The "Disney Vault" is the term used by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment for its policy of putting many of its most popular home video releases of Walt Disney Animation Studios's animated features on moratorium. Each Disney film is available for purchase for a limited time, after which it is put "in the vault" and not made available in stores for several years until it is once again released. This also means digital copies cannot be purchased on Movies Anywhere when those movies are currently in the Disney Vault.
Video Disney Vault
History
The practice was started with Disney re-releasing its animated films in theaters every few years which began with the reissue of 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1944. In more recent times, this practice has been extended to home releases, in particular those in the Platinum and Diamond lines. Some direct-to-video Disney films, among them Bambi II, have also been released with a pre-established window of availability.
Maps Disney Vault
Controls
The Walt Disney Company itself states that this process is done to both control their market and to allow Disney films to be fresh for new generations of young children. As a side-effect, the practice also has made the Disney films a prime target for digital piracy. However, this "in the vault" practice has been widely criticized for both commercial and ethical reasons, as it deprives large numbers of children from seeing the most popular and best-loved Disney movies while they are young enough to fully enjoy them in order to create an artificial shortage with the goal of increasing demand and consequent profits when such movies are finally "released from the vault". As a result, many such children will be too old to care about seeing these Disney movies when they are made available, ironically resulting in the loss of this audience to Disney. Disney's practice of vaulting also results in parents of younger children opting to buy these DVD's from other venues (e.g., Amazon or eBay), thereby depriving Disney of such sales. It is unknown as to whether the overall profits from the restricted Disney sales of such vault release videos are appreciably greater or, in fact, far less than the cumulative sales would be, were such movies made generally available to the public without restriction.
Films
The following movies are colloquially considered part of the Disney Vault. Each has at one time been announced/released on Disney's Platinum/Diamond/Signature collection, although some titles have later been cancelled. Other Disney films that are not in the vault are always available. Films that are currently vaulted and not available for sale from Disney are denoted with a *.
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Pinocchio
- Fantasia*
- Dumbo - Disney Movie Club and Digital only
- Bambi
- Cinderella*
- Alice in Wonderland - Disney Movie Club and Digital only
- Peter Pan*
- Lady and the Tramp- Disney Movie Club and Digital only
- Sleeping Beauty*
- One Hundred and One Dalmatians*
- The Jungle Book*
- The Little Mermaid*
- Beauty and the Beast
- Aladdin*
- The Lion King
See also
- Artificial scarcity
- Moratorium (entertainment)
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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