DATELINE -- Tuesday, 4 January 2000

Disney alchemy: After being told by Disney last August that their first wave of animated DVDs would go on moratorium for several years, we were later informed that about half of them would return within 24 months. Well, two years slips by pretty quick, because Mulan is due to return on Feb. 1, followed by Pinocchio on March 7, both as part of the newly minted Gold Classic Collection (as opposed to the moratorium-heavy Platinum Collection, it would seem). What's more, it looks like the extra "making-of" featurette missing from the first Pinocchio disc, but available on the VHS, will be included in the re-issue. Since it now appears that The Mouse is going full steam ahead with their two-tiered Gold/Platinum home video strategy, it's starting to look like the hype surrounding their initial DVD releases was ill-advised. In fact, we all probably could have waited a few more months to get titles like Pinocchio, Mulan, Hercules, and others without the moratorium scare.

In any case, Disney assured everybody when they announced the Platinum Collection in November that all of their other animated features would arrive day-and-date with VHS releases from now on. Apparently that doesn't include Toy Story, which will re-appear as part of the Gold Classic Collection only on VHS next week -- although this may be because Pixar already has their own plans for the DVD release, which is rumored to arrive sometime this year. For what it's worth, here's all of the animated titles The Magic Kingdom has in store for us this year (all will appear on the first Tuesday of the month) -- we're expecting DVDs for all of these:


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