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 in stores for several years until it is once again released.
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The practice is the modern version of Disney's practice of re-releasing its animated films in theaters every couple of years which began with the reissue of 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[1] 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.[2]
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.[3] A side effect of the moratorium process is the fact that videos and DVDs of Disney films placed on moratorium become collectibles, 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.
Disney's live-action films, Pixar films 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.
The following films are currently considered to be in the cycle of movies which are subject to the rules of the Disney Vault.[4]
In October 2001, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney started releasing these films on DVD in "Platinum Edition" sets. This continued until 2005, when the release rate was increased to two films per year. The range, then containing Aladdin instead of Fantasia was completed in March 2009 when Pinocchio was released. This, and the previous release Sleeping Beauty, were also released on Blu-ray Disc.
In October 2009, again beginning with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney relaunched the range for Blu-ray under the banner "Diamond Edition". These releases will be released alongside "Special Edition" DVD sets.
An edition of Saturday Night Live's TV Funhouse[8] lampooned the Disney Vault with a Direct to Video film about two siblings going to the vault with Mickey Mouse. There are many exaggerated claims such as Walt Disney's cryogenically preserved body in the vault as well as Vivien Leigh's body (So that Disney can marry her in the future), documents that stated that Disney ratted out animators for being communist, an uncut version of "Song of the South", blueprints for "Disney's America", an imprisoned Jim Henson, creator of the Muppets (that were evidently purchased by Disney in 2004). The parody also featured "Scar" from "The Lion King" as a lawyer.
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