Do you still keep a collection of Disney DVDs/BDs/4Ks?

[Escapay]

Wow, a thread after my own heart.

I remember the heydays of this forum, when Disney Home Media was pumping out new releases every month and that’s what all the discussion was about, all the time.

I miss those days, honestly. The long threads anticipating what might be included as bonus features on a Platinum Edition. The buildup as we learned more about a film's restoration or its making-of material. The possibilities for how hilariously awful the Games & Activities might be. It made every DVD debut a celebration, even when sometimes a title didn't deliver. (The live-action catalog suffered a lot in those days, too. Barebones, pan-and-scan transfers not updated since the laserdisc. It was not pretty.)

It was also a period when there was a newfound appreciation for titles that many of us might have never known about were it not for its DVD release. For example, I discovered Johnny Tremain because of its DVD debut. I never came across the film on VHS in my childhood, but it's since become one of my favorite vintage Disney films of all time now. Likewise, Disney movies I only ever would watch on Disney Channel but never had a chance to own on VHS in my childhood became priority purchases for me when I had the freedom and money to buy them at my own pleasure. Stuff like The Rocketeer and Newsies and The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band. Those were the days.

Now I wonder, how many of us even keep a collection of Disney movies on physical media? Especially with Disney+.

I have been adamant about keeping my collection rather than subscribing to Disney+ if we're being honest. I primarily use the platform for their streaming-exclusive content. And, I will concede, it sometimes is convenient to just pull up a film on there (or its digital copy on Movies Anywhere) and play it without having to consult the physical disc. But that's all it is for me: a convenience. I like owning my library of movie titles. I like perusing the shelves and seeing titles mixed together. My collection is all chronological rather than alphabetical, so it's nice seeing something like A Goofy Movie just a few slots down from Before Sunrise and a row above Titanic.

A long time ago, I kept my Disney collection (and my Criterion Collection) separate from all the other films primarily because they had their own shelves that were easier to keep in order. But once I redid my loft with more uniform shelving, I decided to just mix everything together. All movies, from 1915 through the present, in order just to see how cinema had evolved through the decades. In the long run, I'd rather purchase more movies to put on these shelves than pay money on a monthly basis for the privilege of watching the exact same thing on a digital feed. To be fair, I have purchased some films digitally (stuff like the 4K transfers of The Sword in the Stone and The Black Cauldron, as they still are not on disc), but most of my digital copies came from the codes included on a Blu-Ray or 4K set.

I am also curious, how many of us made the jump from DVD to Blu-ray? And how many of us made the jump from Blu-ray to 4K? What does your collection look like? Any VHS people out there?? Laserdisc??

According to my records, these are the following formats I own and how many titles for each:

Cartrivision: 1 title
Betamax: 10 titles
VHS: 270 titles
Laserdisc: 212 titles
CED Videodisc: 2 titles
DVD: 1806 titles
HD-DVD: 1 title
Blu-Ray: 1524 titles
4K Ultra HD: 316 titles

Clearly, I am more of a DVD and Blu-Ray collector, but 4K is gradually building up. That format was a case of accidental collecting as I was content not getting 4K sets until 2018. At the time, I was planning to purchase IT on Blu-Ray, but my store was sold out. So I bought the 4K and then realized I may as well start future-proofing and getting more 4K discs. Ironically, it would be 4 years before I'd actually own a 4K player, but it did save in the long run as I wasn't buying new releases on Blu-Ray and then having to rebuy them on 4K later. Since nearly all the 4K discs I own are combos with the Blu-Ray, I wasn't missing out on the movies I bought either. Only recently have some 4K sets in my collection been just the 4K disc (i.e. The Color Purple, The Remains of the Day, My Best Friend's Wedding), but I have those on Blu-Ray, too anyway.

VHS has been part of my movie collection since childhood, though I'm sure that's the same for anyone who's been collecting movies and born before the 21st century. The 1988 Cinderella Black Diamond VHS was the first movie my family ever owned on the format, so it's very special to me for that reason. The very first VHS I ever bought with my own money was Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, so that film is also quite important to my collection. With the extremely cheap rates that VHS can be found secondhand now, it's not the most practical or valuable of collections (though there are some fiercely devoted acolytes who think a sealed 1980s horror film is worth more than its later, Blu-ray Collector's Edition from Scream Factory ), but one mostly built out of nostalgia. The quality will still be 240 lines of resolution which will never look good no matter how much someone may try to convince themselves. But there's a comfort to it and a nice, soft, lo-fi feeling when watching it.

Although laserdiscs can be quite cheap too, I'm more selective of those, so I don't buy as many of them as I did DVD or Blu-Ray. Likewise, when I went back into VHS collecting, I've been more particular about which films to acquire. There's something just so delightfully old-school about both formats which makes collecting them fun even if later formats are technologically superior and more durable. Plus, since my loft has various viewing options, I can pick and choose what movie I want to watch, and how I want to watch it. Sometimes I prefer the Blu-Ray. Other days, I like the warm and comfort of the VHS. Once in awhile, I'll still peruse through the Virtual Galleries on the 2003 DVD. I like that my collection gives me choices.

The other formats are incredibly niche, so I'll not pick up much more for them.

I have every DAC released in its most upgraded format, be that Blu-ray or 4K.

I think mostly due to UD, I've been devoted to (almost) always having a complete collection of Disney Animated Classics on home media, even if it's spread across multiple formats. The Holy 44 are complete on DVD, with most also on VHS (I'm still missing a few 2000s titles on the format). Then, everything Chicken Little and after are on Blu-Ray as well, with Ralph Breaks the Internet beginning the 4K line. As more of the older catalog came to 4K, I got those too (missing The Lion King). Unfortunately, I've also been very slow on upgrading the 2010s films to 4K as they all came out in one big wave and I just never got around to getting them except for Frozen to tie in with Frozen II.

I own multiple copies of some films on the same format

I originally only planned to have a "Multiple Media" collection for my absolute favorites (The Ten Commandments, Casablanca, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin), but as my LaserDisc collection grew, and then my VHS, I realized that rather than just buy titles that interested me, I should buy titles that represent my favorite films across a broad spectrum of films. Thus, it still fed the collector's bug in me, and at much cheaper rates than when I'd easily drop $200 on a bunch of DVD or Blu-Ray blind buys at MovieStop. So a couple years ago, I decided to go through my entire collection and earmark titles that I would want represented in all five of The Big Five formats: VHS, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-Ray, and 4K Ultra HD. For anything that came out after 1999/2005, LaserDisc/VHS obviously wouldn't be included, as the formats largely died after that.

This has been both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it gave me focus on which films I'd want to revisit in my life, as well as which films I'd be content to sell my extra copies. But it's a curse because now I'm actively looking for older editions of films I didn't look for before. I didn't need a VHS of A Place in the Sun until I deemed it a Big Five film. I didn't need a laserdisc for The Mummy, but when I decided it would be a Big Five title, now I have to try to find one even if I know it will cost me a lot of money (It's a late-in-format release that goes for $100+ these days). My Big Five collection probably stemmed from wanting all the Disney Animated Classics on home video. I figure I shouldn't have to limit that "Big Five" to one canon when I can create my own film canon of titles. But it's a way for me to maintain collecting in a landscape where physical media is becoming more and more niche.

I remember all those threads on here where people used to post pics of their carefully curated DVD/BD collections and it used to make me salivate, lol.

It was fun to see how people arranged their collections, as well as little glimpses into what their life was beyond the computer screen, haha. I always liked when a UK or French member would post pictures of their exclusive digipaks which made our Dual-Amaray cases pale in comparison. When I was in Paris last year, I jumped at the chance to buy a secondhand copy of the Beauty and the Beast DVD in a flea market because it was in the digipak case. Then when I got home, I looked up if anyone stateside had put the Sleeping Beauty digipak on sale and found on on eBay relatively cheap. I'll never be able to play them, but I like that it's now part of my collection.

Something I owe very much to this board is my knowledge and palette for film and television outside of Disney. You’d read users here talking about their entire collections, sometimes it was things that make a lot of sense next to Disney like Cocteau’s BATB or Singin’ in the Rain (I remember reading Escapay talk about those)

I used DVDAf for years until it shut down. Now I use Blu-ray.com, but I suspect I’ve forgotten to update it from time to time.

I used DVDAf for the longest time, but there was a glitch in my original account where I couldn't add Blu-Rays to them, so I had to maintain two accounts (Escapay & EscapayBlu) to keep track of what I owned. Then I used this app called MyMovies, which worked great for awhile, but then became problematic to use because it would sometimes have to synchronize and then the app would be out of commission for awhile. I've since just taken to having my own Document on my laptop where I manually input every title I own, and keeping a private online list on my Letterboxd account, broken up by formats. Will usually update that once a month based on my purchases for the calendar year, which is kept track of in another list too.

I've also noticed how Disney titles went from around the priciest on the second hand market to the cheapest with D+, and that's been helpful to me in some cases. Especially as this even includes a lot of the Disney Treasures sets, which I've been able to find for reasonable prices lately.

I'm missing "Behind the Scenes at Walt Disney Studios" (Wave 2), "Elfego Baca & The Swamp Fox: Legendary Heroes" (Wave 5), "More Silly Symphonies" (Wave 6), "Disneyland: Secrets, Stories, & Magic" (Wave 7), and "The Mickey Mouse Club Presents: Annette" (Wave . Of those five, I honestly wouldn't need "Legendary Heroes" or "Annette," but the other three I'll occasionally search for reasonable prices online. Of course, the "Disneyland" set never should have been a Treasures DVD in the first place, so I'm still salty about that.

Not to get too off topic, but I was thinking the other day about the evolution of not just this forum, but the main website and Disney websites in general. All of the news and rumors that used to be so abundant online; so many of those sites with news and rumors either changed formats or just don't exist anymore. Granted, we were younger and had more free time, but remember all the hours spent reading and discussing the news and rumors about what's in production/what got cancelled?! We just don't quite have that anymore.

I think it's largely also a generational shift to how we get and look for news. Before the internet, there were fan magazines - self-circulating and with a limited level of interaction. Then when online forums became the next watering hole, we had this sense of "I can immediately react to what I'm reading, let me collect my thoughts." Social media then shifted it all to a more condensed version of that. Twitter accounts posting news, folks chiming in with the limited 140 characters, so any input was quick and witty. And now, TikTokerss and YouTubers pop up every week trying to go viral with content that - maybe because I'm just getting older - can just be very cringe. And for the web sites that are still around, most lack any sense of journalistic integrity with their content, opting for clickbait-inducing headlines and some of the worst writing in the world because they're more in favor of getting hits and subs than providing any legitimate and useful information. I only follow a couple sites that I trust now because even just wading through any website for Disney news had become headache inducing for me.

I also wonder where is the Disney fan community for movies nowadays? Like, here are a lot of people, yes, but most of us have been posting for years and years.

I have largely withdrawn from community talk about Disney movies because the slate has largely been live-action remakes or Marvel/Lucasfilm for the last ten years, so it's mostly been negative. And that's just not good for my mental health to be surrounded by the constant negativity of "OMG, Disney is remaking [insert animated film]? I already hate it before I know more about it!" Also, I've just mostly not been active online except for Instagram and Letterboxd, and even then, it's mostly a compact audience of family and friends that I'm interacting with.

I guess what I’m saying is, I’m a lot more cynical now. It’s very hard to fall in love with a movie like I did when I was a child. It still happens— I mentioned Encanto, but I loved Coco, too. And this is true of live action cinema, too— I watch a lot of movies, but the last contemporary movie I saw that I unabashedly loved from top to bottom was Parasite.

The last animated film I fell in love with was Luca. I think the last live-action film to get me excited for cinema was Dune: Part Two, which is pretty recent, but it came after a fairly long dry spell where my last, "OMG, this is cinema, I love it so much" reaction to a film must have been Sing Street.

Does anybody fear that someday, Disney will stop producing physical media?

Nothing lasts forever. Generationally, it's the Boomers and Millennials that have been purchasing physical media. It's part of their purchase power, so they're driving the sales because they have the disposable income to do so. Gen Z is entering the work force, but they came from a generation of streaming. There is less incentive for them to purchase a hard copy if they can find it online. Likewise, Gen Alpha is the same, fully integrated into an online world of instant access, so the need for physical media is far less relevant for them than it was for us. Eventually, and this is in a long future, Millennials and their buying power will be far less relevant than what Gen Z and Gen Alpha are purchasing and what the companies want them to purchase. And when that day comes, physical media will be produced in far more reduced copies, if at all.

We like to think that our versions of [insert media] are the versions that will last forever. But we're just sign posts on its road through eternity. I can assure you, nobody in 2124 will care enough about the colors on the different home media releases of Beauty and the Beast the way we did on the forums. One hundred years from now, all the 20th century Disney Animated Classics will be in the public domain. And whatever surviving home media is still playable with modern technology in 2124 will be a window to the past for these Disney fans. It will be valued not because of which edition it was (Diamond vs Platinum, VS vs Laserdisc), but that it survives at all. The VHS that someone saw as worthless in 2005 when they upgraded to DVD will now be seen as priceless because it's still in viewable condition with an ancient piece of equipment that a tech-savvy fan managed to kitbash together based on all the knowledge he could find about what a "VideoCassette Recorder" was.

All the random editions of Beauty and the Beast that I own will not go with me to the hereafter, but eventually be left behind for someone else to discover in a thrift store or antique shop. And they'll be surprised to learn that the original receipt is still in the DVD case, or that the scribblings inside that Digibook are actually from the filmmakers themselves. One day, Disney will stop producing physical media. But it's not today. So I'm going to keep buying, if not for my own enjoyment, then for the knowledge that hopefully, one day in the future, someone else will be just as delighted to discover a used DVD of Beauty and the Beast in a Paris flea market the way that I did.

Alby

[Thumper_93]

I feel really lucky after reading all the responses. I agree with Escapay in almost everything.
We have share (and we are still sharing) interesitings discussions about restorations, covers artworks, our feelings when something came out... fututre generations are not going to experiment things like this. We have lived lots of releases and restorations of the classics and we have seen so many things that are going to be forgotten in a few generations. For example in a couple of years nobody is going to remember Cinderella's awful restoration from the diamond edition.
For me beeing a Disney fan means this. Learn about Disney legacy, about the mistakes made with the movies, about the story behind of their films and right now i feel that beeing a Disney fan only means going to the parks with the loungefly to take photos with the characters and become an influencer.
I think that we have lived a great time and I hope to still sharing this moments with all of you!

[Farerb]

Another reason why I no longer bother with new releases. The 4K edition will be available as a limited steelbook only:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher ... s-content/

[Disney's Divinity]

I've kept all my DVDs, although I probably have more Blu-rays at this point. I've tried to get as many things on physical media as I can the past few years, knowing the move to digital-only releases is coming. I wouldn't get rid of the old releases; they would be valuable as mementos and for the cover art if nothing else. Same reason I keep the VHSes even though I don't have a VHS player to watch them anymore. :/