More 'Dumbo' Oddities

I've already talked about the various variants of Dumbo's many home video releases since the early 1980s, and when you think you've found just about all the weirder pressings of Disney VHS releases of the late 80s/early 90s period, you find out that you're wrong.

Dumbo was given a second release in the Classics line in fall of 1989. This release was interesting in that Disney prepared an all-new cover for the film...

... one that was essentially a remake of the original Classics release cover artwork from 1985.

Dumbo with Timothy in tow is still flying above a circus backdrop, facing the same direction... The differences lie in what's below, the absence of the crows, and how it was all rendered by the designers. The 1985 artwork doesn't extend to the spine and back cover, a stock solid pink background is used instead.

However, in 1989-1990, the only new thing about this Dumbo release was the jacket. No new tape labels were made, the ones from the previous release were used instead, so the tapes looked like this.

They opened with just the 1984 Classics logo, and the film lacked a Buena Vista or RKO card before the start of the movie. No music, just an abrupt start to the opening credits. (Of course, as we all know, Dumbo's original credits sequence had the RKO title card crossfade into the "Walt Disney presents" title card.)

Sometime in late 1990, Disney finally made new labels that matched up with the cover artwork's logo.

But still, they opened with the 1984 Classics logo. No difference from the previous Classics releases/pressings of this title. Finally, sometime in 1991, the master was updated. The tapes now opened with the 1989 Walt Disney Classics logo, and the opening credits sequence retained the Buena Vista title card AND the accompanying music. (The earliest releases of Dumbo, pre-Classics, had the Buena Vista card, but no music for some reason. I once saw a '70s re-release print in 16mm format that began this way, too.) A little later down the line, ink labels were made for this title, too.

Up to speed, there, non-collectors?

Now it appeared, up until recently, that these particular pressings of Dumbo (which we often call the "1991 VHS", because truly wasn't a "1989 VHS", just a 1989 cover that had the 1987/88-era VHS packed within) had no variants. Each and every one began with the 1989 Walt Disney Classics logo.

Well, it appears that TWO variants were pressed in Canada.

Sometimes, little oddities like that get pressed up North. These were both uploaded by ValiantCartoonTraveller, who refers to these as the "1989 VHS".

So not only does this print open with the original Walt Disney Home Video "Neon Mickey" logo, but it also contains a print with no Buena Vista logo or accompanying music at the start of the opening credits. (This version appears on pretty much all pressings made from 1986 to 1988, it's just the version used since 1981 but with the BV logo completely chopped off.) What happened there?

Then there's... This variant.

While the version of the movie on here is correct and aligns with all the common 1991-94 pressings, why does the 1986 Walt Disney Home Video logo appear before the credits? Strange indeed.

Also strange, the uploader's copies have American sticker labels on them, hence the presence of the FBI warning...

Since these are both Canadian pressings, we have no idea what the print dates are. These could be very rare one in a million mistake pressings.

I'm immediately reminded of the Canadian pressings of The Rescuers Down Under. For whatever reason, the Canadian pressings of that movie's 1991 VHS release have those anti-piracy screens where we see the red-orange background appear first, and then the text fades in and all of the words have a drop shadow.

Sometimes the differences aren't all that minor when it comes to Canadian pressings...