DVDizzy Forum

Hey, this has been bugging me for a bit, so I thought I should post this up to alert anyone who plans on trying to find a copy of the "Alice in Wonderland" Black Diamond video.

All right, I noticed that there are TWO Disney Classics "Alice in Wonderland" editions, both from different years, but ONE cover artwork design. It looks like THIS


This is the cover artwork when "Alice in Wonderland" was first released as part of the Walt Disney Classics collection, during what I call their "Cheesy Diamond" era, due to how cheesy their original animated Classics logo was, which showed up on this version. The tape label looks something like this:

(There was even a version of the 1986 release here in a slipcover case rather than clamshell packaging!)

However, in 1991 the movie was re-released to video (probably for its 40th Anniversary), along with "Dumbo and "The Sword in the Stone." While the other two got brand-new cover artwork, "Alice in Wonderland" KEPT the old 1986 cover artwork! Not only did it seem appropriate when sometimes the case would contain the original 1986 copy (the 1991 video reissues of "Dumbo" and "Sword in the Stone" sometimes also featured the original 80s tape), but it would cause a lot of confusion since a NEW VHS copy was also made in that era, and placed in the clamshell with the old packaging! The new tape looked like this:

The 1991 "Dumbo" and "Sword in the Stone" videos sometimes had newer editions like this.

Here are the differences between the two tapes:

1986 EDITION
Has white Beta-size label on tape with black text and diamond reading "THE CLASSICS Walt Disney Home Video."
It has that little holo sticker with a movie camera on its side.
The closed captioning was done by the National Captioning Institute.
It features the older, cheesy Disney Classics logo with the spinning words and zooming diamond and moog synth fanfare.

1991 EDITION
Has white, smaller text printed directly onto label space with small white diamond reading "Disney CLASSICS."
The closed captioning was done by Captions Inc. (they do most 1988-present Disney videos)
It features the updated, more common Disney Classics logo with Sorcerer Mickey and the Disney Masterpiece Collection-type music.


I first saw the 1991 edition (my friend has it), and that really confused me why it had an older-type cover artwork. It wasn't until this summer when I actually rented the 1986 edition of the movie from my local Blockbuster! (The video played PERFECTLY for its age, too!)

Do you think this will help if someone plans to find a Disney Black Diamond "Alice in Wonderland" video copy?

logoliker2004 wrote:Do you think this will help if someone plans to find a Disney Black Diamond "Alice in Wonderland" video copy?

Yes, it does help!

And yet, I still have the 1986 edition of Alice in Wonderland along with its cheesey, zooming disney logo and such.

Wow, as someone who keeps up with all of Alice's home video releases, I never even knew about the 1991 re-issue. The 1986 one with the large white sticker is the Classics edition I had grown up with. To expand this thread, here are the other video releases of Alice in Wonderland I'm familiar with:

1995? - Masterpiece Collection VHS



This had a redone cover based off of the Classic Edition's Mad Tea Party cover and was one of the first Disney films released under the Masterpiece Collection banner.

1995 - Archive Collection LD



Released around the same time as the VHS release, the Archive Collection laserdisc was filled to the brim with supplements such as an exhausting amount of song demos, galleries, and vintage specials.

July 1999 - Masterpiece Collection 2.0 VHS



Just like the last VHS release was one of the first for the Masterpiece Collection line, this one was one of the last along with The Great Mouse Detective. The artwork for this was the first non-tea party one Alice ever had on home video here in the states. It showed Alice fully grown inside the courtroom.

July 4, 2000 - Gold Classic Collection DVD



This was the first time the film appeared on DVD, with Pocahontas and Robin Hood also making their DVD debuts that day. The courtroom cover from the previous release was reused here. The only supplements were the vintage Operation Wonderland featurette, a read-along storybook narrated by Kathryn Beaumont, a trivia game, and a 70s reissue trailer. A friend of mine told me that his Gold Classic VHS copy also had the Fred Waring Show excerpt.

January 27, 2004 - Masterpiece Edition DVD



With this release, the film got a major facelift thanks to the brilliant people at Lowry Digital. While not all of the laserdisc features were ported over, a good portion were. Notable things missing were a storyboard-to-film comparison for the chase climax, dozens of song demos, many galleries, and two radio broadcasts. This may have very well been the first Disney animated film to receive a double dip on DVD (films like Tarzan or Emperor's New Groove don't count since superior editions appeared with on the release date of the inferior one, or very close to it).

I have both the 1995 VHS Masterpiece version and the 2004 DVD version as Disneykid posted from these pics.

musicradio77 wrote:I have both the 1995 VHS Masterpiece version and the 2004 DVD version as Disneykid posted from these pics.

Thanks for sharing, but how does it relate at all to the 1986/1991 Black Diamonds that Logoliker was originally talking about?

Escapay

Disneykid wrote:This may have very well been the first Disney animated film to receive a double dip on DVD (films like Tarzan or Emperor's New Groove don't count since superior editions appeared with on the release date of the inferior one, or very close to it).

Peter Pan was issued in the initial "limited edition" disc (11-23-1999) as a barebones and then re-released (2-12-2002) with extras to promote Return To Neverland.

I think the last cover of alice in wonderland is the most beautiful cover

Tolhurst wrote:

Disneykid wrote:This may have very well been the first Disney animated film to receive a double dip on DVD (films like Tarzan or Emperor's New Groove don't count since superior editions appeared with on the release date of the inferior one, or very close to it).

Peter Pan was issued in the initial "limited edition" disc (11-23-1999) as a barebones and then re-released (2-12-2002) with extras to promote Return To Neverland.

Oh, right. I completely forgot about Peter Pan. Well then, Alice is at least the first Disney animated classic to receive an upgrade to double-disc treatment.