DVDizzy Forum

There has been a rumor or two in the past that Disney may one day expand the Platinum/Diamond Edition line to include a few more titles.

If this were the case, and Disney asked for suggestions from fans ( ), which title(s) would you nominate for inclusion in the prestigious list and why?

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the current list, the Platinum/Diamond Edition line-up includes the following 12 titles:

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Pinocchio (1940)
Bambi (1942)
Cinderella (1950)
Peter Pan (1953)
Lady and the Tramp (1955)
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
The Jungle Book (1967)
The Little Mermaid (1989)
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
The Lion King (1994)

*Aladdin (1992) was formerly included as a Platinum Edition, but has been dropped from the Diamond line (as far as we can tell).

I am not limiting the amount of titles you can suggest, but I imagine that Disney would only add a few more to the existing list so as to keep the line set apart from the more generic editions. Also, up to this point, I believe the list of titles has been compiled of those that either are beloved, stand-out classics and/or top sellers, but feel free to use your own reasoning to make your nominations!

As Alice in Wonderland is already due to be released, I'd go for Hunchback of Notre Dame. Aside from the fact Disney haven't given the film a DVD or blu-ray re-release for years, I think the film is one of the company's best. It tackles prejudice and hatred in a way Disney hadn't done before and was just as good, if not better than Beauty and the Beast and Lion King, the most popular and successful films of the Renaissance era. The story, music and characters are all excellent but the film has suffered from a lack of interest from Disney.

I think other possibilites could be Mulan, Pocahontas, Tarzan and Lilo & Stitch.

I would personally do away with Platinum, Diamond, or similar labels themselves, and just put everything under the "Walt Disney Classics" banner as done in the UK and elsewhere until relatively recently. Otherwise, it just leads to people shouting "why isn't/is XYZ a Diamond?!" every five minutes. If the Platinum/Diamond line is supposed to showcase the most popular Disney films that will easily shift a good million or more copies every time they're released regardless, why use it? It's not as though the existence of the Vault depends on the Diamond line. The whole Platinum label became a bit redundant when the covers and the advertising put more emphasis on the fact that they were simply "2 Disc Special Editions" or "Anniversary Editions" (often missing the target anniversary by a good year or so, as with Pinocchio), and when Disney started putting out comparably good two disc collector's editions for some of its catalogue animated titles (also advertised as "for a limited time only"). Heck, it sorta stopped making sense when the Gold Collection ended and some of its titles got deleted for future re-release (Pinocchio, Mulan), which was around the time of the original Snow White DVD. They can still keep the Vault; in fact, I'm actually for strictly keeping films on the market for no more than fourteen or fifteen months and for making more films unavailable to make them more demanded. It's just that they don't necessarily need a fancy name and glittering diamonds in order to make their films sell.

If I had to choose and pick what would go into the rotation system of a prestigious collection, though, I'd keep the original Platinum line-up (including Aladdin) and the titles added in 2003 (Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty), and then add Alice in Wonderland and Dumbo above anything else, as they are the two obvious Walt-era classics left (aside from The Sword in the Stone, which as much as I love, isn't exactly well remembered by most people). If we're going to expand it to twenty, then I'd add Mulan, plus a choice of three from Lilo and Stitch, Robin Hood, The Sword in the Stone, The Aristocats and Pocahontas.

I would keep the current ones and add in:

Alice in Wonderland
Pocahontas
The Sword in the Stone (would love it if it happened)

the other 90s classics: pocahontas, hunchback, hercules, mulan and tarzan

The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Mulan
The Sword in the Stone
Hercules
Pocahontas
Lilo and Stitch
Robin Hood

Along with the current line.

I just wish that Disney would release a Disney Animated Classic Collection.

I would nominate:
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
The Rescuers
The Fox and the Hound
THE BLACK CAULDRON
The Great Mouse Detective
A Goofy Movie
THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME
HERCULES
Mulan
Tarzan

Alice in Wonderland
Winnie the Pooh
Aladdin
Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan

It's regrettable that Disney are treating many of their films like they don't excist. If they does so because they'll think that people don't know about those films and don't care about them, then they are responsible themselves if those movies are forgotten in the eye of the public. It would have been better if Disney released their films without calling some of them Platinum/Diamond-releases, and without ignoring the rest of them.

A few examples: Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hercules all did decent upon their release, but Disney seems to have forgotten them since by almost never using the characters from those films in marketing/merchandise and by giving two of those movies DVD-releases below average. If Disney only promoted more of their characters/movies in their parks and in their merchandise and released more decent releases of their films, then Pocahontas, Quasimodo and Hercules all would be more recognizable. I don't think it's a good move on Disney's behalf if people only should be familiar with their 10-13 "Platinum/Diamond" movies, the Disney Princess franchise/brand and the Pixar-characters.

Snow White
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Bambi
Cinderella
Lady and the Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
101 Dalmatians
Jungle Book
The Rescuers
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
Tarzan
Lilo & Stitch

Based on box-office succes, legendary status, critical reception or a mix of all these.

Snow White
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Dumbo
Bambi
Cinderella
Lady and the Tramp
Sleeping Beauty
101 Dalmatians
Jungle Book
The Little Mermaid
Beauty and the Beast
Aladdin
The Lion King
pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan
Lilo & Stitch

Robin Hood
The Princess and the Frog

I think it's fine as it is, but with Aladdin added back into the mix.

There are many suggestions being put forward here which are fairly mediocre and definitely don't merit a Platinum / Diamond status. However, I also think that most of the Disney films do merit a special edition release.

Fantasia, should have had something a bit more special too. I'm not sure whether it should have been a Platinum / Diamond, because of it's relationship with Fantasia 2000 - which I actually probably prefer in many ways to the original Fantasia, which is a difficult film to sit through in one go - but, it should certainly be recognised more than by the lacklustre Blu Ray release we received.

BellesPrince wrote:Fantasia, should have had something a bit more special too. I'm not sure whether it should have been a Platinum / Diamond, because of it's relationship with Fantasia 2000 - which I actually probably prefer in many ways to the original Fantasia, which is a difficult film to sit through in one go

I am a big fan of both Fantasia films, but I do agree with you that the first is hard to get through in one sitting! In fact, I just finished watching the new edition the other day, and I think I started it about a week prior!

I was able to get through Fantasia 2000 in one sitting, something about it is more engaging, I guess.

But back to the topic at hand, everyone's lists so far have been great. I could really see Disney going for what they would consider more "regal" titles when adding recent films, so Pocahontas and The Hunchback of Notre Dame would probably fit right in. However, I would still love to see Hercules and Tarzan added to the list.

IMO the only films that I wouldn't be surprised if they were added would be Fantasia, Pocahontas, The Rescuers, Aladdin, and Lilo & Stitch.

Everything should come under one banner.

If they put in half as much effort into the rest of their catalogue than they do for Snow White or Beauty and the Beast they'd sell hell a lot more copies and ensure even more be sold in the future. It's a cycle, if you promote them now, they will continue to be remembered and bought by generation after generation.

By having exclusivity and discrimination, what they are doing is basically shoving half their catalogue into the bin, with CGI being all the rage and kids of today being more familiar with characters from Pixar and Dreamworks films, the potential that something like Sword and the Stone would have is gone.

They fail to realize that the only reason why they were/are popular is because every generation until the 90s had Disney in their childhood. Why are films like Fox and the Hound and Robin Hood popular? Because one generation did grow up with them, sure as 90s kids some had the privilege of experiencing most of them, but it remains that most generations are affiliated with a set of Disney movies. This however collapsed in the 2000s and the more Disney neglect their catalogue, the less likely it is they will ever be popular again.

When you can't give a relatively recent, but now over a decade old, movie like Hercules a decent release, you know the studio isn't thinking straight. Every film has an audience and Disney's self proclaimed important titles may not be as cherished to some as others. Lion King is probably the one that receives most schtick for being overrated here and there are many others better than it, yet will go unknown for the rest of time.

It also seems like a failed concept that is being repeated. Lilo sold a tonne-load and yet it won't be recognized? It is a recent movie but if sales basis was their decisive factor then it should have made it. Of course, fans were lucky enough to get probably the best package it could have got, with the documentary touted as one of the best released, still, you would want movies to be preserved and not ignored, but yet again, Lilo should naturally always be preserved since I assume it had CAPS or whatever. So, what I mean then is to be in the public consciousness, to be relevant.

Others already are held back by not being in CAPS and having bad packages; all the films not Diamonds/Platinums/Fantasia/Dumbo/Alice pre-Little Mermaid. What they should do is give decent releases to a film from each generation each year, so something like Aristocats, Cauldron, Hunchback & Treasure Planet all being released together with the top-tier titles. Since Disney loves anniversaries that's what they should release them as, or whatever, but in a time where 2D animation seems to continue to lose its draw, shoving out a pointless release of the Great Mouse Detective/Black Cauldron that serves as nothing to collector nor casual buyer alike is ridiculously stupid.

Pocahontas
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
Hercules
Mulan
Tarzan
Fantasia 2000
Lilo & Stich
The Princess and the Frog
Tangled

singerguy04 wrote:IMO the only films that I wouldn't be surprised if they were added would be Fantasia, Pocahontas, The Rescuers, Aladdin, and Lilo & Stitch.

I would be very surprised if Disney ever recognized The Rescuers for what it is --in the words of Frank and Ollie: "the best film we made without Walt". To the Disney Corporation, all films made between 1967-1988 shouldn't be mentioned. (Why try to market and advertise movies and make money of them, when you can also let them rot in oblivion?)

<b>I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks The Hunchback of Notre Dame & Hercules deserves special edition titles! I can't even tell you how many times my brother & I watched those vhs tapes of those two movies! I think Hercules more than anything needs a special edition release. The Gold Classic Collection isn't cutting it. The color looks dull compared to any of the other 90's movies! At least the Hunchback throws you a bone with a half hour to twenty minute documentary whereas Hercules you get almost nothing! If movies like The Lion King II & The Lion King 1 1/2 have 2-disc editions I think Hercules & Hunchback can! </b>

Dumbo & Alice. Those titles scream classic Disney and would fit perfectly in the line-up. In fact, they would round up & complete the golden and silver age respectively.

Victurtle wrote:Dumbo & Alice. Those titles scream classic Disney and would fit perfectly in the line-up. In fact, they would round up & complete the golden and silver age respectively.

<b>You said it! I think Alice in Wonderland & Dumbo need Diamond titles! They should bump off Peter Pan & The Lion King(like those movies but i like AIW & D better) for Alice & Dumbo or simply add them on!</b>