With that Mickey Mouse set having only 13 cartoons, I wonder if it's being aimed at collectors or children/families/casual fans more.

I'd say definitely the latter! This set very much reminds me of the old VHS collections. In the 80s there was the Limited Gold Collection which took viewers from Steamboat Willie through to the Simple Things. In the 90s there was a Mickey collection released in Europe which went from Steamboat Willie to Runaway Brain. These kind of collections included a sample black and white cartoon while focusing on colour.

Interesting to see the 2018 equivalent. Now there's about double the amount of cartoons, a more recent modern-day cartoon (with plenty of CGI) and of course it's on Blu-Ray with options to watch on other devices. That said, the world of home entertainment is completely different now. It will be interesting to see how well this set does and I do hope that some people find and enjoy a collection of cartoons they may have never seen before.

So far it's #27 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Kids & Family on Amazon (that's in the top 100), so it's selling. 😉

With less than a month left to wait for Celebrating Mickey to hit stores, I was browsing through Blu-ray.com's forum thread to see if there was any more information revealed about it. I didn't see anything regarding bonus features or technical specifications, but I did see a bunch of posts about the 'set' not having every short on it and Disney's current release strategy. These two posts in particular were of very big interest to me:

I'm not saying that different demographics would change the prices, but the difference between a set containing 13 shorts and one containing maybe 35 shorts definitely would.

Look at Disney's Once Upon a Time series releases. They market close to $60-$70 RRP. Large Mickey volume sets would likely cost the same.

This "Celebrating Mickey" is aiming for a different demographic than the "Collector's Set" crowd, and has been put together for a quick turnover from said demographic. And it will sell.

Very unlikely a $70 Collector's Set would sell to that in today's. market. We would buy them - yes, but we're not the main demographic anymore.

Yes, the studio treats their home video output very differently now than they did even a decade ago, and sadly, we're used to it now.

That said, again, *something* is better than *nothing at all*.

I would absolutely love to have a huge box set, over a small collection... but I feel like thats more on sales than anything. I don't think studios are going out of there to release big sets for niche markets sadly. They want a release that can grab the attention of the larger casual demographic. For example, a "90th Birthday Celebration!". They're bound to get way more people buying that than lets say a $80-100 box set. Also, with Disney coming out with a streaming service soon... this might be as good as it gets on blu :/

Taking things like these into account, what exactly can we do about expecting the studio to release their cartoons on anything outside of either what numerous people believe is the future of "home" media or a 13-short compilation aimed at casual fans and with barely any bonuses to speak of?

The only thing you can do is to make this release SELL (I've said it many times). If it becomes a #1 best seller after October 23rd, then this will convince Disney there is still a market for people who still want to buy Disney shorts on home video and aim higher.

So buy/pre-order it online, buy it in a store the day it comes out or when you have money, give it to a loved one on their birthday, the holidays, or just because, and the more it sells, the more chances of shorts continuing on home video AND maybe even bigger and better.

On the topic, Celebrating Mickey is now at #23 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Kids & Family on Amazon (let's try getting it to #1 before 10/23).

The only thing you can do is to make this release SELL (I've said it many times). If it becomes a #1 best seller after October 23rd, then this will convince Disney there is still a market for people who still want to buy Disney shorts on home video and aim higher.

So buy/pre-order it online, buy it in a store the day it comes out or when you have money, give it to a loved one on their birthday, the holidays, or just because, and the more it sells, the more chances of shorts continuing on home video AND maybe even bigger and better.

On the topic, Celebrating Mickey is now at #23 in Movies & TV > Blu-ray > Kids & Family on Amazon (let's try getting it to #1 before 10/23).

I would have thanked you for this post a hundred times if I could. I have this thing on my Christmas list this year (and may even pick it up immediately if I come across it before then) - need I say more?

My main concern, however, is with how we could expect Disney to release something bigger than this if the Celebrating disc does well. They're not very interested in doing any lavish box sets of their output now, so what could we expect - or want to see - out of them?

Trust me. They'll see how high the numbers are and that will give them some thinking.

Plus, I run a campaign on Facebook so in November you can request to them via DMC on Facebook to look into doing box sets if and will Celebrating Mickey sells.

Trust me. They'll see how high the numbers are and that will give them some thinking.

Plus, I run a campaign on Facebook so in November you can request to them via DMC on Facebook to look into doing box sets if and will Celebrating Mickey sells.

I hate to burst your bubble here, but no. The Disney Movie Club mainly does discs without any bonuses on them, and their track record with animated titles is (from what I've seen and heard so far) poor. They also don't ship their titles outside of the United States, so....

Ideally, why not do something along the lines of the "Looney Tunes" DVD collections? There were both Golden Collections for hardcore fans and animation/movie buffs and smaller Spotlight Collections for casual fans and people who could barely care less about any of the stuff packed into the bigger and more appealing sets. Disney could've done the same thing: not only could there be this, but also a set that contains more shorts and possibly some bonuses that mainly collectors would be interested in.

I hate to burst your bubble here, but no. The Disney Movie Club mainly does discs without any bonuses on them, and their track record with animated titles is (from what I've seen and heard so far) poor

I don't want to see the classic theatrical shorts go the DMC route either. But I'm still glad some of the older animated TV shows have gotten more DVD releases through the Disney Movie Club. If not for that, we might still not have Gargoyles Season 2 Volume 2 on DVD. And that set, along with several other of the Disney Afternoon DMC sets, went to general retail a few years later. Barebones, yeah, but at least they are available to buy in decent quality.

The idea is not to get the shorts through the Disney Movie Club, the idea is to get them through retail (with extras). Posting to DMC on Facebook is a way for a Disney representative to see and send that to the right people.

I do agree with WaltWiz1901 that there should be sets for collectors and sets for the casual buyer/families.

The idea is not to get the shorts through the Disney Movie Club, the idea is to get them through retail (with extras). Posting to DMC on Facebook is a way for a Disney representative to see and send that to the right people.

I do agree with WaltWiz1901 that there should be sets for collectors and sets for the casual buyer/families.

I somehow see your point about getting a representative aware of how much we want to see the shorts on Blu-ray, but posting that to DMC would only make them consider releasing even more discs with nothing but the shorts themselves exclusively through the Movie Club. If you want to find "someone" to share this thought with, how about the studio's Home Entertainment division?

I just checked on Disney's website  and noticed that all sorts of expensive, luxury Mickey Mouse merchandise from clothing to cooking supplies to toys are all professional, well-done, and best of all--any depictions of Mickey Mouse are actually on-model and well-drawn, even if they're stock poses.

The fact that the "Celebrating Mickey" Blu-Ray has not only shoddy cover art, but also a bare-bones selection of content, very certainly means that that release is destined for the bargain bin.

If I were you, I wouldn't get your hopes up too high.

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Yeah, they have a good merchandise department. I don't expect many off-model stuff there.

As for the off-model cover, why didn't they get someone like Mark or Eric to do the cover?

The fact that the "Celebrating Mickey" Blu-Ray has not only shoddy cover art, but also a bare-bones selection of content, very certainly means that that release is destined for the bargain bin.

If I were you, I wouldn't get your hopes up too high.

Those, plus the lack of anything online (or elsewhere) listing what's on the disc, are my three main concerns with Celebrating Mickey.

The announcement of this compilation was an excellent surprise after going through less than a decade without a lot of classic Disney cartoons on home media, but the primitive cover art, paltry count and selection of shorts (no black-and-white shorts save the only one the studio is interested in nowadays* (really, no Plane Crazy, The Karnival Kid, or The Mad Doctor? Come on, Disney!), plus the inclusion of Pluto's Party (which most likely was not initially released under the "Mickey Mouse" banner; people who argue otherwise should guess whose opening music plays over the opening credits) and Get a Horse! (seriously, that short isn't even a decade old yet and already it's been repeated on home video thrice while the other real B&W shorts go unreleased!)), and the lack of publicity surrounding this release are unacceptable. While I (and many, many other users here) would love to see a new collector-aimed release for these shorts, the chances of that happening now are unfortunately very unlikely and with Disney's incredibly poor handling of its back catalog on Blu-ray, they will most likely respond to this disc's performance either by keeping up with this hit-and-miss practice or dumping any of the shorts they do care about onto "Disney Play" - a platform I currently have no plans to try out.

*Yes, there is further proof to my thing about the studio only caring about Steamboat Willie and, at best, giving the other B&W shorts only a smidgen of attention. Just read the humdinger I found on an article on the exhibition coming in a couple of weeks:

From his beginning in black and white in Steamboat Willie to the technicolor world of more than 100 cartoon shorts, exhibition guests will step into an unforgettable journey of Mickey moments reimagined.