What's With The 1993 'Pinocchio' VHS?

This is probably a silly set to theories, but because I had some free time today, I'm just going to go with them...

In spring of 1993, a then newly-restored version of Pinocchio received a video release, making it the second time the film was released on home video. This was released as a follow-up to the film's final North American theatrical re-release, which occurred in July of 1992.

Interestingly, the first-run pressings of the VHS release of Beauty and the Beast contains a preview for the incoming Pinocchio video release.

Those were printed as far back as May of 1992, roughly two months before Pinocchio returned to the silver screen. The preview for Pinocchio on these first-run pressings appeared after the end of the movie. However, the preview is actually just the theatrical trailer for the re-release... Letterboxed and everything in order to fit the 4:3 aspect ratio! However, the audio is different... The announcer says that it was coming to video, but not when:


This almost implies that Disney hadn't yet settled on a release date.

Second-run pressings of the Beauty and the Beast VHS moved the Pinocchio preview to the opening trailer reel, it was the last trailer before some bumpers, the Classics intro, and the start of the film. This time, the Pinocchio trailer was a proper home video trailer, in the 4:3 aspect ratio, complete with the announcer saying that the film's video release was going to be in the springtime. These were printed some time after the Pinocchio re-release, which collected a paltry amount at the box office. (Which in turn lead them to cancel Sleeping Beauty's planned 1993 theatrical re-release, a trailer for which is on BOTH pressings of the Beauty and the Beast VHS.)

The opening trailer reel of the Pinocchio VHS release kind of doesn't add up...


There's a special sneak peek for The Nightmare Before Christmas that starts things off, but nothing in it sticks out, nothing is unusual about it... Then an Aladdin trailer comes next and finishes things out before the Feature Presentation is announced.

The Aladdin trailer is the theatrical trailer for the movie, one that was likely rolling in theaters in the summer of 1992. Probably BEFORE the re-release of Pinocchio and other movies that were in multiplexes at that time.


My question is... Why would this trailer, without any context, be on the spring 1993 VHS release of Pinocchio?

As you can see above, the theatrical trailer ended with a title card saying "Coming This Holiday Season..." That's snipped off of the version that was used on the Pinocchio VHS.

My initial thought was, "Was Pinocchio actually intended to come out on video EARLIER than March?" But the "Coming This Holiday Season" text on the Nightmare Before Christmas sneak peek contradicts that. No way they'd have a preview like that on any kind of tape before December of 1992. Nightmare Before Christmas was always aiming for a fall 1993 release, in fact it was released in mid-October, prior to Halloween, not during the Thanksgiving/Christmas season.

Like, why is there no title card before the Aladdin trailer? Something like a "Now Playing" or "Now In Theaters" bumper. Right after the Nightmare Before Christmas trailer ends, the Aladdin trailer just starts. Nothing before it, nothing after it.

By March 23, 1993, Aladdin was playing in roughly 1,100 cinemas across North America, and was up to $194 million in domestic box office grosses. When the film ended its theatrical run, it had collected $217 million. Box Office Mojo cuts it off at April 11th, the film was at $198 million by that point. It must've been in theaters for another month or two...

For any younger folks reading, this is a good picture of how long movies lasted in theaters back in 1992-93. Nowadays, a movie lasts about 4-5 months and the 4K/Blu-ray are on store shelves in no time. Aladdin was theatrically released in Thanksgiving 1992, and then was released on home video in October of 1993. So by late March, it was still a big attraction at theaters. This was the way Disney films did during this period of the Renaissance...

The opening weekend grosses of the films wouldn't be spectacular, but the legs would be powerful. Aladdin, after being in limited release for a few weeks, opened with $19 million... That wasn't exactly Batman Returns or Home Alone 2-sized, but the film ended up leaving both of those hits in the dust and everything else, becoming the biggest movie of 1992. It performed, virtually, the same way The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast did before it. So-so opening numbers, incredible longevity in theaters, massive grosses...

So with this in mind, it makes sense that a late March videotape of Pinocchio would contain the theatrical trailer for Aladdin, it's just baffling that it doesn't have a sort of "Now In Theaters" bumper before it. As a kid, I wondered when this VHS came out... Was this preview of Aladdin advertising the film's video release? Or that it was coming to theaters? Eventually, I found out that the Pinocchio VHS was released in early 1993, but it still made me wonder...

However...

There do exist early, EARLY printings of the 1993 Pinocchio VHS that DON'T contain the preview of The Nightmare Before Christmas. These printings only contain the Aladdin trailer, and to my understanding, they're pretty rare. It's a lot like those very early printings of the 1992 101 Dalmatians VHS that don't have any previews and the 1989 Classics logo instead of the 1992 one that had been newly-introduced on that release. Anyways, these do exist, and to my knowledge they were printed before mid-January of 1993.

This could suggest that Pinocchio was intended to be released sometime in January/February of 1993. Maybe not. In January, Aladdin would've been in theaters for roughly two months, as opposed to four.

1993 was a surprisingly sparse year for Disney when it came to the animated classics. In 1991, Disney put four animated classics - The Jungle Book, a re-release of Robin Hood, The Rescuers Down Under, and Fantasia - out on video, another four - 101 Dalmatians, The Great Mouse Detective, The Rescuers, and Beauty and the Beast - in 1992. All of this was in addition to titles that didn't go in the vault at the time, like Dumbo and Alice in Wonderland. 1993 only gave us two new Disney animated feature VHS releases: Pinocchio (returning from the vault) and Aladdin.

Of course, there's also the case of it not having the Classics line mentioned anywhere on the packaging or VHS tape shell, but the Classics logo appearing before the start of the film...

Ever since discovering the demo VHS of the release, I always concluded that this video release and the 1991 Fantasia video release were intended to be Classics editions, were pressed as such (hence the Classics logo appearing before each of the films), but at the last minute they decided to give them their own special packaging that just simply referred to them as "Walt Disney's Masterpiece."

After all, Fantasia was a film that Roy E. Disney didn't want the company to put out on video, he ultimately caved because he wanted a Fantasia sequel to happen, something Michael Eisner expressed interest in, but Jeffrey Katzenberg didn't care for at all. Eisner gave Roy the ultimatum: "Don't let us release Fantasia, you don't get to make Fantasia Continued. Let us release Fantasia, if it sells, you get to make Fantasia Continued." That was one he gave to Roy...

Of course, we all know, Fantasia Continued entered development shortly after Fantasia broke records and moved over 14 million units. The finished film was eventually retitled to Fantasia 2000.

Fantasia's 1991 release and Pinocchio's 1993 release are Classics editions to me. Both have that full and detailed artwork, the characters' heads are in diamond frames on their respective spine artworks, both open with the Classics logo. Pinocchio's demo tape bares the "Walt Disney's Masterpiece" heading on the front cover, but the spine has the Classics diamond, and the tape opens - no surprise - with the Walt Disney Classics logo. It's a Classics edition to me.

Now Roy initially felt that Fantasia was too special to release on home video, he also thought the same of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. On the surface, that could explain the "Walt Disney's Masterpiece" heading and Disney not really making it look like a Classics release. Removing the diamond and housing it in a black clamshell as opposed to the white clamshell (though the earliest Classics editions were in black clamshells) drove that home.

As for Pinocchio... Pinocchio is and has been often considered to be the best Disney animated feature, so it ascended to "Special Edition" status for its video jacket. No Classics diamond, you're a masterpiece! You're in the big league with Fantasia now!

Pinocchio had already been released on video in 1985, as a full-blown Classics edition complete with the logo on the packaging, the logo plastered ALL OVER the marketing campaign, and the logo appearing before the start of the film on the tape program itself.

Aladdin, whose video release followed in fall 1993, could've been the same, too. Why I do suggest that? Well, recently, I saw a print ad for the Aladdin VHS.

Look at the spine. The Classics logo is completely absent... Everything else is on there. The heading, the "Walt Disney Home Video" logo, the "Original Animated Classic!" flap... No Classics logo. With this and Pinocchio coming out in 1993, the year before Disney replaced the Classics line with the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection... Was Disney trying to phase out the Classics line earlier than spring 1994? Or did they happen to have a prototype version of the artwork that just happened to NOT have the Classics diamond on it? Were the cover designer folks still figuring out where to place it or something? (Being a graphic designer, I know how eleventh hour these things can be!)

After all, Aladdin was the second-to-last Classics release. The Fox and the Hound quietly closed out the line in March 1994, a random choice of a title, but it was what it was. It's also telling that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs started the Masterpiece Collection later that year. If Disney didn't end the Classics line with The Fox and the Hound, would they have made the Snow White video release like the 1993 Pinocchio video release? Would it have had a "Walt Disney's Masterpiece" heading, with no Masterpiece Collection logo on the spine, and would it have opened with the Classics logo? Who knows!

I'd imagine it would be the same exact cover as the real one, but with the artwork extending to the spine, with "Walt Disney's Masterpiece" at the top of the spine artwork and Snow White's head in a diamond frame on the bottom. That's a custom cover that's waiting to be made.

Then of course there's that weird Bulgarian VHS release of the film that appears to have bootlegged the near-entirety of our 1993 release, looking as if it were haphazardly slapped onto the master. The sole upload of that VHS tape's opening states it's from 1992, but I don't how a Bulgarian video company could've gotten the master of Pinocchio - an American movie from an American corporate giant - many months before its own stateside release... And why would it be of bootleg quality?


Pinocchio's other home video releases have curiosities as well...

The original 1985 video release, a through-and-through Classics edition, does not have the Classics diamond on the spine artwork. All the other mid-1980s Classics editions have the diamond on the spine, why not Pinocchio? Of course, the revised jacket from late 1986 added the diamond logo to the spine, but still...

Disney's advertising campaign for the 1993 video release warned consumers that it would be the "last time this century" they could buy and own Pinocchio... Except, whoops... In October 1999, Disney released a "60th Anniversary Edition" VHS and DVD of the movie.

Yeah, Pinocchio was first theatrically released in February 1940... So they were off by a few months. And then, in early 2000, the same cover was used for the Gold Classic Collection edition of the film. VHS and DVD.

So we were told by Disney that Pinocchio wouldn't be available for the remainder of the 90s, then they release it before the 90s end, and then releases ANOTHER edition with the same cover artwork afterward... What the heck?

The Platinum Edition Blu-ray and DVD release is billed as the 70th Anniversary Edition. It was released in March 2009. They were off by about a year.

Pinocchio did not get a Diamond Edition Blu-ray and DVD release, a line that it was meant to be a part of, a line that lasted from fall 2009 to fall 2015. I guess Disney thinks that their wooden head isn't worthy of diamonds? Disney immediately replaced the Diamond collection with the Signature Collection in late winter of 2016, starting with a new release of Snow White. Snow White always seems to kick off these sorts of lines, being the first Disney animated feature and all... Anyways, Pinocchio got the Signature treatment in January 2017.

Pinocchio has had an interesting history on home video in North America...