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Disney Vault

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The "Disney Vault" is the term used by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment for its policy of putting home video releases of Walt Disney Animation Studios's animated features on moratorium. Each Disney film is available for purchase for a limited time, after which it is put "in the vault" and not made available for several years until it is released again.

Origins

The practice is the modern version of Disney's practice of re-releasing its animated films in theaters every seven years, which began with the reissue of 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1944.[1] When VHS eroded the market for theatrical reissues by the early 1990s, Disney shifted its moratorium practices towards home video releases. Typically, a major Disney animated film is released on video or DVD for a pre-established amount of time, ranging from sixty days (the first Disney DVD releases in 1999)[2] to several years.[3]

Last years

During the 1980s and 1990s, when the home video market was dominated by VHS systems, Disney films would be reissued every seven years, a time gap equal to that of their theatrical reissues. With the transition to DVD technology, the moratorium period was increased to up to ten years.[2] Television commercials for Disney home video releases will alert customers that certain films will be placed on moratorium soon, urging them to purchase these films before they "go back into the 'Disney Vault'", in the words often spoken by Mark Elliot. Some direct-to-video Disney films, among them Bambi II, have also been released with a pre-established window of availability.[4]

Controls

The Walt Disney Company itself states that this process is done to both control their market and to allow Disney films to be fresh for new generations of young children.[5] A side effect of the moratorium process is the fact that videos and DVDs of Disney films placed on moratorium become collectables, sold in stores and at auction websites such as eBay for sums in excess of their original suggested retail price. The practice also has made the Disney films a prime target for counterfeit DVD manufacturers.

Producers

Disney's live-action films, Disney films that are produced by the Pixar studio, and films released by Disney's other film divisions/labels (Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax Films, Dimension Films) are not held to this rule, generally only being discontinued when a newer edition is released.

Curiosities

An edition of Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse[6] lampooned the Disney Vault with exaggerated claims, such as Walt Disney's head preserved cryogenically in the vault and an imprisoned Jim Henson.

See also

References

  1. ^ Eisner's bumpy ride - Forbes.com
  2. ^ a b dvdfuture.com :: Front Row, Sofa! - Di$ney Does The Little Mermaid
  3. ^ Vaulting the Disney gap and its plan for profits - Lifestyle
  4. ^ USATODAY.com - 'Bambi' is back for 70 'II' days
  5. ^ http://www.awn.com/mag/issue2.8/2.8pages/2.8hoffmanbvhe.html
  6. ^ TV Funhouse - Disney Vault
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