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The Platinum Editions are a prestigious line of DVDs released by Walt Disney Home Entertainment. The series features restored DVD versions of several of the most popular Disney animated features
[edit] History
[edit] Overview
Originally, the line consisted of the company's ten best-selling VHS titles and would be released in October of each year. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was the first film released in the DVD series, in 2001. The two following titles, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King were released into IMAX theaters during the holiday season before its October DVD release.
Due to underwhelming box office results, a planned IMAX release for Aladdin was scrapped and the practice was discontinued. In May 2003, Disney announced that it would be adding the next four best-selling titles to the collection. Starting in 2005, a Platinum Edition was released twice a year, one in October and one in February/March. Beginning with The Lion King, select Platinum Edition DVDs were also made available in gift set editions, which included the standard retail DVD as well as supplements such as original animation sketches, a film frame, and a companion book.
The original plan for the Platinum Edition was that the films would be re-issued for a limited time, once every ten years. Since then, the interim between each re-issue of a particular film has been shortened to seven years. The first three films in the Platinum Editions line, Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, as well as the fifth, Bambi, and the seventh, Lady and the Tramp are no longer available in retail stores, and can only be found through specialized sales markets, or websites such as amazon.com or eBay. Such out-of-print titles usually demand a significant premium given their considerable value to collectors.
[edit] Films in Platinum Edition line
| #
| Film
| Release Date
| Collector's Gift Set?
|
| 1
| Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
| October 9, 2001
| No
|
| 2
| Beauty and the Beast (1991)
| October 8, 2002
| No
|
| 3
| The Lion King (1994)
| October 7, 2003
| Yes
|
| 4
| Aladdin (1992)
| October 5, 2004
| Yes
|
| 5
| Bambi (1942)
| March 1, 2005
| No
|
| 6
| Cinderella (1950)
| October 4, 2005
| Yes
|
| 7
| Lady and the Tramp (1955)
| February 28, 2006
| No
|
| 8
| The Little Mermaid (1989)
| October 3, 2006
| No
|
| 9
| Peter Pan (1953)
| March 6, 2007
| No (Yes in the U.K)
|
| 10
| The Jungle Book (1967)
| October 2, 2007
| No (Yes in the U.K)
|
| 11
| 101 Dalmatians (1961)
| March 4, 2008 (confirmed)
| TBA
|
| 12
| Sleeping Beauty (1959)
| October 7, 2008 (confirmed)
| First animated Platinum coming to Blu-ray.
|
[edit] Packaging
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was packaged in a double-sized keepcase, and to date has been the only Platinum Edition DVD without a slipcase. From Beauty and the Beast to Cinderella, Platinum Editions were packaged in a dual-disc DVD case with a slipcase, with a book-like velcro flap which, when opened, gave an overview of the DVD's special features. Lady and the Tramp was the first DVD in the series to use a more standard slipcase without a flap. The slipcase for The Little Mermaid featured embossed character art, while the slipcases for Peter Pan and The Jungle Book featured holographic artwork along with the embossment. Only sets sold during the first few months of a Platinum Edition's window of availability are sold with a slipcover. In the United Kingdom only, The Jungle Book was packaged in a deluxe edition with a book and different packaging.
[edit] Restoration
Each film in the Platinum Edition series is given a thorough restoration and presented in its original aspect ratio. Most of the films in the collection were produced on celluloid are digitally restored from their original negatives, undergoing digital clean-up processes to remove dust, dirt, and scratches. The majority of these films have featurettes detailing the restoration process included on the set as bonus features.
Three of the Platinum Edition releases - Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King - were produced using Disney's Computer Animation Production System, and were instead sourced straight from the digital masters used to create the film. Each of these three films also featured retouched and re-cleaned-up animation, alterations done to prepare the films for IMAX release.
Each film's soundtrack is also remixed into Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Earlier films in the series such as Snow White were originally released with monoaural soundtracks, and the new mixes created for Platinum Edition releases featured a combination of uses of original sound elements used in the original mix and rechanneling techniques. Later films in the series (including two, Aladdin and The Lion King, which were originally produced in 5.1) featured surround sound mixes specifically tailored to home theater audiences, branded by the company as "Disney Enhanced Home Theater Mixes".
[edit] Special features
DVDs in this series typically contain a significant amount of bonus material, primarily housed on the second disc of the set so as to allow for a high-bitrate transfer of the feature. Many of the titles feature "making-of" documentaries that run a half-hour and an hour in length. The two exceptions are The Lion King and Peter Pan. The former utilizes a complex navigation system of roughly 30 making-of featurettes, while the latter simply re-uses a brief 15-minute documentary from 1998.
Other typical features include audio commentaries (not available on Bambi, Cinderella, or Lady and the Tramp), art and image galleries, deleted scenes, early storyboard reels, and bonus Disney short subjects. Contemporary publicity material available on each set may include trailers, music videos, radio programs, newsreel footage, and episodes of the Disney anthology television series, although the exact features included vary from set to set. Features aimed at more general family audiences and children are also included, such as set-top games and music video renditions of Disney songs by contemporary pop artists and/or Disney Channel stars.
[edit] See also
