The Disney Vault

Back in 1937, Disney Studios released its first animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. They released it in a small Hollywood theater and it was wildly successful. After Snow White came Pinocchio, then Fantasia, Dumbo, and all the Disney classics. Back in the day you could only see a movie in the theater. There were no DVDs, no televisions, and definitely no Netflix.

Disney’s classics were so good that it posed a problem. What about the next generation? Movies could only stay in theaters for so long. Disney realised this and took initiative. Instead of just releasing each movie the one time, they would re release it every 7-10 years. By doing this Disney would make it possible for kids of every generation to see these amazing Disney films.

Disney continued this tradition for a long time. The movies were released a number a times, but once Dumbo came around the movies began to show up on TV and on home videos. At this point there was really no need to continue re-release movies in theaters. Disney could put them on the open market as they do with their more modern films.

However, Disney decided to maintain the tradition. This is how the Disney Vault came to be. The vault keeps the movies from becoming oversaturated and maintaining their “classic” titles. The movies deemed worthy of this title are just the films made before television and home videos.

The vault is made up of sixteen film: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, Peter the Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty, One-hundred and One Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King. But what sets these movies apart from the countless amount of movies Disney has made in recent years?

Over the years Walt Disney Studios has taken control of cinematic giants like Marvel, Pixar, and Lucasfilm. This new age of Disney films have produced mega hits such as Frozen, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, The Toy Story Trilogy, and Avengers: Infinity War.

Many people already consider these films already classics, so why aren’t they in the Disney Vault? You’ll find little similarities between the movies in the vault. All vaulted movies are from the original Disney Studios, but what else? There are four vaulted movies that came out after VHS was widely used: Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Aladdin.

The old re-release method does not apply to them, so why are they vaulted? The Super Carlin Brothers has one of the best explanations out there. They created a theory that that these “new age” movies are placed in the Disney Vault based on their Oscar wins and nominations. The four new age movies in the vault have all won at least two Oscars, but were nominated for at least three. Because of this a movie hasn't been vaulted since 1994.

Even with Disney super hits like Frozen and Pocahontas, what is keeping these movies out of the vault is that none have been nominated more than twice, according to this theory.

Many are against the idea of the Disney vault. The public either understands the want for these movies to stay special and not become oversaturated, or wants to watch their favorite movies whenever they want to. But don’t lose hope! Disney will be releasing The Little Mermaid today,for its 30th birthday, February 26th. Be sure to get it while it's here before you have to wait another 5-10 years.