Walt Disney Home Entertainment

Background: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment began its life in 1978 through MCA DiscoVision as "Walt Disney Home Entertainment". In 1980, Disney content was made available on videocassette under its own division known as "Walt Disney Home Video". Prior to 1981, their first releases were only live action films such as Pete's Dragon and The Love Bug. Starting in 1981 with Dumbo, they began releasing their animated films and cartoons on video. The Walt Disney Home Video name was kept until 2001, when it was once again named "Walt Disney Home Entertainment". Starting in the late 1990s, the company began producing DVDs, and in 2006, they started to release Blu-ray discs. Since 2007, it is known as "Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment". from 2017-2019, No Bonus Features on the DCD, but starting in 2020, Bonus Features Return.

1st logo
(December 1978-August 19, 1986, 1989, 1991, 2006)

Logo: we see a large light blue outline of Mickey Mouse's silhouette appearing and then panning forward, leaving a trail of multiple outlines while rotating counterclockwise on its pivot. The outlines then start to change one-by-one to dark blue. As the text "Walt Disney" (in the original Disney signature script, as used on The Wonderful World of Disney) sketches on the screen in yellow, the Mickey outlines one-by-one change to red. The outlines again one-by-one change to golden yellow (which quickly changes to light yellow) as the words "Home Entertainment", in yellow, zoom up and settle underneath. Last but not least, the Mickey outlines one-by-one change to green.

Special Variant: On some, if not all, of Disney's 1978 theatrical releases, this logo appeared as a solid red Mickey with purple dashed outlines surrounding it, rotating a bit faster than the home video variant. The text "Congratulating Mickey Mouse on his 50th Birthday!", in white and in a fancy font, zooms in. After a few seconds, it zooms in towards the screen until vanishing from sight, and the top and bottom halves of the 1978 "Stripes" variant of the Buena Vista logo are wiped in over the logo, opening the film. Two films that have it are The Cat from Outer Space and Return to Witch Mountain (it is intact on current releases of the former, but the Anchor Bay DVD doesn't have it).

Later Variants: Starting in 1981, The logo has darker colors and smaller Mickey graphics, the "WALT DiSNEY" text in the current corporate "Disney" font, and with "HOME VIDEO" in a Handel Gothic-like font in orange. in the colors blue and the edges is white, while the background is black. Also, the Sorcerer Mickey in this variant is also blue. FX/SFX: The Mickey outline spinning, the text appearing.
 * On the original 1983 series of Disney’s Cartoon Classics, the videos featured a different variant of this logo. The animation plays as normal (the standard 1981 Walt Disney Home Video variant), but without any text animation, plus the music is time-compressed. Once the Mickey outlines become golden yellow, the screen "flips" over to another logo, which is a still shot of "WALT DiSNEY HOME VIDEO," with "The magic lives on…” over it. The Disney text is in its corporate font in red, while the other text is light blue. The only animation in this part is the "WALT DiSNEY" text, which has glitter effects all over it, and then the text flashes when the Cartoon Classics theme begins playing. Then we fade into the intro for the video series.
 * On the Walt Disney and You promo, there is a video freeze (all the outlines are dark blue, except for the outline facing us which is light blue), and the text "The magic lives on... WALT DiSNEY HOME VIDEO" zooms in, along with a cartoon version of Sorcerer Mickey (as seen on the box). An announcer says "Now available from Walt Disney Home Video".
 * On some Italian tapes, we see a light blue binder on a wooden table with the "WALT DiSNEY HOME VIDEO print logo and the cartoon version of Sorcerer Mickey on it (quite possibly the way the videos were packaged there). Then it opens to reveal the logo's animation, and the whole thing plays as normal. This is very rare.
 * There's an even rarer variant found on Welcome to Pooh Corner: Too Smart for Strangers and Where the Toys Come From. It is detailed on the Disney Channel Originals page.
 * A rare Swedish variant has the 1981 logo with the text in yellow and "PRESENTERAR" (in a narrow serif font) inserted below.
 * There is also a variant where it said "Also available from" and "WALT DiSNEY HOME VIDEO"
 * On The Fox and the Hound 2, The text reads as "Walt Disney HOME ENTERTAINMENT".

Music/Sounds: A loud orchestral fanfare, composed by Buddy Baker. The "Walt Disney and You" promo had the end theme playing over the regular animation before the video freeze. On the DVD of The Cat from Outer Space, the Mickey's 50th Birthday variant is silent due to the audio being unrestorable. The Italian version of said variant does have it, albeit in distorted form (probably due to film deterioration).

Availability: Seen on Disney videos from the period, almost exclusively used in the United States and Canada.

from 1978 can be found on several early 80s tapes where the Sorcerer Mickey takes up nearly half the box (with red/orange lines in the center), but there are several tapes with this artwork style that use the 1981 "HOME VIDEO" variant as well. Later copies from 1985-1986 using the "HOME VIDEO" variant have a smaller Sorcerer Mickey on top of the border (surrounding the cover art). As Neon Mickey tapes were in print as late as 1991 in some cases (among them some Canadian prints of the 1989 VHS of Dumbo, and 1991 English and French Canadian releases of Pete's Dragon), some tapes with Neon Mickey packaging may have the Sorcerer Mickey logo.
 * The best way to find it is to look for a Disney video (usually VHS, but some on Betamax, and also LaserDisc and CED Videodisc) with white clamshell packaging (designed in which the inner sheets are impossible to remove without cutting the packaging) and the Sorcerer Mickey print logo on the cover. The early "Home Entertainment" variant
 * The versions on the Cartoon Classics series as well as the "Walt Disney and You" promo are extremely rare, since that promo was only seen between 1982 and 1986. The original releases with this logo from 1978-1979 can be seen on MCA DiscoVision laserdisc releases (usually appearing right after the DiscoVision logo) with a print logo featuring Mickey Mouse switching on an old laserdisc player with "Walt Disney Presents" underneath, but these are even harder to find than the VHS tapes!
 * This logo was also present on the Disney Cartoon Parade CED Videodiscs released and manufactured by RCA in 1981, following the RCA SelectaVision fanfare on side 1, and by itself on the second side. It has also showed up following the RCA Selectavision fanfare on various Disney feature films released by RCA from 1981-82 (from 1982 to 1986, Disney released CEDs under their own label). It also showed up on the earliest prints of the Classics releases of Dumbo, Alice in Wonderland, and The Sword in the Stone, but some later prints prior to October 1986 replace it with the first Walt Disney Classics logo from 1984.
 * The 1981 variant (with the music at a slightly lower pitch) appears on early Australian releases from Syme Home Video (usually preceding a promo reel), including the 1982 Australian VHS of Night Crossing, along with the next logo.
 * This doesn't appear on the VHS release of Trenchcoat (in fact, the only mention of Disney in any shape or form is on the tape label). It is also not featured on the VHS releases of Tron, Running Brave, Never Cry Wolf, and Something Wicked This Way Comes (the latter two likely due to the mature content of the mentioned films; the former, at least, uses this logo at the start of the videogram and on the labels, also appearing on the packaging for a 1985 reissue).

Editor's Note: This is a favorite of many, particularly those who grew up in the early 1980s with Disney and amongst collectors of rare Disney tapes. Others may have not-so-fond memories of it, mostly due to the loud and dramatic music.

2nd logo (International Variant)
(December 1981-March 1987)

Logo: On a Black Background, at the bottom, we see 1000 lines under in purple. the 1928 version of Mickey zooms out and we cut to pictures of Disney media from 1928-1987 trancitioning in the rectangle, are Steamboat Willie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty, Pinochooio (with Cinderella (Human) next to it), Mickey's Trailer, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, The Last of the Galliheion Horse, Homeward Bound (The Dog looks like the Nickelodeon Dog), Pirates of the Carribenion, The 3 Cabberelos, a flying car going to the screen (animation) and multiple Disney Characters zooming out (animation) The same Mickey trancition (but it's donald and halfway, it turns neon).We see 2 walls zooming out and Mary Poppins with her umbrella goes down and tinkerbell rises up, changing the clip to the Castle seen in Magic Kingdom. we go through the door and we see Epcot (Destoryed by Zach King in 2017) and we fly to the top and it goes away, the Walt disney logo fly in and "HOME VIDEO" fades in. we fade out.

Variants: FX/SFX: The flash, the zooming... and the clips! This was originally from the US intro of the 1981-83 version of The Wonderful World of Disney back when it was called, quite simply, Walt Disney. This has better animation then the last logo.
 * Sometimes, at the end, the logo flips like a Book to the program or Black.
 * Sometimes, "presents", in lowercase or uppercase, will fade in below, written in the language of the country in which it was released. The font of the text will also depend on the country. Italian tapes used "PRESENTA" in a bold, narrow font. Spanish tapes also used "PRESENTA", but in a cheaper narrow font. Finnish tapes used "ESITTÄÄ" in the same font as the Spanish version. There is another font that is bold, friendlier, more Disney-like. It is used in Swedish tapes ("presentera"), Danish tapes ("præsenterer"), French tapes ("présente") and German tapes ("präsentier"). The font for the latter is smaller. There is also another version with the word "PRESENTERIANIS" in a bold sans-serif font. It is currently unknown what that language is, and has appeared on a bootleg tape with what appears to be a Spanish-Italian mixed language. A version including "presents" in English was announced to have appeared in tapes from Australia and the United Kingdom (and most likely New Zealand and South Africa as well).
 * On some tapes, "HOME VIDEO" is omitted. This variation has some clips at the end replaced by other clips. It was used on the airings of the TV series from 1981 to 1983.
 * A version of this one has more clips and a neon Pluto head added, extending it to being a minute long. This one appeared on two tapes, and was actually the opening for the Walt Disney TV series (1981-83).
 * A variant of the TV series opening version (that is to say, the version without the words "HOME VIDEO") is made up of clips from the extended version. At the end, after "WALTDiSNEY" slides in, the word "PRESENTS" in white, and glowing, zooms into the screen from the bottom.
 * For the 1980s syndicated series "Disney Magic" (with the title logo replacing the tail end of this logo after the zoom into the castle), the logo featured a few different clips and a neon flying Dumbo added, along with a short preview of the following movie.
 * Sometimes, during the zoom into the castle, the logo changes to the 3rd domestic logo. This variant can be seen on some Scandinavian Disney tapes released in 1986 and 1987 (one example is the 1986 Finnish VHS release of The Sword in the Stone).
 * A version was found with a copyright notice saying "© Walt Disney Productions" in the Walt Disney font. This was found on the 1986 Japanese VHS of Make Mine Music.

Music/Sounds: A powerful disco version of "When You Wish Upon a Star".

Music/Sounds Variants:


 * An extended version appears on only two (unidentified) releases and the first showings of the Walt Disney TV series.
 * The HOME VIDEO-less variation's music has a slightly different ending.

Availability: Was mainly seen on tapes released outside the United States and Canada, usually from the UK, Europe, and Latin America, but also from Asia, Australia, and even South Africa.

tapes, as the earliest video evidence online shows that tapes in the Classics collection used the 1984 Black Diamond logo while a 1987 Cartoon Classics tape uses the Sorcerer Mickey logo, and no other video evidence has come to light as of writing.
 * The United States did use this logo briefly, but only on Spanish-language tapes such as Winnie Pu y el árbol de miel (Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree) and Winnie Pu y Tigger (Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too), both from mid-late 1986, and don’t expect to see this on their very first Spanish-language releases (such as Dumbo and Mary Poppins), as they use the previous logo.
 * It is unknown whether this appeared on any French Canadian
 * The "flipping" variant appears on the aforementioned tapes of Winnie Pu y el árbol de miel,Winnie Pu y Tigger, and The Adventures of Chip 'N' Dale, and the tail end appears during a series of trailers at the end of a Spanish-subtitled Venezuelan tape of El abismo negro (The Black Hole) as a clip-on.

Editor's Note: Like the previous logo, this is a favorite of many, though mostly outside of the United States.

3rd Logo (Australia and New Zealand Variant)
(April 1982-1989)

Logo: Against a white background, we see the usual Walt Disney Home Video text from before in blue, with "HOME VIDEO" in a Century Gothic-esque font. "distributed by" appears below in very small print. It then cuts to one of the two Roadshow Home Video logos used during the 1980s. For tapes that were released from 1982-1986, the "Aussie Light Trails" logo is used; tapes from 1986-1989 used "The Other V of Doom".

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on Aussie and New Zealand PAL tapes of Disney material that was distributed through Roadshow Home Video.

4th Logo
(1985)

Logo: Against a black/blue background is the "WALT DiSNEY HOME VIDEO" text, and underneath it is "PRESENTS", spaced out and in a serif font.

Variant: On a black background, the above WDHV text in white is seen for a few seconds, and then it fades out and "PRESENTS" is shown for a few seconds; the font depends on the tape, and the text is not spaced out.

FX/SFX: None.

Music/Sounds: None.

Availability: Seen on Disney's DTV series of music video collections released in the period. The variant can be seen on the 1985 Pinocchio sales pitch promotional video and the 1985 video release of Disney's Mousercise.

5th logo

(1986-2001)

TBA

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