What Was The First Disney Movie On VHS? (& 9 Other Nostalgic Disney Questions, Answered)

Disney has a long legacy of theatrical and home entertainment. Fans believe that behind all that marketing, there truly is magic. The theme parks, the movies, the television shows, the music, the characters, and the merchandise all form a Disney history that is still being made.

With decades of film and television in the rearview, Disney has a striking list of accomplishments and milestones. The inner child never stops asking questions, especially where Disney is concerned. From the first television ventures to the distribution of classic films, the answers might be a surprise.

10 What Was The First Disney Feature Film In Theaters?

Some Disney connoisseurs already know that Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was Disney’s first feature-length film. Since there was no home video system (much less television) in the 1930s, the film was only released in theaters.

The Carthay Circle Theatre in Los Angeles was home to Snow White‘s worldwide premiere on December 21, 1937. Walt’s expensive animated feature went into wide release on February 4, 1938. The American Film Institute named Snow White the number one animated film of all time in 2008.

9 What Was Disney’s First Live-Action Musical?

Technically, Disney’s Song of the South could be considered the empire’s first live-action movie musical, but the film still has elements of animation. Most Disney fans know that “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” comes from the controversial 1946 feature film.

Some people uphold Darby O’Gill and the Little People (1959) as Disney’s first true live-action movie musical. Since Disney was very much focused on their animations during that time, not everyone is familiar with the Irish folkloric tale, but it is available on Disney+.

8 When Did Disney First Release Films On A Home Video Format?

The YouTube channel Yesterworld published an excellent and comprehensive history of Disney Home Video. Home video was still an experimental format in the 1970s, and Disney wanted nothing to do with it because they knew there was a chance that viewers could record Disney movies that were played on television.

In fact, Disney even sued Sony— and lost— for copyright infringement since the Sony Betamax, a contemporary of the VHS tape, was becoming a popular bootlegging device. Disney eventually realized that they had to join their competitors on the new home video frontier, which is why Disney licensed six of their works to Universal to be released on DiscoVision (a form of LaserDisc) in 1978.

7 What Was The First Disney Movie On VHS?

This is a trick question, because Disney’s first VHS/Betamax release included multiple movies. They are Pete’s Dragon, The Black Hole, The Love Bug, Escape to Witch Mountain, Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The North Avenue Irregulars, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Hot Lead and Cold Feed, On Vacation with Mickey Mouse and Friends, Kids is Kids, and The Adventures of Chip ‘n’ Dale.

All of these movies became available on video on March 4, 1980, though they were priced prohibitively high and were mostly only purchased by video rental stores. In 1984, Robin Hood became the first “Disney Classic” to go to VHS.

6 How Long Would The Disney Vault Be Closed?

Just as Snow White was the first Disney feature film in theaters, it was also the first movie they re-released in theaters. Re-releases were usually about eight to ten years apart. At first, Disney continued to re-release films in theaters before selling them on videotape. Once Disney had their home video plan in place and did away with the theatrical re-releases, they adopted a similar rule for when to revive titles from their mysterious “vault.”

While the vault would only be open for a few months at a time, it was known to stay closed for five to seven years, sometimes longer. It just depended on Disney’s marketing scheme at the time.

5 When Did Disney TV Movies & Shows Start?

Disney had a relationship with television long before they began the Disney Channel or owned the ABC network. Many people remember Disney’s weekly television movie, which was part of an anthology series that cycled through lots of names and lots of networks. The Wonderful World of Disney is the best catch-all term for these family films, but it was known as Disneyland in the 1950s.

The debut episode was called “The Disneyland Story” and covered Walt’s upcoming amusement park. In those early days, the programmed Disney time was often used as a cross-promotional tool. Walt would air modified versions of recent feature films, or he would tease upcoming films and offer behind-the-scenes insights. Disney eventually started to offer more original content, like the Davy Crockett miniseries, and 1955 brought the first iteration of The Mickey Mouse Club.

4 When Did The Disney Channel Start?

The Disney Channel launched in April of 1983 as a premium pay channel, meaning that subscribers had to pay extra on top of their cable bill in order to have the channel. A few years behind Nickelodeon (which was already a basic cable channel), the Disney Channel experimented with some original programming in those early days, but they also aired some older Disney films. Into the 1990s, the network went to basic cable, eventually generating the series and Disney Channel Original Movies that millennials know and love.

3 What Was The First Disney Channel Original Movie?

Here is the short answer: the first Disney Channel Original Movie was Under Wraps in October of 1997. To elaborate, some thought that Northern Lights (also 1997) was the first DCOM, but Under Wraps is now widely accepted as the first.

That makes Northern Lights the last Disney Channel Premiere Film. Disney Channel Premiere Films were originals, too— they just weren’t called DCOMs. The first Disney Channel Premiere Film was Tiger Town in 1983, Disney Channel’s inaugural year.

2 When Did The Disney Store Open?

With all of these videos gaining traction, Disney needed a place of their own to sell them. In March of 1987, The Disney Store opened its first location in Glendale, California at the Glendale Galleria. More stores opened in subsequent years, and the early ones were designed to reflect their specific communities. Kids who came of age in the 1990s have precious memories of seeing all those stuffed animals from Disney films right next to the clamshell VHS cases.

1 When Did Disney Buy Pixar?

Pixar itself began the timeline in 1984. Steve Jobs bought Pixar in 1986, and the deal-making with Disney began in 1991. To make a very long story short, Michael Eisner and Steve Jobs could not agree on a contract renewal after the success of their late 1990s and early 2000s movies. Pixar left the building in 2004, but Michael Eisner knew that only Disney owned the rights to the characters it created with Pixar.

Eisner sought to make some movies in the likeness of Pixar with Circle 7 Animation, and the new Disney branch even had sequels in development like Finding Nemo 2. But as Eisner got the boot and Bob Iger stepped in, Iger saw the importance of the Pixar collaboration, so Disney bought its Toy Story partner in 2006.

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