A Case of... 'Lady and the Tramp' European VHS Tapes

Today, I received a copy of the 1990 French VHS of Lady and the Tramp / La Belle et le Clochard...

A Look at a Rarity: An In-Store Trailer Reel, c. Fall 1992

See that treasure above? I got my hands on it today...

The Classics Logo's Final Appearance

A decade ago, I first thought that the Sorcerer Mickey Classics logo that was introduced in 1988 made its final appearance on the 1994 VHS of The Fox and the Hound. The Fox and the Hound was the final title in the Classics line. The very line that Disney launched as a banner to release their animated classics on home video under...

A Theory Regarding the 1988 Classics Logo...

To anyone new here or anyone new to Disney VHS collecting, let me explain the Walt Disney Classics logo Disney used on their "Classics" titles from 1988 to 1994...

A Slight Difference

Fellow Disney VHS collector MrServoRetro recently uploaded the opening to the French-Canadian version of the 1988 Cinderella VHS...

As we all know, the North American copies open with a trailer for Oliver & Company, the original Sorcerer Mickey Classics logo with the gradient background, and then the film starts with the 1985 Walt Disney Pictures castle logo in place of a Buena Vista or RKO title card.

It's obvious that this print of the feature film was ripped from from the film's 1987 theatrical re-release prints, as mid-to-late 80s/early 90s re-releases of Disney classics plastered the then-new WDP logo over the RKO/Buena Vista cards.

Now, on the American VHS, the WDP castle logo has its familiar music... On the French-Canadian edition, however...


Isn't that something? I wonder if that's how Americans saw the film in theaters in 1987... Either way, I like it better, because you at least get the full original opening fanfare even if the RKO/Buena Vista card isn't there...

Of course, in 1995, the Masterpiece Edition LaserDisc would restore the RKO card with the music intact. The VHS, for some weird reason, uses the 1950s Buena Vista logo instead. The DVD, released in 2005, got it wrong by using a short version of the WDP logo with the original music. The 2012 Blu-ray finally got it right, using the RKO and the original music.

Why The Classics?

What is it us Disney videocassette collectors love so much about this line?

Today's Oddity

From the 1991 Italian VHS release of The Rescuers comes this... Thing...


Yes, a weird version of the 1986 Walt Disney Home Video logo, where the text is set against a moving rainbow background... Oh, and "HOME VIDEO" is chopped off, too! It's set to an instrumental take on the 'Mickey Mouse Club March', and we get to see it twice, too!

Like really, this is all kinds of bizarre right here. I'm not sure if this ever showed up anywhere else outside of Italy, though I'd doubt it. Nonetheless, a very cool find.

Another '88 Classics Logo Spotting

Thanks to fellow Disney VHS collector MrServoRetro, we now know of another Disney VHS tape that contains the 1988 Walt Disney Classics logo...

Classics Confusion

The Classics line is full of questions, more so than any other line reserved for Disney animated features in the company's home video history…

Title Confusion

Recently, Warner Bros. released Edge of Tomorrow on home media. It's a film that you may have missed in the theaters, because the marketing campaign that the studio put together for it wasn't very good. I remember looking at the trailers and saying, "Generic sci-fi action film." The marketing campaign failed to emphasize certain elements, such as the film's dark sense of humor or Emily Blunt's character. Tom Cruise fights aliens…

The Dumbo Anomalies

Walt Disney's Dumbo was theatrically re-released four times prior to its home video debut in 1981. Its first theatrical re-release was in 1949, which was the first part of a double-bill with the 42-minute Saludos Amigos. Then Walt Disney showed an edited version of the film on the Disneyland television series in 1955, but the film was still theatrically re-released after that. One notable re-release was in 1976, as the film was on a double-bill with Australian live-action Disney production Ride a Wild Pony. (The film had been released in its home country a year earlier.)

International Disney VHS Tapes

No Diamonds Across The Atlantic

In the UK, the Walt Disney Classics logo was never used for preceding the feature presentation of Disney's animated classics on video. The 1984 logo? Nope. The 1988 one? Nada… Same goes for pretty much all European tapes.

But wait, it did appear a couple of times!