Walt Disney Treasures

Walt Disney Treasures promotional title card

Re-packaged titles, without the tin cases.

The Walt Disney Treasures is a two-disc DVD set of classic Disney 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 on December 4, 2001, as a part of Walt Disney'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 and Roy Disney. 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,^[1] 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 One — December 4, 2001
  • Mickey Mouse in Living Color
  • Silly Symphonies
  • Disneyland, USA
  • Davy Crockett
• Walt Disney Treasures: Wave Two — December 3, 2002
  • Mickey Mouse in Black and White
  • The Complete Goofy
  • Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studios
• Walt Disney Treasures: Wave Three — 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 Four — December 7, 2004
  • Mickey Mouse in Black and White, Volume Two
  • The Complete Pluto, Volume One
  • The Mickey Mouse Club
• Walt Disney Treasures: Wave Five — 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 Six — 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 Seven — December 11, 2007
  • The Chronological Donald, Volume Three
  • The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
  • Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic
• Walt Disney Treasures: Wave Eight — November 11, 2008
  • The Chronological Donald, Volume Four
  • Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow
  • Mickey Mouse Club Presents: Annette
• Walt Disney Treasures: Wave Nine — 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 Maltin, 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 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^[2] 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^[3] 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 Publishing 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 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 and may never be completed.

References

1. ^ Ultimate Disney interview with Leonard Maltin
2. ^ The Digital Bits: My Two Cents, 01/26/07
3. ^ UltimateDisney.com Disney Discussion forum, 02/03/10

External links

• The Official Walt Disney Treasures Website