Walt Disney Treasures
Encyclopedia
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
set of classic Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
works. They cover work from the studio's earliest days to their more recent work. So far, there have been nine waves (versions) of the DVDs, each containing two, three or four different sets (adding up to a total of thirty different titles).
The first wave was released to Region 1
DVD region code
DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...
DVD on December 4, 2001, as a part of Walt Disney
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
's 100th birthday. They were sold in limited quantities. The numbered units are largely commercially unavailable outside of second-hand sales. Only a small handful of these titles have been sold outside of Region 1.
Each title has been packaged in a numbered tin case. The first two waves featured the numbering as stamped into each case, while subsequent waves were packaged with a certificate of authenticity marking their number. The first three waves were additionally bound in a cardboard band featuring reproductions of signatures by Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
and Roy Disney
Roy Disney
Roy Disney may refer to:* Roy O. Disney , Walt Disney's elder brother and the financier of his efforts* Roy E. Disney , his son, director emeritus of The Walt Disney Company...
. In 2003, a Costco exclusive boxed set, The Ultimate Disney Treasure Chest, packaged the first two waves of the series, without the tin canisters (as pictured).
The DVD sets were the idea of film critic–historian Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
, who appears in each set to introduce the DVDs, and to provide historical context to some of the more-dated, and sometimes politically-incorrect, works.
Release history
- Walt Disney Treasures: Wave OneWalt Disney Treasures: Wave OneThe first wave of Walt Disney Treasures was released on December 4, 2001. It includes four different DVD sets.-Mickey Mouse in Living Color:This set covers the first leg of Mickey Mouse's color career, from 1935 to 1938.150,000 sets produced.-1935:...
— December 4, 2001- Mickey Mouse in Living Color
- Silly Symphonies
- Disneyland, USA
- Davy Crockett
- Walt Disney Treasures: Wave TwoWalt Disney Treasures: Wave Two-Mickey Mouse in Black and White:This set displays a variety of Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts released in black and white.125,000 sets produced.-Disc one:1928*Steamboat Willie*The Gallopin' Gaucho*Plane Crazy1929*The Karnival Kid...
— December 3, 2002- Mickey Mouse in Black and White
- The Complete Goofy
- Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studios
- Walt Disney Treasures: Wave ThreeWalt Disney Treasures: Wave ThreeThe third wave of Walt Disney Treasures was released on May 18, 2004. It was originally planned to be released in December 2003, but was delayed for almost half a year in order to meet an increased demand with a higher number of tins produced....
— May 18, 2004- Mickey Mouse in Living Color, Volume Two
- The Chronological Donald, Volume One
- On the Front Lines
- Tomorrow Land
- Walt Disney Treasures: Wave FourWalt Disney Treasures: Wave Four-Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two:This set covers the remaining Mickey Mouse cartoon shorts released in black and white.175,000 sets produced.-Disc one:*The Barn Dance *The Opry House *When the Cat's Away...
— December 7, 2004- Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two
- The Complete Pluto, Volume One
- The Mickey Mouse Club
- Walt Disney Treasures: Wave FiveWalt Disney Treasures: Wave Five-The Chronological Donald, Volume Two:This set covers the second leg of Donald Duck's long career, starting from 1942 to 1946, covering World War II in the process. The Japanese, French and German releases of this set only contains 29 of the 32 shorts available on the American release. The shorts...
— December 6, 2005- The Chronological Donald, Volume Two
- Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts: 1920s–1960s
- The Adventures of Spin & Marty (The Mickey Mouse Club)
- Elfego Baca and The Swamp Fox: Legendary Heroes
- Walt Disney Treasures: Wave SixWalt Disney Treasures: Wave SixThe sixth wave of Walt Disney Treasures was released on December 19, 2006. It contains four separate DVD sets.-More Silly Symphonies:This set contains all Silly Symphonies not released on the first volume in Wave One...
— December 19, 2006- More Silly Symphonies
- The Complete Pluto, Volume Two
- The Hardy Boys: The Applegate Mystery
- Your Host, Walt Disney
- Walt Disney Treasures: Wave SevenWalt Disney Treasures: Wave Seven-The Chronological Donald, Volume Three:50,000 sets produced.-Disc one:1947* Straight Shooters, 18 April 1947* Sleepy Time Donald, 9 May 1947* Donald's Dilemma, 11 July 1947...
— December 11, 2007- The Chronological Donald, Volume Three
- The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
- Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic
- Walt Disney Treasures: Wave EightWalt Disney Treasures: Wave Eight-The Chronological Donald, Volume Four:This set is the final volume on Donald and contains the remaining Donald shorts and featurettes from 1951-1961. However, this sets leaves out the three Chip 'n' Dale solo shorts...
— November 11, 2008- The Chronological Donald, Volume Four
- Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow
- Mickey Mouse Club Presents: Annette
- Walt Disney Treasures: Wave NineWalt Disney Treasures: Wave NineThe ninth wave of the Walt Disney Treasures series of DVDs was released on November 3, 2009. This wave comprises two releases, each containing one season of the 1957-1959 Zorro TV series. Note that these episodes were previously released exclusively through the Disney Movie Club, but those releases...
— November 3, 2009- Zorro: The Complete First Season
- Zorro: The Complete Second Season
End to the series
In January 2007, members of several Disney forums (such as goldenagecartoons.com) reported that they received e-mails from Walt Disney Treasures host Leonard MaltinLeonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
, claiming that the Walt Disney Company would not allow him to continue the series past Wave 6. The news sparked distress in the internet community, and forum members sent various letters, e-mails and petitions to the company asking to release at least one more wave, hoping to complete their collections of theatrical Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
cartoons, of which only half had been released on the Treasures at that point. (Today every Donald cartoon has been released on the WDT line.)
Later that month, it was reported on TheDigitalBits.com that the Walt Disney Treasures line would be continuing and that "at least a couple more waves of releases in the line are planned." Three more waves of Treasures have been released: in December 2007, November 2008, and November 2009.
In 2010, it was mentioned yet again that WDT line was dead. The studio itself had not said anything officially as to whether or not the Treasures line was dead. It had also been discussed what the future wave would include if the series would be allowed to continue; according to the Internet community, many ideas have shown up. One of them is if the series should move to Blu-ray disc, while another is that earlier sets would be re-released, which would give opportunity to fix some bugs found on the previous discs, alongside new to DVD/Blu-ray material.
Comic album line
In 2006, Gemstone PublishingGemstone Publishing
Gemstone Publishing is a U.S. company that publishes comic books and collectors' guides. The company was formed by Diamond Comic Distributors President and Chief Executive Officer Stephen A. Geppi. Gemstone published licensed Disney comic books from June 2003 until November 2008. The company has...
published the first of two Walt Disney Treasures comic albums: "Disney Comics: 75 Years of Innovation", reprinting approximately 160 pages of vintage international comics in chronological order. Much like the DVD releases, the comic album featured some politically-incorrect stories in unedited form, these were accompanied by an article to put them in historical context. The comic album also featured a cover designed to look much like the DVD series' cases.
In 2008, Gemstone published the second Treasures comic album: "Uncle Scrooge: A Little Something Special", featuring various Scrooge
Scrooge
Scrooge is a common English term for a miserly person.It may refer to:*Ebenezer Scrooge, the name of the selfish and miserly protagonist of Charles Dickens' 1843 novel A Christmas Carol ....
classics from over the years.
Two more Treasures comic albums were announced for 2009, with the titles: "Mickey Mouse: In Death Valley" and "Donald Duck: 75 Unlucky Years". However, due to the cessation of Gemstone's Disney comics license, these albums never came out in the Treasures series. In 2011, Fantagraphics books, aquiring the right to publish Disney's comic strips, published in that series "Mickey Mouse - Race to Death Valley" and "Donald Duck - Lost in the Andes".