The
Atlantis CE is still in print, though it still carries its ridiculously-high-but-worth-it price tag of about $39.99
Other non-Platinums that are definitely Platinum-quality:
The
Fantasia Anthology
Sleeping Beauty: Special Edition
Pocahontas: 10th Anniversary Edition
I haven't viewed any of the other two-disc SE's in awhile, but
Tarzan's two-disc could do with an update. It's got great featurettes and lengthy sections of stills and text materials, but since it came so early in the Disney DVD releases, is rather segmented and lacking compared to later releases. On the plus side, it's easy to navigate and is nicely split into sections like History/Development, Music, Characters, Animation, Story, Release, etc. Much easier to navigate as opposed to the sections like North America, South America, Antarctica, etc. of
The Lion King.
The best Platinum for me will always be the
Aladdin release, because it's got the most immersive extras after
Snow White, but the movie is much more tolerable!
I would really like to say that
Beauty and the Beast is another top-notch Platinum, but having three versions of the film on one disc gives the film compression issues, and all in all, while I was impressed by the bonus materials (50-minute doc, several standalone featurettes, etc.), I always felt they could have put more effort into it.
The weakest Platinums are
The Lion King,
The Little Mermaid, and
Peter Pan. Never mind that I don't care at all for TLK, but the bonus materials are a mess, and I'm sure fans would prefer a cohesive and in-depth longform documentary over scattered and segmented glossy featurettes.
The Little Mermaid's documentary is most disappointing, at least for me, as it seemed to simply repeat everything everyone already knew about the movie. And
Peter Pan...oy,
Peter Pan. It was such a wasted opportunity and the biggest insult to the DVD consumer's intelligence can be found in the 77 minutes of wasted disc space on the second disc aka the "Read Along" version of the film. There's so much that was NOT included and NOT made for
Peter Pan's Platinum that it seems not deserving of the once-prestigious banner title.
As for the Platinums for
Bambi,
Cinderella, and
Lady and the Tramp, they all have their share of good and bad, but on the whole, are nice middle-level Platinums that don't contain enough to complain about, and there's a nice amount of bonus material that covers the films nicely.
Escapay
