Walt Disney Mini Classics

Background: "Walt Disney Mini Classics" was created, due to the success of the "Black Diamond Classic" series, as a brand to release Disney animated featurettes on video. It included special featurettes (both classic and contemporary) such as Ben and Me and Mickey’s Christmas Carol, excerpts from the '40s "package" Disney films such as Peter and the Wolf, Mickey and the Beanstalk and The Wind in the Willows, and the four classic Winnie the Pooh featurettes.

(October 4, 1988-February 26, 1993, 1996)

Walt Disney Home Video - CLG WikiWalt Disney Mini Classics (Spanish)

Nickname: "The Mini-Classics Shield"

Logo: On a black background, yellow neon lines begin drawing a fancy shield outline, with scrolls and more. As the background turns blue, the words "WALT DiSNEY", in metallic white, zoom out and plaster onto the top of the shield outline, which is still tracing itself onscreen. Then, as the shield is finished "drawing," "MINI", in gold, appears letter by letter and zooms out onto the shield. Then a gold bar with "CLASSICS" on it, in black, zooms out and plasters itself in the center below "MINI". Suddenly, the shield outline background fills with rainbow colors as glitter effects fly from the now-completed logo, which "shines".

Variants: Later versions have stars added to the blue background. Some videotapes have the logo staying onscreen for an extra three seconds. On the 1990 VHS of Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too, the logo stays onscreen for fifteen seconds after the music is finished, then cuts to black. On Latin American releases, "CLASSICS" is replaced with "CLASICOS".

FX/SFX: All the CG animation in the logo.

Music/Sounds: A bright, musical synthesizer theme with synth-organ/flute sounds throughout, which matches up with the animation in the logo.

Availability: Rare. It's seen on Disney Mini Classics videos from 1988 to 1993, which are in slipcover packaging, and feature the Mini Classics print logo on top. This logo usually followed the 1986 "Sorcerer Mickey" Walt Disney Home Video logo on these videos. It ended with the 1993 reprints of the four Winnie the Pooh featurettes, and these videos immediately were discontinued, in favor of a newer series created in early 1994 entitled "Disney's Favorite Stories". Strangely though, it shows up on the 1996 "Favorite Stories" VHS of Mickey's Christmas Carol.

Editor's Note: This logo's a favorite among Disney video collectors, thanks to its neat design and warm, inviting music.