The Disney Vault system, in which they sell their best animated movies only every 7years or so, sucks something awful for the consumer. I hate them so much for that. However, the quality of the product that they produce and sell, appears to be incredibly high, especially compared to the quick and cheap crap that comes out for kids. I love them for that.
This all started when I wanted to get DVD’s of “Bambi” and “The Lion King” for my toddler. Unfortunately, niether has been sold in years and it is unknown when they will be sold again. Yes, I can find them new at reputable on-line dealers for $25 to $35, but it pisses me off that I can’t pick up a copy at MSRP at Target or Barnes and Noble. What is the point of this system? They don’t benefit from the current demand and they miss out on huge crops of 3 to 8 year olds. I am fairly certain I won’t need a copy of Bambi in 2014.
Lucky for me I found a used copy of Bambi at my local bookstore. I am not an animation or old movie buff, nor am I a big movie collector, but this is the single best DVD I have ever owned. The restoration of the film and it’s updating of it’s soundtrack to 5.1 is spectacular. The extras are fascinating and too numerous to mention. They really help you understand and appreciate the artistry that went into the making of the original as well as the restoration process. Heck, they even got Picard to host. I don’t know how the other Disney movies are treated, but this was a lot of bang for my buck.
It is a shame that so many people are going to miss it because they sell it only for 24 months every 7 years.
I think the reason is that they can remarket the product for every generation (with marketing campaign and all). I remember when Cinderella, Snowhite, Bambi and Robin Hood came out on VHS and how they were the biggest sellers during the holidays. Later I found out the movies were years - if not decades - old.
It’s a decades old thing for Disney, they pretty much followed the same system before the home theater market in re-releasing their animated titles back into theaters.
Sleeping Beauty, for example, came out in '59, and was put back into theaters in '70, '78, '86, and '93.
Disney was a bit slow to move into the home video marketplace with their classic animated movies because of fear of losing control of their product and essentially there isn’t a good answer to your “why” question. It’s simply a business decision (one of the big early ones by Eisner/Wells) they made and have stuck to for a very long time.
The idea being to control the marketplace, make it a revelatory experience for each new generation, and to avoid competing with themselves.
I don’t know why they don’t rerelease in theaters anymore - it was surely a cash cow for them, and a great experience for kids, too. I’m the last generation to see Song of the South in the theater.
I imagine they will be doing more experimentation with 3D theatrical re-releases. It was reasonably easy for the recent Toy Story double feature, being able to re-render from the original files. Old 2D films could be quite interesting if done properly.
The ~7 year plan for home video allows them to keep up with trends. The first generation of Disney DVDs were bare-bones like everything else, but now they have all the bells and whistles the marketplace has come to expect.
I’m just pissed I missed out on Lion King and Fantasia. Hurry up, Time!
I really wish Disney would at least make DVDs available to rental stores during the time they’re off store shelves. My friends and I wanted to watch the Beauty and the Beast DVD release- it has an added scene, I’m told- and tried renting it several times only to find that each copy was significantly scratched and couldn’t be replaced with new stock.
I’ve always thought that it forces a buying decision for films about to go back into the vault. Our kid isn’t old enough to understand feature length movies yet, but we have purchased films with the expectation that they will be enjoyed. Had the films not been on vault schedule we would have put off the purchase until the kids are old enough to see if they are even interested in it. We are Disney Movie Club members though, and we get some exclusive releases that way, and I collect some specialty flicks like the Treasures and Legacy sets, so we may not exactly be the average consumer when it comes to Disney.
I’ve always thought they should have all the films available all the time just at one location: The Magic Kingdom in Disney World. The store could have a vault theme, etc. It is surprisingly rare to find all but the most current DVD/BluRay releases at Disney World. I mean it is a company built entirely around film, and yet there isn’t a Disney DVD megastore anywhere in the entire resort. There is a megastore for Legos, and stuffed animals, and hats, and toys, and jewlery, and fine art, and candy, but not one for movies. It is just wierd.
What really annoys me is the new Snow White Release. Two different special edition Blu Ray versions came out earlier in the month. The regular dvd version? That will be available in late November. And while it’s true one of the discs on the BR is the regular disc, I’m not buying a movie I can only enjoy 1/3 of.
I wonder if this increases piracy of Disney films. High speed internet and DVD burners are common enough, especially among young parents, that limiting the availability of your movies in stores doesn’t seem like a good a strategy anymore. Little Billy and Borina aren’t going to know the difference between a bit torrent download and a limited time only Disney Vault DVD.
The reason this is especially puzzling to me is that Disney is now releasing all these direct to DVD sequels! How are you supposed to watch a sequel if the original isn’t available?
I always thought the point of a business is to be profitable. By not having their product available for me to buy, I can’t buy them. I am not going to buy them later because I am not going to need them later. They are settling to sell their product to a smaller slice of the population who will want the product in 2015- 2017 rather than sell them to the much bigger slice of population that will want the product in 2009-2017.
As far as marketing and getting people to buy them just because they are available for a limited time, it doesn’t seem to make sense. I am sure that there are quite a few buyers who pay attention to the whole vault thing and who will buy something just because it will no longer be sold. However, I am thinking that there are much much more people who would see a display when they are at Wal-Mart with their kids and say “Hey 101 Dalmations, I loved that movie, lets get it.” I have been a parent for close to 18 years and I was not familiar with the whole Vault process until now.
As far as Disney’s excuse of “making it fresh for a new generation,” when you are three years old, everything is fresh! They don’t know anything about last years trend or marketing campaign, they were too busy crapping their pants.
Yeah, but Disney World (especially Magic Kingdom) is very carefully crafted to give the illusion that the Disney properties aren’t films, they’re worlds with actual characters. And they’re extreme about it, no cameras backstage! Hell, the very fact that they call the entire thing with dreary white walls and drab concrete roads where they do the music workshops “backstage,” even the security guards are called “actors.”
Even if the fact that you’re in a theme park based around films is obvious for anyone over eight they still try their darnedest to scrub that fact from your mind when you’re in that park. Strange? Maybe, but it seems to have worked out for them so far.
