If the Tinker Bell Films were released instead of Cheapquels

[DisneyFan09]

You know what? Lately I`ve been pondering about this issue. We all know the stigma and the bad staple that the Disney Cheapquels has (regardless that Disney weren`t the only ones to explore the home video-universe, at least they were stuck with that staple). And regardless of the different opinions about them, at least they have been shunned by critics and audiences for their mediocre stamp. That`s why it could`ve been perceived as a synergy when Lasseter stopped the craze (one of the good things that he actually did, regardless of his current reputation), the Disney Fairies franchise appeared. And regardless of what people may say about the Tinker Bell franchise, they were actually better received and not as shunned as the cheapquels (and frankly, they were better as a whole).

So yeah, lately I`ve been wondering about the issue: Regardless that non-theatrical releases will always have a stigma, I`ve been wondering if the Tinker Bell films were released instead of the cheapquels, would`ve they decreased the stigma of direct-to-video releases in general? And put DTV releases in a better light? What do you guys think?

[blackcauldron85]

If Tinker Bell came out instead of The Return of Jafar, with no preconceived notions of what a Disney DTV should be? I think there are so many variables. Are we saying that in 1994, Tinker Bell would be released, or still in 2008, but there wouldn't have been previous DTVs? If released in 1994, if the animation quality was the same as TRoJ, then TB probably wouldn't have had as good reviews as it did. But I think Tink's origin story and the world they created may have gone over better with critics than TRoJ did. But if released in 2008, the same TB film that we have now, I think while there would be some hesitation (people wondering why Disney would go the DTV route), I think the "prequelness" of the TB films, again being in their own unique world (initially, anyway), would have been more welcome than what happens after Happily Ever After.

I wonder, though, had TB come out first, would Disney have made prequels to a lot more films? Probably. Then we still may have ended up with the Dwarfs movie where Dopey was traumatized so he didn't talk.

Would we have ended up with all these live-action remakes had the DTVs still been churning out? There's been such an evolution of ideas at Disney for prequels/sequels/remakes (remember when Eisner wanted to remake the films in CGI? Not so far off from what we have now, especially with TJB or TLK, huh?).

I do think that the stigma of DTV may have been smaller had the TB films come out instead of the DTV films we received, just for the more-original ideas I suppose.

[DisneyFan09]

Alright, fair enough. You do have some valid points.