Disney releasing 14 classics on Blu-ray over the next 7 years
By Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Sep 22nd 2009 6:29PM
posted Sep 22nd 2009 6:29PM
We've got good news and bad news. The good news is that our children won't have to suffer through SD versions of their favorite movies forever, the bad is that it's going to take another seven years. This might be really bad news for some of us, because we don't know about anyone else, but our kids like to watch the same movies over and over again and suffering through DVD versions of Disney classics is very painful on a 60-inch Kuro -- we swear the damage is permanent. This is especially true when the latest Disney titles are already available on Blu-ray so we know exactly what our poor kids are missing. Seven years isn't forever though and over the that time Disney will be releasing two of its 14 biggest classics each year. Pinochio and Sleeping Beauty were released already, and Beauty and the Beast and Fantasia come next. All of them will of course be fully restored and included Dolby TrueHD 7.1 surround sound. - Beauty and the Beast
- Fantasia
- Fantasia 2000
- The Lion King
- Bambi
- Cinderella
- Lady and the Tramp
- The Little Mermaid
- Peter Pan
- The Jungle Book
- 101 Dalmatians
Must be one of the slowest studio to release their movie.
And they've gotten extremely rich by doing what they're doing.
Lion King ... NOW
Not Disney ... but where the hell is Moulin Rouge... they have had it in Blu-ray previews for years now
This is consistent with how they would release their "Platinum" DVDs in the past. You would only get two of the top echelon of disney movies on DVD per year. That is not to say that soon once blu-ray is huge, they will not release some of the second tier disney movies in a Gold Collection blu-ray. We will have to see. I have to agree with the poster above about the Lion King. I could not get a copy of it when it was out on DVD so now I am waiting for the Blu-Ray release. Oh, and Fantasia on Blu-Ray is going to be amazing, I am sure!
One more curiosity on this list. Why is Sleeping Beauty on there? So far only two classics have been released on BluRay, Pinocchio and Sleeping Beauty. Are they releasing it again?
I wondered the same thing.
Pixar is not included in this. They will have their own schedule, likely 1 film a year starting this Christmas.
x a billion!
Where has Finding Nemo been for years? It'd be an excellent reference 16:9 BluRay
The lack of Aladdin, Hercules, and Mulan disturbs me
However everything else makes me happier than you could ever imagine
Yes! Those are by far my top 3 Disney "traditional" animation movies. Especially Hercules which is my all time Disney favorite and I think has some of the greatest songs ever. Plus, I know it's Pixar, not Disney, but when is The Incredibles coming out on Blu-Ray?
I totally agree with you. Where r those movies?! Im pretty sure Aladdin's a classic. I loved Mulan. Lion King should come first though.
Tarzan and Emperors New Groove would be awesome as well.
I am very surprised that Aladdin was not included in these, that is one of their classics. Mulan and Hercules will probably released just not under this banner, and I would sure love to have Pocahontas too!
I read that Nemo was coming out soon. Or you can just download it as your "backup" in HD of the DVD you own. :) I can give you a link if needed.
You can find most of these on Bit torrent with 720p version. They are from when these showed on ABC a few years ago. Its suck because of the fade in and out but the quality is great.
"All of them will of course be fully restored..."
Krikey, it seems like every time they re-release them they've been restored. Again.
Give me Emperor's New Groove in HD and I'm one happy cartoon fan.
I doubt anything less than 20 years old even needs to be "restored". Unless Disney stores their masters in a builder's skip.
Whoa, Beauty and the Beast is next in line after Snow White next month? That puts it in Spring 2010, when it had previously been announced for Fall 2010. JOY!
No Robin Hood?
Something I absolutely could not care less about: Seeing classic Disney movies in "Special 3-D Editions".
Ridiculous...
It's too bad Disney don't do something simple such removing the mandatory trailers. What's the point of lavishing attention on the movie if you piss people off even before its started? Stick the trailers at the end of the movie, or on the menu, or at least just play them once and store a flag on the player so they never automatically play again.
Nice! What a moment! I love the way you write it! I love Disney and i will enjoy lot if i bought a lion king ticket free of cost.
By the time they're done, we'll have a new format that doesn't have any good Disney cartoons on it... geesh. I'd be happy with 6 a year but would prefer at least 1 per month. They used to release a new cartoon each year in theaters so they have plenty of movies, and even 1 a month could last quite a while. At least regular editions, they can release special editions all they want over time, but SOME people would like to replace their DVDs as soon as possible, and would easily pay to do that.
The reason they don't release that often should be obvious. They make more money releasing them farther apart. Releasing too close together means the product suffers and titles end up treading on each other's toes. Disney has plenty of low grade stuff to be filling the schedule between the big releases.
Snow White BD is available for pre-order on Amazon. Why is it not listed above? The box shows "Diamond Edition". What is the difference between the Diamond Edition and Platinum Edition?
Does Disney assume that we will want to buy all of them and that we can't afford more than one every 6 months?
These cannot come fast enough!
I don't support Blu-ray out of the fact that it's an extremely anti consumer product at this point in time... but...
People keep mentioning the Disney release policies dealing with their cartoons/animated features, and actually have no understanding on how they work...
Its not about the movies competing with one another for sales, the movies will sell no matter competition or not, it all goes back to the days of VHS, everybody remember those right. What they did was figured out how long the VHS media would last before having to be replaced and picked an arbitrary release print length number, not really it was based on sales decline numbers, 6 months if I remember right, and then they removed it from printing, as soon as the copies which were printed were gone that was the last that were available until the movies were re-released several years later. Why was this important? It meant that the price of the movie didn't drop over time like most movies do, remember Disney's main income source is their cartoons/animated features. It also meant that when the movie finally was released that many of the copies previously sold would then need replacing and since the movies were hard to come by because only legitimate copies that were out there were all the same age or older it meant there weren't really any cheap copies to be had, because even bootleg copies were fetching a premium, so Disney could release the movies at the same price as before. They continued this practice with DVD following close to the same time line without much modification, ignoring the fact that DVDs fair far better than VHS, and now they are planning their Blu-ray release schedule along the same lines, which will probably never hit the second release for the movies like DVD did due to the increasing decline in the disc media market. Unless they expand their release list to include more movies each year you can expect only 6-8 more Disney "Classics" to be released on Blu-ray by the time the market is being phased out for another format/other formats, btw that is probably 2020.
I will be getting all of these Disney was apart of everybody childhood.
Getting Aladdin 1992 720p HDTV x264-hV then.
This is stupid but no different than Fox's release schedule of The Simpsons seasons on DVD. They figure most people couldn't afford to buy them all at once and release them on a schedule so even the bottom feeders can budget for them and buy them if they want them bad enough. If Fox released all 10+ remaining seasons immediately right now, many people would give up on their collection, realizing they couldn't afford $350+ to own them all. But spread $350+ over 5 years and it fits into almost any budget. Because of this, even rich people that can afford them have to wait too.
Guys! This list only contains the titles which will be released under the diamond label. It doesn't mean that the rest of the Disney animations will not be released on Blu-ray at all! And yes, The Sleeping Beauty and Pinocchio will be re-released on BD, as the last pieces of the Diamond edition in 7 years time!
I saw a portion of the restored Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in HD, and the changes look minimal. The color is a little better, but it's hardly earth shattering. It's kind of the same with Wizard of Oz. Do old movies and hand drawn cartoons really benefit from a treatment in HD?