After watching Aladdin (Don't ask!) I was thinking why this has never been shown on the BBC or ITV at all. Other films that come to mind that haven't ever been shown are Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Snow White etc.
However other Disney films like Monsters Inc., Dumbo, Mary Poppins, Toy Story etc. have.
Is there a legal issue from Disney meaning that those films mentioned before will never get shown on Terrestrial TV?
AIUI alot of Disney films were never shown on TV for quite some time, ITV made a deal with them in the mid-1980's, so alot of Classic ones started showing on TV for the first time, as time has gone on they either haven't been shown much or some have been on the BBC too.
It's like what they do with the VHS, DVD and Blu-Ray releases on some of their most precious films, in that they will release them for a short amount of time and then not release them again for years, so people will buy it knowing that they won't be able to get their hands on it again for a while. One Disney Film I've not seen on DVD at all is Fantasia which I'd love to see again, apparently it's due out in about 2010 or something.
Plus don't forget Disney now have Cinemagic, which is a premium rate channel, so I think some classics have been shown on it at some point.
Remember that up until the 90s, all Disney films were re-issued to cinemas every decade so there was no need for them to be shown on TV. I think that continued up until about 1997 and then they were all out on video anyway.
The Disney Channel have shown a couple of films before that I don't think have ever been on terrestrial TV. Snow White was shown in 1998 and The Jungle Book was shown on the first night of the channel in 1995.
IIRC Aladdin has been on BBC1 on an easter morning years ago...
I may be wrong though
I think an Aladdin sequel that went straight to DVD was shown on BBC1. The original has still yet to be shown on the main channels. Disney don't like their big animations shown on the main channels, they were shown on The Disney Channel for a limited period then taken off.
The last time Disney had some of their classic feature length cartoons on a main channel was when they sold a package including Dumbo, Pinocchio and Lady And The Tramp to ITV. They actually offered it to the BBC first but they spent too long deciding on the price. As for the recent Disney/Pixar movies I think the BBC has signed a deal with Buena Vista which included things like Pirates Of The Caribbean.
Aladdin was shown on The Disney Channel at Easter 1997 I think.
Makes sense about Pinocchio, didn't that not get shown until about 1990 or something? Can't be many films to have their terrestrial premiere 50 years after their theatrical one!
Suspect the Pixar films are separate to the conventional Disney ones.
Disney have always been quite careful with their movies. For man years, and this may still be the case, they released their movies on VHS and Laserdisc for relatively short periods - so they weren't constantly available in the shops.
They do have a very different life-span to many other movies - as they are "evergreen" and the classic movies still appeal to new audiences of children (unlike many live action features) even though they were often made decades ago.
I suspect they are more likely to crop up on the Disney Channel than elsewhere, and some movies are unlikely to crop up on the main terrestrials.
Of course it wasn't always like this - the last programme shown on the BBC Television Service (the only TV service in the UK) before the war was a Disney Mickey Mouse cartoon. and it was shown again when the service restarted I believe. (But I accept that short cartoons are different to movies).
There used to be a long running TV show called "The Wonderful World of Disney" which showed cartoons, and I think I remember film excerpts also being shown?
I do remember there being a show on BBC1 in the 90's on Bank Holiday Mondays called Disney Time. That used to include clips from the mentioned movies as well as the cartoons.
So I would imagine that if Disney let the BBC show fairly long clips of their movies then they can't be that protective over them.
I do remember there being a show on BBC1 in the 90's on Bank Holiday Mondays called Disney Time. That used to include clips from the mentioned movies as well as the cartoons.
So I would imagine that if Disney let the BBC show fairly long clips of their movies then they can't be that protective over them.
That show was on in the 70's when I was growing up as well along with The Wonderful World Of Disney. Those were the days.
It's becoming a bit clearer now - it probably wasn't so much about preserving the films at all, but pushing the TV production arm instead. After all, I'm sure if they held back the movies they could charge more for the cartoon series.