List of Walt Disney Classics video releases

This list covers all the Walt Disney Classics (or "Black Diamond") titles released from 1984 to 1994 and strangely, 1996.

Season One (1984-1988)
The original logo from the series was nicknamed the Cheesy Black Diamond.

December 1984
Disney was initially reluctant to release any of their animated classics that had only seen theatrical release on video, as it might put them at risk of losing reissue revenue. Robin Hood was picked as the first Classics release because at the time, the film itself was considered weaker in terms of story and animation compared to the other titles. Its disappointing performance in its 1982 reissue was also cited.

July 1985
Due to Pinocchio making less money than expected during its 1984 theatrical reissue, Disney took a chance and released the film to video the following year instead of The Sword in the Stone like they had initially planned to. The video release quickly became one of the best-selling videos of the year, opening up further possibilities for the Walt Disney Classics line.

March 1986
After a year-long delay, The Sword in the Stone was finally released to video. This was the first release in the Classics line to contain trailers for other video title releases; video releases under the Walt Disney Home Video label from March and April 1986 advertised this release. This practice would be repeated for the video release of Sleeping Beauty later in 1986.

May 1986
Alongside the Classics release of Alice in Wonderland, Disney launched the Wonderland Sale, releasing Alice and several of their catalog titles in cardboard slipcovers.

October 1986
Sleeping Beauty made its video debut this month, introducing a new timeline for the Walt Disney Classics series. High-priority releases would release in the fall of every year, with several updated re-releases scheduled throughout the year as well.

Pre-March 1986 titles in the series were re-issued at this time.

Season Two (1988-1992)
Starting with Cinderella, Disney updated the on-screen Walt Disney Classics logo. The new logo opened with the same animation of Sorcerer Mickey that the standard WDHV logo of the time used, but this time, the background turns from black to gradient black and light blue, and the spark forms yellow text reading “Walt Disney” on the top and “CLASSICS” on the bottom in front of a shiny black diamond. This gradient background variant exclusively appeared on the 1988 retail video release of Cinderella, though it later appeared on the October 1991 video re-issue of Robin Hood, both the 1991 retail and demo video releases of The Making of Fantasia and 1992 demo VHS releases of The Rescuers and Beauty and the Beast, during the following season of the series.

Starting with Bambi, the Shiny Black Diamond logo was updated to include a plain dark blue background in place of the gradient background. In addition, the diamond lacks some of the shine it had in the prototype logo, replacing it with purple outline.

February 1990
Two permanent availability releases in this batch were re-issued at this time with slightly updated tape labels, coinciding with the prebook of the standard-wave video release of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.

May 1990
For the first time, Disney releases a film from their animated canon to video less than a year after its theatrical release with the 1990 VHS counterpart of The Little Mermaid. The VHS counterpart sells insanely well, convincing Disney to pursue this release strategy for their other upcoming films.

"The Black Cauldron" was originally going to be released on video at this time, but due to the success of the former, the video release of the latter had to be pushed back to 1998, four years after this series was discontinued and replaced with the Masterpiece Collection.

September 1990
Starting with the video release of Peter Pan, Disney would further integrate their Classics line with their theatrical releases, placing behind-the-scenes trailers for their upcoming films during their opening previews.

This month of 1990 was also when The Little Mermaid was released on LaserDisc.

May 1991
Alongside the video release of "The Jungle Book", three permanent availability titles in this series were being re-issued at this time.

September 1991
The video re-issue of "The Jungle Book" was one of the few Disney releases that the green warning screens debuted in.

November 1991
Disney releases another one of their "untouchable" animated films to home video with the 1991 video release of Fantasia. The VHS counterpart was one of the highest-selling VHS releases of all time and was sold both as an individual tape, and as a Deluxe Collector's Edition boxset with a bonus release detailing the making of the film and other bonus features.

March 1992
These re-issues coincided with the prebook of the upcoming video release of 101 Dalmatians, which was a month before the actual release. On these re-issues, the diamond logo on the top left of the front tape label says "Disney's CLASSICS" if it is a horizontal ink-label. These label variations began appearing as late as early February 1992.

Season Three (1992-1994)
Starting with this season of the series, the lilac bumpers are introduced, which typically used the Laser LET font and the stock music piece "Great Ovation" from the Bruton Music library; though on Beauty and the Beast, two of the bumpers instead used "Fanfare to the Modern Man 3" from the aforementioned music library.

Starting with 101 Dalmatians, a third variation of the 1988/1989 Shiny Black Diamond logo was created, with the color slightly tinted to blue and clean audio. Starting with the retail VHS release of The Rescuers, an unofficial fourth variation of the logo was created. Due to deterioration of the master recording, the unofficial fourth variation has bass heavy distorted audio.

Titles released in the series in the limited availability wave prior to October 1992 went into moratorium on April 30, 1993, while titles released in the wave from March to October 1993 went into moratorium a year later in 1994.

October 1992
The following title in this batch was technically the first one in the series with the Proof of Purchase tab label printed above the back cover.

March 1993
Excluding Pinocchio and The Rescuers, which have the variations that go by the title on the left center, the words, "Proof of Purchase" on the middle center and the stock number on the right center, these releases have the Proof of Purchase tab label variation where the text is in all caps, with the words, "PROOF OF PURCHASE" on the left center, the title on the top right and the stock number on the bottom right, in which these case cover variations began appearing as late as mid February 1993.

March 1994
The following title in this batch was the final one released in the Classics line.

Popular demand re-issues (1987, 1992-1995)
These re-issues accommodated the lack of stock in select video stores.

October 1992
These re-issues were in Disney's A Beauty of a Gift promotion and remained in stock until December 31, 1992.

May 1993
These re-issues remained in stock until July 31, 1994.

September 1989
These titles were advertised in an insert booklet for the "Bambi" video release.

May 1991
These re-issues coincided with the Classics video release of "The Jungle Book".

March 1992
The following titles were re-issued at this time with slightly updated tape labels. These label variations began appearing as late as mid February 1992.

September 1992
One of the re-issues in this batch coincided with the Classics video release of The Rescuers and has new case cover artwork and previews for three titles released on video in the Classics series; two are at the start and one is at the end.

February 1996
Strangely enough, the earliest copies of the 1996 VHS release of “Pocahontas” that were printed before mid December 1995 started with the second variation of the 1988/1989 Walt Disney Classics logo. On copies printed after mid December 1995, this logo was later replaced with the correct logo, which is the 1994 Masterpiece Collection logo.