Disney – The First, the Best?

“Bambi only out for seventy days then it goes back into the vault.” This is what I heard early this morning while my son lay sleeping on my shoulder and I flipped through the channels. It immediately got me thinking about Disney having the whole limited edition thing “on lock.” It also got me thinking about how it’s not the limited edition thing that is getting old but the way so many people are approaching the whole thing that is getting old, but more on that later.

First lets give Disney its due credit. They continue to make movies kids love. For a long time now they have stuck with a formula and it works. They make movies for kids and they make them very well. But it’s what happens after the movies leave the theater that’s what needs to be applauded. They do something no other movie going to DVD or Video does. They leave movies out for a limited time only. Then those movies go into the vault for years. What is even more amazing on their part is how long they send these movies away into their vault, ten years. Wow, so by the time Disney takes a movie out of their vault, children who where six or seven at the time of the original release are now sixteen or seventeen. We all know that children can’t wait for new movies once they come to DVD/Video and we all know that leads to kids begging/bribing their parents. Garbage’s across the homes of the world will be empty. If that is not enough for a parent to run out and get their child a movie, knowing that their child will miss out on that magic that Disney movies bring to children certainly will. Cause Mickey knows that when they’re sixteen they won’t want any part of it.

Now it just so happens that with the Bambi movie and most of if not all of Disney’s re releases are (re)mastered and have added features to raise its appeal. But the fact is they wouldn’t have to do one thing and the movies will still sell. The movies would sell because of the magic Disney has created, the movies they have made, and the way they are making the vault work in their favor. Some may say that they hate being “pressured” into buying a movie from Disney at a certain time because of them putting it away in a vault for ten years. I say the pressure is self-imposed and I also say congratulations to Disney for being the true and original O.G.’s of this limited edition shit.