{"id":3159,"date":"2016-09-10T10:48:33","date_gmt":"2016-09-10T14:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fiveforks.com\/ted\/?p=3159"},"modified":"2024-08-03T18:46:25","modified_gmt":"2024-08-03T22:46:25","slug":"disney-movie-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fiveforks.com\/ted\/2016\/09\/disney-movie-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Disney Movie Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I got some junk mail inviting me to join the Disney Movie Club, which has about the same business model as Columbia Record Club had for LP records. You get some free movies up front, have “opportunities” to buy movies every month (they ship and bill you for them unless you say no), and have to buy a few movies at full price later. The deal I got in the mail had you getting 5 movies up front and you had to buy 4 more, but if you bought one at half price now, you only had to buy 3 more at full price. I researched it<\/a> and found a deal where I only had to buy 3 more, or 2 if you bought one now (the default deal if you visit the website is the worst: Get 4 now, buy 5 at full price later). For the most part the selections included whatever movies Disney currently has on disk (they intentionally take older classic titles out of production, putting them back “in the vault” so that people will snap them up when they re-release them later; also some titles are for members only and not available in the initial enrollment), plus Disney properties like Pixar, and including some live action movies like Marvel and some other ones. I have a lot of Disney and Pixar movies already, but it seemed like I could come up with 9 movies total that would cost $90 grand total. $10 each for Bluray movies is pretty good, and they often include a DVD copy and a digital download so you can add it to iTunes and play on your computer or other devices. So I decided to do that. And once you buy your movies at full price, you can cancel your membership and do it all over again if you want even more movies. If you are careful and buy two $25 commitments instead of $30 commitments it is only $80.<\/p>\n

Edit: The Disney Movie Club is now closed.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tips:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Use the promo code<\/strong>, the only way to pay about $8 per movie on average<\/li>\n
  2. After you enter your payment info and address, pick the first bonus item for $11.95 since it counts as a commitment, leaving you with only 2 to buy at full price.\n
  3. Pre-order upcoming and new releases for $24.95 (they will go up in price later)<\/li>\n
  4. Star Wars movies are not eligible for enrollment so use them for your commitments<\/li>\n
  5. Choose low price commitments (older movies as low as $19.95)<\/li>\n
  6. Only get movies you would pay $8 for<\/li>\n
  7. Don’t join if you won’t buy the commitments<\/li>\n
  8. Don’t join if you can’t remember to decline feature titles<\/li>\n
  9. Cancel and re-enroll when you finish your commitment<\/li>\n
  10. If you want 4K movies, stay a VIP and get as many as you can at once with a Buy One Get 60% off deal\n<\/ol>\n

    Since I have most of the Pixar movies already, I was more focused on picking through Disney movies. I already have two big ones: Aladdin<\/em> and Beauty and the Beast<\/em> from the “Disney Renaissance” of the 1990’s when Disney animated movies got good again. In the 2000’s, they tried some new directions with not very good results before getting to some movies that I liked, like Meet the Robinsons<\/em> and Bolt<\/em>, before hitting it big again with Frozen<\/em> in 2013. Lately, Big Hero 6<\/em> and this year’s Zootopia<\/em> have gotten some good reviews, but I had not seen them. Meanwhile, DreamWorks and others are also doing animated movies all the time, as well as Pixar, and some others, so there really are a ton of animated movies coming out, enough that 5 are nominated for an Oscar category of best animated feature.<\/p>\n

    But there is something about the classic Disney studio movies, starting with the first feature length movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs<\/em>, way back in 1937. Pinocchio<\/em>, Dumbo<\/em>, and Bambi<\/em> all came out in the early 1940’s before a wartime lull. The 1950’s saw another good run with Cinderella<\/em>, Alice in Wonderland<\/em>, Peter Pan<\/em>, Lady and the Tramp<\/em>, and Sleeping Beauty<\/em>. Things got more sporadic in the 1960’s with the only standouts being 101 Dalmations<\/em> and The Jungle Book<\/em>, and then went downhill with cheaper animation and less frequent movies (Disney was doing more live action movies) for the rest of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s until the renaissance began in 1989 with The Little Mermaid<\/em>. I’ve never seen half of these. I remember seeing Robin Hood<\/em>, with all of the characters portrayed by animals when it came out. I think we saw Aristocats<\/em>, but I was probably a little young to remember it. And I remember seeing what must have been re-releases of The Jungle Book<\/em>, Bambi<\/em>, and The Sword in the Stone<\/em>.<\/p>\n

    Anyway, I was able to pick out a few movies for my Disney Movie Club picks by picking Bolt<\/em> and Meet the Robinsons<\/em>, which I had seen and liked, as well as a special edition of Aladdin<\/em> even though I have it on DVD already. I also got Pixar’s Wall-E<\/em> which I liked, but not as much as some and had never gotten it on disk. On blind faith, I went ahead and ordered Zootopia<\/em> and Big Hero 6<\/em> and, since they have a special edition and I had never seen the original, Snow White<\/em>. Now I only have to buy two more, and one of those could easily be this year’s Pixar offering Finding Dory<\/em>. I could wait for more things to come out or pore over the older movies and see if there is something I should get, so that got me going back and looking at how the whole catalog of Disney animated movies stacks up, which I will write about later, but to start with here are all of the Disney animated movies. This doesn’t include movies that are partially live action like Mary Poppins<\/em> or Song of the South<\/em>. That doesn’t matter when picking a movie to buy, maybe, but when people rank the movies, they all need to be working off of the same list, so here it is, the Disney animated movie canon<\/a>:<\/p>\n