Walt Disney Classics: Difference between revisions

===Background===

'''Walt Disney Classics''' was a brand name of [[Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment|Walt Disney Home Video]], created in 1984 to release features from the [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Disney Animated Features]] canon on video. The first release from the line was ''Robin Hood'' (1973), and more soon followed, including ''Pinocchio'' (1940), ''Dumbo'' (1941), ''The Sword in the Stone'' (1963), ''Alice in Wonderland'' (1951) and others, to great success. In 1990, following the box office success of ''The Little Mermaid'' (1989), the Classics line released it to video, and began releasing a mix of older animated films and more recent Disney animated films. In 1994, after the video release of ''The Fox and the Hound'' (1981), the Classics series was discontinued and replaced with a newer series, the [[Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection]]. Tapes released in the Classics series are often referred to as the "Black Diamond Classics" by VHS collectors, in reference to the black diamond logo on the spine of each release. Although the Classics series was discontinued, the international versions (which included the select live-action/traditionally animated hybrid films as well) remained active in their respective international countries until today. The line currently exits the UK and Europe, as '''Disney Classics'''. However, France numbers WDAS, [[Pixar Animation Studios|Pixar]] and [[Disney Television Animation|WDTVA]]/[[DisneyToon Studios|DTS]] features and in the UK/Europe the order for the Disney Classics is different than the 61 animated features produced by WDAS to date. This is due to ''The Wild'' (2006) being in the Classics line in the UK despite not being produced by WDAS and ''Dinosaur'' (2000) and ''Winnie the Pooh'' (2011) being left out of the Classics lineup. In Germany, the Classics line features all of the films produced by WDAS while in Spain, ''Piglet's Big Movie'' (2003) is being included in the Classics line in that region.

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'''Logo:''' We start with the opening animation of the 1986 Walt Disney Home Video logo, with Mickey Mouse dressed in his Sorcerer’s Apprentice outfit from ''Fantasia'', standing on a {{color|blue}} spotlight on a black background. The camera slowly begins zooming up to his hand as the stars and crescent moon on his blue hat flash one-by-one, and then a white starburst flashes and a magic spark flies out from it, appearing above Mickey’s hand. We zoom past Mickey as the spark begins swirling around and begins to write "WALT DiSNEY" in the corporate Disney font, except it is metallic white. As we zoom out, the background begins to change to dark blue, and a black diamond with metallic edges fades in from a far point and begins to slowly zoom in, as "CLASSICS", also in metallic white and in the Binner D font with two letters at both ends in a bigger size, begins zooming out from the bottom of the screen, before that and "WALT DiSNEY" settle on the diamond, which has zoomed up to a comfortable distance. The edges begin to glow white as the shadow of the "WALT DiSNEY CLASSICS" text drops on the diamond, and then a magic comet swishes into view from the bottom left of the screen, circles behind the diamond, then flies out from the top right and passes in front of the diamond before flying offscreen, leaving a trail of pixie dust that changes the "WALT DiSNEY CLASSICS" text to {{color|gold}}, and adds a {{color|purple}} tint (flamingo pink in the 1989 variant) to the diamond’s edges. The logo "shines".

*The <u>prototype version</u>, originally seen on the 1988 retail VHS of ''Cinderella'', has the background as a dark to light blue gradient, a more shiny, silver, metallic diamond, the text "WALT DiSNEY CLASSICS" had a purple color scheme and rougher animation; this variant was also filmed, compared to the standard logo being videotaped. The spark was sky blue. Also, the bright light from the starburst was not shown on Mickey Mouse's body. The logo made sporadic reappearances after the revised logo was introduced on tapes from the Classics line that didn't open with previews; these include the 1992 Laserdisc and demo/French Canadian VHS prints of ''The Rescuers'' (''Les aventures de Bernand et Bianca''), the later Canadian print of ''The Rescuers Down Under'' a 1992 Descriptive Video Service (DVS) VHS of ''Dumbo'', the later Canadian/USA print of ''Robin Hood'' (''Robin does Bois'') the French Canadian VHS releases of ''Pinocchio'', ''Bambi'', ''101 Dalmatians'' (''Les 101 Dalmatiens'') and ''The Great Mouse Detective'' (''Basil, détective privé'') and the demo/French Canadian VHS copies of ''Beauty and the Beast'' (''La Belle et la Bête''). It also appears at the beginning of the VHS ''Fantasia: The Making of a Masterpiece'' (which was included as part of a "Deluxe Collectors' Edition" box set of the movie). In most cases, the logo is off-center, with the diamond positioned further to the right, while ''Cinderella'' had the diamond centered properly. One of the last, if not the last, videos to feature this version of the logo was the DVS VHS release of ''Aladdin''.

*On <u>1992 VHS releases</u>, starting with ''101 Dalmatians'', the logo gained brighter colors with the text "WALT DiSNEY CLASSICS" in light blue and the diamond in bright blueish-violet due to deterioration of the master; in addition, the comet is now thinner, the tint on the diamond's edges is now purple again and the logo fades out earlier than before. The logo would cut in at different times (up to a second later than usual) on all 1992 releases.