*newbie* Any disney dvd expert? Help a confused person out!

[JLB]

Hello everyone!
I'm new to the board, and to everything revolving around Disney dvd's. I've been looking around for a few months now, and i'm still extremely confused. There seems to be at least 5 versions of each dvd, platinum, ultimate, masterpiece, special, gold, limited and god knows what! lol And they all have different covers etc. What is the difference?
Do they do this intentionally to confuse us? lol For example, I saw the Pocahontas dvd on some site, and it had a "normal" cover, then I saw another Pocahontas dvd but with a white luxurious, exclusive cover. I guess it's the special/platinum edition? But it's not logic to me, since it's a special edition, but on the ultimatedisney.com site the only platinum editions it has listed as released are: snow white, beauty and the beast, the lion king, aladdin, bambi and cinderella (coming). Then how come i've seen special editions of Pocahontas, Peter Pan, Toy Story and Sleeping Beauty in some peoples collections here on the forum? It's so much to keep track of, but I really want to understand it.
Going back to the Pocahontas dvd, i've seen 3 different covers for it. Where was the white cover released? In the US? The same with peter pan, i've seen so many versions, including the regular, special and a digipack one where the cover is green. It looks so good! Where does one get these, since they're not listed as released on the ultimatedisney site? Are they fakes?

Do special editions get released overseas before they are released in America, and do they all have different versions? Is there a list somewhere of all versions released of each animated dvd?

So many questions, but I hope SOMEONE can help me out and shed some light on this for me..and if you come up with anything else in general about disney dvd's feel free to write it down! I'm a complete newbie and don't really have any disney dvd's, it's never too late to start is it?

[lord-of-sith]

Here's a rough sorting for you:

Platinum- A top-of-the-line DVD of one of the best-selling video cassets. Released in October and March

Special Edition 2-disc- Sleeping Beauty, Pochahontas, Alice etc. a film that probably came close to platinum, but didn't quite make the cut.

Gold Collection- Many of the older ones, pretty bare DVDs. Their of films that werent very popular.

Limited Issue- The first Disney DVDs, expensive and extra-less.

Anything else is just a certan title used to promote the DVD.

Oh, and welcome to UD, JLB . It's never too late to start.

[Mr. Toad]

Or we could just direct him to the list

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/ultimateclassics.htm

Most releases have one or two versions so far, I cant think of any that have had three yet.

[lord-of-sith]

Or we could just direct him to the list

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/ultimateclassics.htm

Most releases have one or two versions so far, I cant think of any that have had three yet.

Well, there's that. And I belive Toy Story's 1&2 will have had three releases by this fall.

[Luke]

And there's also this:
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/releasetypes.htm

That outlines different release types/names the best we can, since Disney can be fickle when it comes to that. The Platinum line is the one that's remained most consistent, and even that has seen some changes over the past few years.

As for the different covers you are seeing, sounds like you're talking about International releases. For that, your best resource at UD is this:
http://shop.ildb.org/

Say you're interested in different "Pocahontas" DVDs around the world. Leave country as "all countries", select "DVD" for category, enter "Pocahontas" and you'll see different covers/editions available in Europe and the US. It's not complete, but most of the animated classics have their Region 2 counterparts listed as well.

Welcome to the forum! At least to the posting side of it; sounds like you've been lurking a while.

[JLB]

thanks for the replies and the welcoming!

I'll look through those links now.

[Hogi Bear]

In New Zealand/Australia (Region 4) Platinum Edition is associated with Masterpeice, but not as in Masterpeice edition. Masterpeice is put under the Walt Disney logo at the top replacing Classic, so from my understanding it's not saying it's a Masterpeice Edition, but rather that it is a Walt Disney Masterpeice. And for some reason, Platinum is no where to be seen on the cover inside or out.

It's interesting that Alice in Wonderland in some countries has Masterpeice, the one just released in NZ doesn't have from what I remember, different types of labeling from country to country I guess.

[my chicken is infected]

Most releases have one or two versions so far, I cant think of any that have had three yet.

Mary Poppins. It had a bare bones release in 98, then the Gold Collection DVD, then the 40th Anniversary 2-disc set.

Mulan had the Limited Issue in 99, with the Gold Collection and 2-disc Special Edition releases following.

That's all I can think of.