Walt Disney Mini Classics on VHS
Walt Disney Mini Classics on VHS
This commercial was from around initial release of Walt Disney Mini Classics. They started with four, but would eventually release 17 titles until being phased out in 1993, when they were replaced by Disney Favorite Stories.
I worked in video stores while these were available and boy was there an appetite for these tapes, both as a rental and as a sale. Their lower price made them perfect gifts for kids who would re-watch them again and again. And when they went on sale from $14.95 to $12.99 or even as low as $9.99, we would always sell out of them.
They released sixteen titles under this banner starting in 1988 an ending in 1991.
Ben and Me
Bongo
Donald in Mathmagic Land
Mickey and the Beanstalk
Mickey’s Christmas Carol
Mickey’s Magical World
Peter and the Wolf
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The Reluctant Dragon
The Small One
The Wind in the Willows
Willie the Operatic Whale
Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore
Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day
Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree
Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!
All we had to do was put one of them on the TV in the store and when the intro would start people would stop in their tracks. They would just stare at the TV as if hypnotized.
While VHS was the more popular format to buy Mini Classics, they also sold them on Laserdisc. Each Laserdisc held the equivalent of two or sometimes even three VHS tapes worth of Mini Classics.
I held onto my original tapes and they are in a box somewhere. I find their packaging comforting, even if most of these classic were released on DVD and on YouTube. I am an especially big fan of Donald in Mathmagic Land, a short we watched often in school when I was a kid. You know, ‘cuz MATH RULES!