Walt Disney Home Entertainment
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Walt Disney Home Entertainment (previously known as Walt Disney Home Video) is the flagship label (compare record label) of Buena Vista Home Entertainment, the home video distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. Informally, Walt Disney Home Entertainment is sometimes used as a synonym for Buena Vista Home Entertainment. Disney began distributing videos under its own label in 1980.
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[edit] Company structure
Buena Vista Home Entertainment should not be confused with Disney's similarly named but separate business units Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (theatrical film distributor for the Walt Disney Company), Buena Vista Television, Buena Vista Theatrical Productions (producer of live musicals), and the Buena Vista Music Group (record label distributor).
Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc., distributes DVDs under the labels Walt Disney Home Entertainment, Touchstone Home Entertainment, and Buena Vista Home Entertainment. The company and its predecessors formerly distributed other labels such as Hollywood Home Video, Miramax Home Video, Dimension Home Video, and Muppet Home Video. With the coming of DVD, "Home Entertainment" replaced "Home Video" in label names.
[edit] History
[edit] MCA DiscoVision releases
Before Disney began releasing home video titles itself, it licensed some titles to MCA Discovision for their newly-developed disc format, later called Laserdisc. According to the Blam Entertainment Group website,[1] which has extensive details of DiscoVision releases, only seven Disney titles were actually released on DiscoVision. One of these was the feature film Kidnapped, priced at $15.95. The others were compilations of Disney shorts at $9.95 each. The first titles were released in 1978 including On Vacation with Mickey Mouse and Friends (#D61-503). This title and the other animated releases all had running times of 46 or 47 minutes and originally were episodes of the Disney television show. According to Blam, the other six titles were Kids is Kids (#D61-504), At Home with Donald Duck (#D61-505), Adventures of Chip 'n' Dale (#D61-506), and finally The Coyote's Lament (#D61-507) which was released in May 1979. Disney's agreement with MCA ended in December 1981.[2]
[edit] Walt Disney Home Video releases
In 1980, Disney established its own video distribution operation as part of Walt Disney Telecommunications and Non-Theatrical Company (WDTNT) with Jim Jimirro as its first president.[3] Home video was not considered to be a major market by Disney at the time. WDTNT also handled the marketing of other miscellaneous ancillary items such as short 8 mm films for home use.
[edit] First releases on Beta and VHS
Disney's first releases on tape were 13 titles that were licensed for rental to Fotomat on March 4, 1980,[4] initially in a four-city test (Chicago, Houston, Philadelphia, and San Francisco/Oakland/San Jose), to be expanded nationwide by the end of 1980. The agreement specified rental fees ranging from $7.95 to $13.95. This first batch of titles on VHS and Beta included 10 live action movies: Pete's Dragon (#10), The Black Hole (#11), The Love Bug (#12), Escape to Witch Mountain (#13), Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier (#14), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (#15), Bedknobs and Broomsticks (#16), The North Avenue Irregulars (#17), The Apple Dumpling Gang (#18), and Hot Lead and Cold Feet (#19); and three of the compilations of short cartoons previously released by DiscoVision: On Vacation with Mickey Mouse and Friends (#20), Kids is Kids starring Donald Duck (#21), and Adventures of Chip 'n' Dale (#22). Later, on December 30, 1980, Mary Poppins (#23) was added to make 14 titles in all.
[edit] Authorized Rental Dealers
No new titles were released for half a year after Mary Poppins, but Walt Disney Home Video announced an expanded program for "Authorized Rental Dealers" in December 1980 and it began to expand its dealer network during the first part of 1981. For a fee of about $65 to Disney, retailers were able to get a 13-week license to rent a videocassette to consumers at whatever price they could get.[5] From January 1 to March 31, 1981, Disney had a "License One — Get One Free" promotion to encourage dealers to sign up. They also offered free rental use of a 7-minute Mickey Mouse Disco videocassette for customers who rented any title from an Authorized Rental Dealer from February through May 1981.
Disney was unusual among the major studios in offering a program for authorized rentals. Most of the other studios involved in the videocassette market at the time were trying to find ways to stop dealers from renting out their movie tapes. Magnetic Video (with titles from 20th Century Fox and others) ceased doing business with Fotomat after Fotomat began renting Magnetic Video cassettes without authorization.[6] Disney's rental cassettes in blue cases looked completely different from sale cassettes, which were in white cases. This was designed to make it easy for Disney representatives to tell if dealers were violating their dealer agreements by renting out cassettes intended for sale.
[edit] Animated features
The first of the Disney animated features canon to be released on videocassette was Dumbo on June 28, 1981,[7] for rental only. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was released for sale at the same time. Alice in Wonderland was released on October 15, 1981, for rental only.[8] The other 15 animated features weren't on video due to only being released in theaters for re-release, as well as Walt Disney himself saying that he never wanted his films on the small screen.
[edit] First Walt Disney Home Video laser videodiscs and Animated Features for Sale
Their agreement with DiscoVision having ended in 1981, Disney began releasing Laserdiscs under the Walt Disney Home Video label to their own network of distributors and dealers. The first five titles were shipped in June 1982: The Black Hole, The Love Bug, Escape to Witch Mountain, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck Cartoons, Collection One. Five more titles shipped in July: Pete's Dragon, Dumbo, Davy Crockett and the River Pirates, The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band, and Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck Cartoons, Collection Two.[2]
Dumbo was released for sale on tape ($84.95) in summer 1982, while Alice in Wonderland (also $84.95) was released for sale in November 1982.[9] The next major animated feature to be released (excluding the "package" anthology features) was Robin Hood on December 6, 1984 ($79.95), starting the Walt Disney Classics collection. By 1982, all the video releases were for sale and rental, along with newer releases, but at high prices.
July 16, 1985 saw the home video premiere of Pinocchio ($79.95). After the price was lowered to $29.95 in late 1985 to encourage more consumer sales, Pinocchio became the bestselling video of that year. The prices on other videos available at the time had their price reduced to $29.95 as well.
[edit] Notable Release
Main Article: List of Walt Disney video releases
[edit] Trivia
- Disney released more cartoon compilations (pre-Walt Disney Cartoon Classics in 1983) in late 1981, including Goofy Over Sports and A Tale of Two Critters.
- Walt Disney Home Video produced the Disney Sing-Along Songs collection of videos for young children in association with Harry Arends and Phil Savenick. The series first hit stores on December 23, 1986.
[edit] See also
- The Walt Disney Company
- List of Disney theatrical animated features
- List of Disney live-action films
- List of Disney direct-to-video films
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ Young, Blaine. MCA DiscoVision. Blam Entertainment Group. Retrieved on 2006-09-19.
- ^ a b (Summer 1982) "Disney Releases 10 Titles on Laser Videodisc". VIDEODISC/VIDEOTEX 2 (3): 175.
- ^ Froke, Marlowe (December 12, 1989). Oral History Collection - James P. Jimirro (Interview transcript). The Cable Center. Retrieved on 2006-09-19.
- ^ "Walt Disney - Fotomat Announce Video Tape Programming Pact", Dow Jones News Service - Ticker, March 3, 1980.
- ^ "Studios hamstrung as rentals of videocassettes trim profits", Wall Street Journal, March 27, 1981. Retrieved on 2006-09-04.
- ^ Kopp, George. "Magnetic Video Decision Awaited: Firm's Cassette Rental Policy Expected in 3-4 Weeks", Billboard, February 14, 1981.
- ^ "(Title unknown)", Billboard, August 15, 1981.
- ^ "Disney releasing six video titles", The Globe and Mail (United Press International), October 14, 1981, p. 15.
- ^ Wollman, Jane. "A wider selection in children's video", The New York Times, September 16, 1982. Retrieved on 2006-09-04.
