Disney DVD Sadness

March 31st, 2006 - 16:14 | 10 comments

I just ducked into HMV to avoid a rainshower - didn’t buy anything, woo! - and was looking at the ‘children’s’ DVD section. As with anything for ‘children’, once the intended age passes ten or so the content becomes equally accessible to all ages. In fact I think that books and films for ‘young adults’ are on average more entertaining than those for the older generation, as they can’t rely on sex / violence to provide plot points, and the story is more thoughtful because of it. There are plenty of films I loved when I was a kid that I still find fantastic. I’d be happy to buy them on DVD, except there’s a problem, and it’s called Disney.

It used to be the case that you would never find the official DVD logo on Disney DVDs. There was a Mickey-Mouse ‘Disney DVD’ logo, but that was all. This was because they would do all sorts of fancy effects with the DVD menus. Some (mostly older, very low-end) DVD players would have trouble playing them, but Disney were covered because they never actually claimed it was a proper DVD. Whether this still happens, I don’t know. I don’t have any Disney DVDs because, and this is my main complaint, the prices are crazy.

The Little Mermaid, Cinderella, The Lion King, The Emperor’s New Groove, Pinocchio…none of these can be bought for under £19. That may have been reasonable when every other film on the shelf was a similar price, but things have changed. If I want a DVD on release day then I’ll pay £20, but if I’m happy to wait a month or three then the price will normally drop substantially. The thing is, you can’t wait for Disney DVD prices to drop, because they actually are ‘Limited Edition’. Try to buy my favourite animation of all time - Aladdin - on DVD today and you won’t be able to without getting it used or from an Amazon Marketplace supplier who still has stock. Disney just stopped making it. Bastards.

Disney are in the business of making people happy, their films are beloved by millions, yet they screw people for all the money they can get. It’s such a shame.

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10 Responses to “Disney DVD Sadness”

1 Lil Mar 31st, 2006 at 6:45 pm

I agree with you, but there are Buy 1 get 1 free offers a lot, £17.99 in some shops. I bought Emperor’s New Groove and Lion King individually for under £9 (quite a while before the crazy crazy DVD price drops before Christmas) =)

I mainly take exception to them spewing out sequels to classic films that don’t need sequels, purely for the money =P
Oh, and Lindsey Lohan ;P
2 Ed Mar 31st, 2006 at 7:16 pm

Why haven’t they gone bust because of this?? Do they not make any money from DVD sales?
3 Andrew Mar 31st, 2006 at 7:49 pm

And I note that the sequels are invariably very cheap, too

I guess they make plenty of money from merchandise, as well as Pixar
4 Lauren Mar 31st, 2006 at 8:06 pm

Here’s a thought…

Order them in large quantities from the US. Because of the exchange rate, the shipping would pretty much pay for itself. You’d need a region-free DVD player… but it might be worth it since the movies would so much cheaper, and you could buy most of them before they’re out in the UK. Average release day price for a DVD here is about $18…

And if you’d like Aladdin and/or the sequels on DVD, let me know — I can work things out. (They’d be region 1 though…)
5 Simon Mar 31st, 2006 at 8:12 pm

You forget the evil that is customs and excise…
6 Lauren Mar 31st, 2006 at 8:15 pm

I’ve ordered stuff directly from Amazon Japan and Germany, and I had no problem…

As long as the value is under $1000 or so, I can’t see why they’d feel like they had to do anything about it…
7 Lauren Mar 31st, 2006 at 8:19 pm

And if all else fails, I can send it marked as a “gift.” I don’t think they tax those?
8 Andrew Mar 31st, 2006 at 9:58 pm

I think UK customs will (or, at least, can) open anything worth over £18, but a gift marking would get around that afaik. That could be cool - thanks very much! May well take you up on the Aladdin offer - I can’t not own that film, really
9 Ed Mar 31st, 2006 at 10:27 pm

Since you only own a license to play the said merchandise, surely Lauren could make a copy and send it over the web to you. She’d then transfer ownership to yourself. Would that be covered by customs and excise??
10 Andrew Apr 1st, 2006 at 12:37 pm

Hmmm, I suppose that could work…bit difficult in practice, tho. Interesting theory - I wonder what the ‘official’ position is on that

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