Frozen and The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit, “Steamboat Mickey” and “Paperman.” I can’t speak conclusively on the varying incarnations of The Wonderful World of Disney, but I can tell you about such obscure delights as Gallagher in addition to the actually well-known Ludwig Von Drake. And part of my Disney fandom is a large collection of DVDs and Blu-Rays of what Disney works I can get my hands on and afford at any given time, and I make no secret of the fact that one of the reasons my collection is incomplete by my standards is that Disney simply hasn’t released everything I would buy.

I can hear some of you death-of-physical-media types gearing up to say “but Disney+.” I will tell you simply—that isn’t the right answer. What I want, what I have wanted for years now, is for Disney to do what Warners has done and institute an archive program, where they’ll burn you a no-frills disc of the weirder stuff in their back catalogue that isn’t in enough demand to justify a full-on release. And I also want an expansion of the Vault Disney collection—I own a few of them, and they are quite frankly Disney’s answer to the Criterion Collection, and there should be more releases in it.

Why not streaming? For one thing, streaming isn’t forever. It’s not Disney, but we used to watch Leverage on Netflix all the time, and it’s been gone for years now. We really need to buy the DVDs, though, because it was a show we loved. Similarly, I’m pretty sure Netflix used to have Kim Possible, years ago, and they don’t now. And the difference there is that seasons of Kim Possible have never been available on DVD. I own four discs of the show—two movies and two collections of three or four episodes each. And while Irene loves “Pahkeebah,” as she calls it (she’s two, okay?), I would really like my kids to be able to sit down and watch the whole series.

It’s somewhat ironic to me that, as my actual streaming experience has improved, the streaming catalogues have gotten smaller. When I first started streaming online, I couldn’t get captioning. That isn’t true anymore, goodness knows, but now that it is, I don’t have the wide array of streaming possibilities for older movies that I’ve always meant to see. There are plenty of new releases on Netflix and Amazon Prime, but the deep catalogs are not as extensive. I’m less likely to be able to see old screwball comedies, for example. Even if Disney starts with their pledge to put every single live-action movie in their catalogue on the system, I don’t entirely trust them to keep that forever.

What’s more, why do people lay out the money for Criterion? Because they want the quality release. I talked earlier about the Vault Disney editions. These were not merely remastered editions that came with a cartoon before the movie, which I put to you as a bare minimum for a Disney release. These were two-disc sets which included things like a timeline of Disney events from the movie’s year of release. Commentary tracks—I know of no streaming service with access to commentary tracks. Any materials from the Vault about the making of those movies and new documentaries including interviews with anyone they could find who had been involved with making the movies. No, you didn’t get the booklet of essays, and you didn’t get new cover art—but wouldn’t that be a great set? The pride of any collector’s shelf.

When trying to find exactly what was on these discs as special features (without having to, you know, get up and go to the other room and actually look at my copies), I came across several articles claiming that Disney+ was going to be the end of the Vault, and I see no reason to believe that’s true. Because the Disney Vault is so much more than those movies. So far as I know, they still control the DVD rights to the Muppets, and we’ve never gotten seasons four and five of The Muppet Show on DVD. Will that be on Disney+? Who knows? Some years ago, they released a collectible tin that had what they claimed was Swamp Fox and Elfego Baca but was only a few episodes of each. Will they be available in full on Disney+? All the shorts? There’s a vast wealth of material in the Disney Vault, and while some of it has trickled into availability, I would wager that almost every hardcore Disney fan can speak wistfully about some piece of media that hasn’t seen a rerelease yet.

For many years, I defended the concept of the Disney Vault in part on the grounds that Disney has thousands, probably tens of thousands, of hours of material to be released. No store in the world would have space for all of Disney’s releases unless that was pretty much all they sold—you could get a fun store actually in a Disney park, but that’s about it. However, that store can exist now, and most people carry it around in their pocket. So most people won’t want to own Bayou Boy. But for the person who does—a serious Michael Ontkean fan?—such availability would be the stuff of dreams. I’ve always felt it unjust of Disney not to provide it for them.

I mean, we’re still going to subscribe to Disney+; help make it possibly by supporting my Patreon or Ko-fi!

Posted in Features | Tagged Disney Byways, DVD

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

Also the movie includes an adorable love story, so there's thatDisney Byways: WRECK-IT RALPH→

Reaching into children's brainsDisney Byways: FRANKENWEENIE→

Really, this was a lovely movieDisney Byways: JOHN CARTER→

That's certainly an expressionDisney Byways: “Pests of the West”→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    38463 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    30934 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    30435 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • Gordon with Mr. Looper

    Attention Must Be Paid: Will Lee

    27680 views / Posted January 7, 2023
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    23474 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • The truth is FAR out there.

    The Friday Article Roundup: The Truth is In Here

    December 6, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • This is a way lower res image than I will be allowed to get away with at the new site.

    Lunch Links: Schwarzfahrer

    December 5, 2024 / The Ploughman
  • Websites on the Internet: THE SOLUTE

    December 4, 2024 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    December 3, 2024 / Greta Taylor
  • Movie Gifts Holidays 2024

    December 2, 2024 / The Ploughman

Last Tweets

    ©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

    Menu

    • Home
    • Who We Are
    • About
    • Privacy
    • Contact Us
    • Login
    Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!