The Virgin Vault

lock up your daughters.  I am about to speak frankly on the Disney Princesses.

I have a 4 year-old girl in my life, who right on schedule has fallen for the Disney Princesses.  You may think, because you see them everywhere, that their films are available for the picking.  You may think that, unless you too have a 4 year-old girl in your life.  Long before the other girl in my life (now 17 and long past her princess years, if she ever had them) was born her mother began stockpiling the classic Disney videos.  Video was not "new," but it was still a big deal, and we teased her about hoarding. But she was already clued in to The Disney Vault.

You may recall it was Disney early on who fought the legality of videotape technology, and famously (bitterly) lost.  Well hell hath no fury like the  Mouse scorned, so they now make us work for it.  Buy now (at inflated price) or hold your peace until the next convenient anniversary, which will be conveniently timed to coincide with a drastic change in technology, so that you can re-buy what you already paid too much for.


Disney-dot-dvd-go-dot-com (so many domains... how fitting...) maintains the official release calendar.  Beauty and the Beast - available NOW, and for a limited time.  How limited, they don't say.  It's like the fever of an eBay auction.  Buy it now!  Buy it nOW!  Oh wait, it is not actually available now -- it is available TO BUY now, and available on November 23rd.

Want Sleeping Beauty?  Sorry, it already had its 50th anniversary vault opening.  Better luck when your child is in high school.

I don't know what I am complaining about.  Of course, "in my day," movies came out when they came out and you never expected to own them.  (Oh, you dreamed of it, all right, but you didn't expect it).  But I had managed to see Gone With the Wind twice before there were VCRs, and somehow slept through Mary Poppins countless times, even though it was released the year I was born.  I'm not crying a river for the poor kids who can't enjoy the princesses who kissed with their mouths open -- I am just saying Disney is playing a little hard ball. 

If they were a Hollywood couple, they would be Arielric.

Parents:  start a swap program.  We know you paid hard cash for your Disney flix -- this isn't like giving away a bag of Old Navy shorts to someone at the office.  But a lending library database, or monthly movie afternoon (kids on one room, keg in the other) is the best way to get through these tween years without giving in  to the schlocky "sequels."

A couple items to share on this topic.
1) The Problem with the Princesses
2) Saturday TV Funhouse


Now that's some satisfaction.