Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment

History
TBD

“Neon Mickey” releases (1980-1986)

 * List of Walt Disney Home Video "Neon Mickey" releases

Walt Disney Cartoon Classics (1983-1992, 1994-1996)

 * List of Walt Disney Cartoon Classics video releases

Walt Disney Classics (1984-1994)
Disney launched the Black Diamond Classics line in 1984 to release their animated films on home video under this line. Before resigning, then-current Disney CEO, Ron Miller, had plans to release their animated classics on home video. The older Disney executives still believed that releasing their animated films on home video would be a little bit risky, despite having released Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, Fun and Fancy Free, and The Three Caballeros on home video around the early 1980s. The "untouchable" Disney Classics would usually be re-released in theaters around 7-10 years. And the executives thought that if they had the film on videocassette already, they would not go to the movie theater to see it anymore. Plus, it would gamble away from future theatrical revenue.

But by 1984, Walt Disney Home Video was getting increasingly popular, so they decided to release Robin Hood on home video to begin their new Classics line. It was chosen because Robin Hood wasn't one of the more popular Disney animated classics at the time, as evidenced by a 1982 theatrical reissue not doing well at the box office, so it wouldn't be too much of a risk to release it on home video. Robin Hood was released with a suggested retail price of $79.95 on VHS and Betamax and $34.95 on Laserdisc. The tape was also part of Disney's wrap and ready-to-give promotion, since it was released a few weeks before Christmas Day. The release of Robin Hood was a small success, eventually becoming one of the best-selling home video titles in 1984.


 * List of Walt Disney Classics home video releases
 * List of Walt Disney Classics demo tapes

Disney's Sing-Along Songs (1986-2006)

 * List of Disney's Sing-Along Songs video releases

Walt Disney Mini-Classics (1988-1993)
Disney launched the Mini-Classics line in May 1988 to release their animated featurettes on home video in the line. Around that time, the company had come up with jumbo packages of releases for the little folks to view during upcoming vacations and summer breaks. With Disney, it was more than price or wrapping--the distinctive and inimitable animation.
 * List of Walt Disney Mini-Classics video releases

Disney's The Little Mermaid (1989-2006)

 * List of Disney's The Little Mermaid video releases

Walt Disney Film Classics (1992-1998)

 * List of Walt Disney Film Classics video releases

Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1992-2006)

 * List of Disney's Beauty and the Beast video releases

Disney's Favorite Stories (1994-1996)
Sometime after Disney discontinued the Mini-Classics series, they launched a similar series of featurettes on January 10, 1994, called Favorite Stories. Although each featurette runs about 25-40 minutes, this series only included fairytale featurettes and fairytale short subjects and does not include the Winnie the Pooh featurettes, as those were released in the Winnie the Pooh banner.
 * List of Disney's Favorite Stories video releases

Disney's Winnie the Pooh (1994-2005)

 * List of Disney's Winnie the Pooh video releases

Direct-to-video releases (1994-present)

 * List of Disney direct-to-video releases

Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection (1994-1999)

 * List of Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection video releases

Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection (2000-2001)

 * List of Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection video releases

Disney en Español

 * List of Disney en Español releases

Holiday promotions

 * List of Disney Christmas promotional releases
 * List of Disney Easter promotional releases
 * List of Disney Halloween promotional releases
 * List of Disney Valentine's Day promotional releases

Budget releases

 * List of Disney budget-priced releases

Demo tapes

 * List of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment demo tapes

September 1986
These releases open with the Video Dealer Announcement and the Sorcerer Mickey WDHV logo, and are the first to do so. The WDW "The Magic That Moves The World" commercial appears at the end of these releases.

November 1986
Excluding One Magic Christmas, these releases open with video trailers for the Classics release of Sleeping Beauty and Flight of the Navigator before the standard Video Dealer Announcement and Sorcerer Mickey WDHV logo.

December 1986
These releases open with video trailers for the Classics release of Sleeping Beauty and Flight of the Navigator before the standard Video Dealer Announcement & Sorcerer Mickey WDHV logo.

January 1987
Excluding Flight of the Navigator, these releases open with video trailers for the Classics release of Sleeping Beauty and Flight of the Navigator before the standard Video Dealer Announcement & Sorcerer Mickey WDHV logo.

April 1987
These titles were released a month after the Disney Store was launched.

January 1989
These releases use rounded corners on the sides of the covers.

"Gold Walt Disney Home Video" releases (1992-2001)
This also includes batches of sell-through video releases not part of Disney's budget lines (which have their own page), whether or not they had the gold WDHV logo.

February 1993
All releases in this batch only opened with the green warning screens and Sorcerer Mickey logo; no previews.

August 1993
Alongside the video release of Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, a wave of various Disney TV movie VHS releases was released exclusively for the rental market. These tapes open with a silver version of the gold WDHV logo that crossfades into the tape's first bumper.

September 1994
These sell-thru titles commemorated the video releases of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Rental exclusives
These titles/releases were free to use with rental of any Disney video cassette.

Promotional tapes
TBD

Disney Movie Club (2006-present)

 * List of Disney Movie Club exclusive releases

Locations

 * Burbank, California (1980-present)
 * Mississauga, Ontario [Canadian operations through a joint venture with Astral Home Entertainment] (1986-2000)