As we get more and more information on Disney+, I can't help but wonder how they're going to approach golden age Disney animation. We know that all of the animated movies will eventually make their way onto the service (jury is still out on "Song of the South"), but I'm especially curious about the Disney shorts. You can currently find a handful of classic shorts on Netflix (mostly ones based on fairy tales and nursery rhymes), though I'm sure those will be leaving in the coming weeks and months. Do you think we might get all of the Disney shorts on Disney+? Would you even want this? I know that so many of us on this site, myself included, love collecting physical copies of the cartoons on DVD and Blu-ray, and whether Disney+ has the classic shorts or not, I think I'll have mixed feelings either way. And now that I'm thinking of it, I guess this same broad question applies to any of the animated TV shows from the 1980s-1990s. Think we'll ever see shows like "Chip & Dale: Rescue Rangers," "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," "Recess," or any of the Renaissance movie spin-off shows?

It's going to be interesting for sure.

They made an announcement today, but didn't say anything specifically about the Golden Age shorts. My guess is that the old Disney Afternoon and Disney Channel originals are going to be a higher priority, along with the full length animated film catalog before the shorts become available. But I do think we'll probably get them all eventually.

Warner is also launching their own streaming service by the end of the year, and their latest announcement (from February) specifically mentioned both Looney Tunes and Bugs Bunny. My guess is that the Boomerang streaming catalog is going to be rolled into the Warner service, and they'll continue to add more shorts on occasion, as they have on the Boomerang app, until most of the Looney Tunes, Paramount, and MGM catalogs are on the service.

That said, with both Disney and Warner, I'm not too sure they're going to be in any hurry to release older black-and-white shorts, but between the two, I'd think Warner will be more ready to do it. Their press release also mentioned Casablanca, and that the focus would be to first get the back catalog on the service before diving into producing original series (basically the opposite of Disney's approach). From my reading of it, it looks like Warner wants to basically put all of TCM, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and the DC Comics universe online, along with their more recent movies and series ("Friends" and LOTS were properties that were mentioned specifically). So I'm hopeful that the entirety of the Looney Tunes, Paramount, and MGM cartoon catalogs become part of that--I'd love to see the Buddy cartoons in decent quality!

NBC Universal is also supposed to launch their own streaming service in the near future as well (yeah, there's about to be a saturated market). I don't know what their plans are, but I hope that it means we'll get the Lantz catalog online, too.

These companies seem to consider the home DVD/Blu-Ray market just about dead, so I think this is going to be our best chance to see a lot of this stuff in upgraded quality, since they're not going to get released on DVD/BR anytime soon. I'm hopeful, but I'll take a wait-and-see approach.

In the "sampler" of available films in their announcement, Steamboat Willie is mentioned. Here's hoping that's just the tip of the iceberg.

These companies seem to consider the home DVD/Blu-Ray market just about dead, so I think this is going to be our best chance to see a lot of this stuff in upgraded quality, since they're not going to get released on DVD/BR anytime soon. I'm hopeful, but I'll take a wait-and-see approach.

The exception to that might be Warner Archive. 🙂 But yeah, aside from them I don't see any of these companies putting out more dedicated collections of classic short cartoons at the moment.

Unless they get licensed out to boutique labels.

I'm skeptical that the archival stuff that I would like to see on a Disney subscription service is the kind of thing The Disney Company would want to present on it. I'm not at all excited about Disney+.

https://www.cartoonbrew....-whats-on-it-172628.html 

Only 13 classic Disney animated features will be available at launch. Not exactly what it sounded like when they said "ALL Disney motion pictures will be available" in the previous statement. That said, they're gonna add 500 movies in the course of the next year. No word on the shorts, of course.

My earlier post should have said "LOTR", not "LOTS". LOTR = Lord Of The Rings.

Yeah, my earlier write-up may have been a bit too enthusiastic, but at least with Warner, I think we absolutely will get a solid collection of shorts. At first, though, I imagine it's just going to be a duplicate of the Boomerang service (which, now that I think of it, I wonder if it will survive for very long as a standalone service once the Warner service comes out). And they might just put up a limited sampling--enough to satisfy the average streamer, while using it as an enticement to build interest among collectors, new and old, for future home video releases.

With Disney, seeing as they already said "Steamboat Willie" will be available, I would guess that means there will be more. They did put up some shorts in HD quality on the Disney Video website, so they definitely have some shorts readily available for digital streaming. It's just a matter of priority.

I could also see both services intentionally rolling out their catalogs over several years, solely for marketing purposes so they can claim every quarter and every year that they've added "300 new titles in January!" and stuff like that, to keep up enthusiasm for the services over time, until they've met subscription goals. And the shorts would help inflate those numbers because there's so many of them. But I also think that it will all depend on how many views they're getting. If they put up 100 shorts at the beginning but nobody's watching them, then they might not bother with much of the rest. But if they're performing solidly enough, then they'll be more likely to consider putting up more or most of the catalog.

Considering how many shorts were put out on the Walt Disney Treasures collection, and on Warners' Golden/Platinum collections, and on the Boomerang digital service, it shouldn't be a big deal to put them up on the new service, seeing as those are all digitized in some format already. But it remains to be seen if they actually think it'll be worthwhile.

One thing I'm sure of, though: I don't think we'll ever see the TerryToons up on CBS All Access.

With Disney, seeing as they already said "Steamboat Willie" will be available, I would guess that means there will be more. They did put up some shorts in HD quality on the Disney Video website, so they definitely have some shorts readily available for digital streaming. It's just a matter of priority.

Dude. Disney has TONS of HD-remastered shorts ready for use. The question is how many they will release on the service. I'm pretty sure they finished remastering their entire classic shorts library in HD years back.

Sadly, it looks like Disney+ is a miss. Not only will they only be showing select titles, but they just confirmed that Dumbo is going to be censored. They also confirmed that Song Of The South will not be included. Disney has a huge library of material, and only a very small percentage of it will be streamed on Disney+.

Sadly, it looks like Disney+ is a miss. Not only will they only be showing select titles, but they just confirmed that Dumbo is going to be censored. They also confirmed that Song Of The South will not be included. Disney has a huge library of material, and only a very small percentage of it will be streamed on Disney+.

Sources? Sad news, this, though Song of the South was no surprise.

I've been deliberately pretty vague about some of my reservations towards the Disney streaming service because I don't want to encourage censorship. However, the news about censoring Dumbo pretty much sums up my fears and I suspect this will be a trend.

https://www.hollywoodrep...ll-not-be-disney-1203624 

Might as well get a DVD copy of that film. I think this is a terrible mistake. It's like censoring a certain 1939 film.

I heard that someone from Disney confirmed that the crow cuts are a rumor.

Might as well get a DVD copy of that film. I think this is a terrible mistake. It's like censoring a certain 1939 film.

What "1939 film"?

Might as well get a DVD copy of that film. I think this is a terrible mistake. It's like censoring a certain 1939 film.

Or better, get the Blu-ray, which is also uncensored.

I heard that someone from Disney confirmed that the crow cuts are a rumor.

Has this been said online anywhere?

Guess we'll have to wait and see...

I still doubt Disney+ will offer much of interest the TTTP In Exile crowd, however. Looks like it's more targeted to people desperate for a version of "Lady and the Tramp" in the style of "Beverly Hill Chihuahua".

Might as well get a DVD copy of that film. I think this is a terrible mistake. It's like censoring a certain 1939 film.

What "1939 film"?

Gone with the Wind

I'm not sure if I'll be using Disney+ at all after reading the messages in this thread and a handful of articles about it. (It was only rumored that the Jim Crow scene in Dumbo would be removed; I recall reading somewhere that the scene would be left intact)

The ultimate tie-breaker for me would be if they were able to put some (currently) unreleased Walt-era shorts (the "Chip 'n' Dale" shorts, the Freewayphobia duology, less than seven of the found-after-the-Treasures-set-was-released "Oswald the Lucky Rabbit" shorts, etc.) and restored transfers of the shorts that were on The Chronological Donald: Volume Two and Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts on the service. If they don't, I'm definitely not subscribing....