TGIF: Opening Up the Disney Vault

In the dog days of summer, no less.

If there’s anything you should know about me, it’s that I tend to lean forward in my seat at the movies when I see a filmmaker fiddle with a studio logo. (Yes, that’s the one thing you should know about me.) Maybe it’s more accurate to say that I enjoy when a film has a different studio logo than the one you figure it will. I’ve even ranked the 25 best films that have manipulated studio logos, so when I say I am a logo man, ladies and gentlemen, you will agree.

I was thinking about manipulated studio logos the night before I wrote this essay, because I was attending a pre-release screening of the new Disney film Haunted Mansion. (I will have an official review at Slashfilm next week, but for now, I will tell you that it’s pretty good! Surprisingly so!) Some of you no doubt are aware that many Disney films have manipulated logos, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean films and Brother Bear. As the lights dimmed and the film started, I wondered if this new Haunted Mansion would join the list of films with such a tweaked logo. I mean, come on. It’s a movie about a scary house! What better title is there to have a manipulated logo?

Well, friends, if you can’t tell where I’m going with this yet, consider it the mildest of spoiler warnings: no manipulated logo here. The movie opens with the newfangled Disney100 logo that you’ve likely seen in front of Elemental, The Little Mermaid ‘23, and the like. No tweak to the visuals or the music. Zip.

Ah, but such is life. So, sans a manipulated logo, you get the big triumphant swell of the orchestral music over the image of the Cinderella Castle and the text “Disney100”. And I suppose I get it. It’s the 100th anniversary of the Walt Disney Company! It’s a big deal! When you think about how many times in the company’s first sixty years that they came close to dissolving or being bought, it’s amazing that Disney has hit the century mark and in such a different position now vs. the mid-1980s.

So, I say let Disney celebrate. Why, they even ought to re-release some of their older films!

Ah. Yes. Re-releasing their older films. Let’s talk about that today.