Walt Disney Home Movies (Rarities)

[Phil Moors]

Hello, I was wondering if any of the titles released by Walt Disney Home Movies were hard to come by. I refer to the original Walt Disney issues in full colour boxes, not Derann reprints in white boxes.

I know the the hardest ones I tried to obtain were - ‘Prisoner of the Pirates’ from Peter Pan and ‘A Most Befuddling Thing’ from Sword in the Stone. Also years ago at the Blackpool Film Convention I picked up a 50’ reel entitled ‘Mary Poppins Wins the Race’ upon viewing this was issued by WDHM but showed the action in a speeded up form?.

Additionally, for years I have tried to track down a colour sound copy of ‘The Aristocats’ and ‘Mysterious Dr Syn’ but both appear to only be available in colour silent.

Does someone have a definitive list of WDHM colour sound releases?

[Winbert Hutahaean]

You will find easily the WDHM of Escape from Astragad on Ebay or such as, but I bet you would have hardly seen the second part "Flight of the Hyperion".



I would say ‘Prisoner of the Pirates’ is rather easy but he Jolly Holiday as the second part from Marry Poppins - Super Nanny is rather rare.

The Aristocats come quite easy but the second part "Meets Scat Cat" is not really.

The second part of Bedknobs And Broomsticks, i.e "The Beautiful Briny" is also rather rare.

From four Love Bug #53 franchise the rarest one is "Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo"

But for the WDHM animation (cartoon) here is the list which I think for 33 years of my collecting time, I rarely seen them. They are all available in 200', color and sound.

The first three is the most extremely rare. They are not even in Super8 Database website. So Eivind Mork if you want to include them, please do so. I don't have them but Gian Luca Mario Loncrini at the great old forum has confirmed to have them in color and sound.




cheers,
Winbert

[Edward Nicielnik]

Disneyland From Dream to Reality

[Maurice Leakey]

As I recall, in the very early days of the extracts from features with sound Disney only issued their "proper "short" cartoons as silents.

I have two such films in original Disney boxes marked "Silent" but were sold by Derann as sound. I assume that Derek & Co actually did the striping and the recording.

So, were all the films shown above by Winbert on Super 8 sound & colour? I have many of them on 16mm sound and colour.

[Phil Moors]

Thanks all of you for the input. Winbert you are spot on with your observations. I have to say I had never heard of ‘Brer Rabbit’s Laughing Place’, ‘The Flying Burro’ or ‘Pedro the Mail Plane’ being released by Disney. I have been collecting since 1977 and have never seen a copy of any of these. I have most of the others you uploaded, and have been going through them recently.

It is sad to see some of them turning red, and yet others are good. I note from your previous posts that your huge collection is plagued by these problems, exacerbated no doubt by the climate where you live. Do you use colour filters to correct this and which would you recommend?

[Brian Fretwell]

As I may have said before I have a Standard 8 silent print of "Clown of the Jungle" that is on Agfa stock and still has great colour. Why they couldn't have continued using Agfa on Super 8 releases I will never know.

[Adrian Winchester]

I can't add much but I'm sure 'Mysterious Dr Syn' was only a silent release. I briefly had a copy but wasn't inspired to view it more than once! I recall hearing that ‘Prisoner of the Pirates’ wasn't sold in the UK, so it may appear rarer here than (e.g.) in the USA.

[Joe Caruso]

Disneyland; From Dream to Reality...rather scarce...Cheers, Shorty

[Edward Nicielnik]

I can fly from Peter Pan 50 Feet Color Sound Rare

[Phillip Campey]

I have Trick or Treat with sound, before I managed to get hold of it I could only find a 200 silent wdhm version. Derann must have released it.

[Maurice Leakey]

Indeed. See my posting #4 above.

[Osi Osgood]

" I Can Fly" was put out there as a "freebie" with projectors, one of which were the Sears brand projector. Very short, not even a full 50ft, but no doubt neat to add to the 2x200ft Peter Pans. I have never seen "Flight of the Hyperion" or "Brer Rabbits laughing place"!

[Osi Osgood]

I forgot to add that there is an extremely rare 50ft, which was talked about on here, that was an "advert" for other WDHM products, with a "wrap around" story of Donald putting up his projector for his nephews and screening films. I don't know which short they got the footage from. Does anybody know?

[Brian Fretwell]

Indeed. See my posting #4 above.

Yes, I believe between them LGP and Derann bought all the remaining Disney Home Movies UK stock when they gave up distribution, including boxes and already printed films. I imagine quite a few were silent versions. I have no idea about master materia, but I doubt it.

On the last Open Day/closing down day I bought a new un-boxed copy of The Three Caballeros, on Fuji stock, so not a reprint.

[Phil Moors]

I never realised that ‘Disneyland from Dream to Reality’ was scarce. I have a colour silent copy but it is beet red. It really is pot luck with what film stock Disney used for their extracts. My ‘101 Dalmatians Escape’ used to have great colour, but has now pinked (sigh) but ‘Escape from Astragard’ still has great colour, pity as ‘Island at the Top of the World’ is a poor offering. I did manage to obtain ‘Flight of the Hyperion’ which is definitely the best of the two extracts.