Disney is releasing a $1,500 Blu-ray box set — this sounds like a terrible deal
Disney has announced a new Blu-ray box set that costs more than one of the best OLED TVs and a top-of-the-range player put together. Even the most die-hard Disney fanatics will need to have a serious think — and maybe a consultation with a financial advisor — before committing their cash to this mammoth movie collection.
Set to release on November 14 for $1,500 (yes, that’s $1,500!), the Disney Legacy Animated Film Collection is a box set containing 100 Disney movies on Blu-ray disc. The picks start with 1937’s Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs and run all the way up to Pixar’s Elemental which was released in movie theaters in June and hits Disney Plus on Wednesday (Sept. 13).
The box set does highlight how many beloved classics the House of Mouse has released over the last 85 years with this set packing dozens upon dozens of animated favorites from Disney Animated Studios, Pixar and DisneyToon Studios, which closed in 2018.
The full list of movies included in the Disney Legacy Film Collection can be viewed below (courtesy of The Wrap):
1. Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs (1937)
2. Pinocchio (1940)
3. Fantasia (1940)
4. Dumbo (1941)
5. Bambi (1942)
See full list of included movies
6. Saludos Amigos (1943)
7. The Three Caballeros (1945)
8. Make Mine Music (1946)
9. Fun And Fancy Free (1947)
10. Melody Time (1948)
11. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
12. Cinderella (1950)
13. Alice in Wonderland (1951)
14. Peter Pan (1953)
15. Lady and the Tramp (1955)
16. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
17. One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
18. The Sword in the Stone (1963)
19. The Jungle Book (1967)
20. The Aristocats (1970)
21. Robin Hood (1973)
22. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977)
23. The Rescuers (1977)
24. The Fox and The Hound (1981)
25. The Black Cauldron (1985)
26. The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
27. Oliver & Company (1988)
28. The Little Mermaid (1989)
29. The Rescuers Down Under (1990)
30. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
31. Aladdin (1992)
32. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
33. The Lion King (1994)
34. A Goofy Movie (1995)
35. Pocahontas (1995)
36. Toy Story (1995)
37. James and the Giant Peach (1996)
38. The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
39. Hercules (1997)
40. Mulan (1998)
41. A Bug’s Life (1998)
42. Tarzan (1999)
43. Toy Story 2 (1999)
44. Fantasia/2000 (2000)
45. The Tigger Movie (2000)
46. Dinosaur (2000)
47. The Emperor’s New Groove (2000)
48. Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
49. Monsters, Inc. (2001)
50. Return to Never Land (2002)
51. Lilo & Stitch (2002)
52. Treasure Planet (2002)
53. The Jungle Book 2 (2003)
54. Piglet’s Big Movie (2003)
55. Finding Nemo (2003)
56. Brother Bear (2003)
57. Home on the Range (2004)
58. The Incredibles (2004)
59. Pooh’s Heffalump Movie (2005)
60. Chicken Little (2005)
61. Cars (2006)
62. Meet the Robinsons (2007)
63. Ratatouille (2007)
64. Wall•E (2008)
65. Tinker Bell (2008)
66. Bolt (2008)
67. Up (2009)
68. The Princess and the Frog (2009)
69. Toy Story 3 (2010)
70. Tangled (2010)
71. Cars 2 (2011)
72. Winnie the Pooh (2011)
73. Brave (2012)
74. Frankenweenie (2012)
75. Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
76. Monsters University (2013)
77. Planes (2013)
78. Frozen (2013)
79. Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014)
80. Big Hero 6 (2014)
81. Inside Out (2015)
82. The Good Dinosaur (2015)
83. Zootopia (2016)
84. Finding Dory (2016)
85. Moana (2016)
86. Cars 3 (2017)
87. Coco (2017)
88. Incredibles 2 (2018)
89. Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)
90. Toy Story 4 (2019)
91. Frozen 2 (2019)
92. Onward (2020)
93. Soul (2020)
94. Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
95. Luca (2021)
96. Encanto (2021)
97. Turning Red (2022)
98. Lightyear (2022)
99. Strange World (2022)
100. Elemental (2023)
The set comes in a bespoke presentation box and is split into three volumes. Each of these includes original poster designs and can be unfolded into a storybook that stands on its own. The pricey package also includes digital copies of all 100 movies, a certificate of authenticity, a lithograph for the upcoming Disney movie Wish and a collectible set of crystal Mickey Mouse ears. The extra will surely delight Disney collectors, which is a good thing considering the mammoth four-figure price tag.
This Disney box set is ludicrously priced
There’s no denying Disney has clearly put a lot of thought into the design of the box set, and the selection of 100 movies has been well curated — although the omission of The Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride is an injustice that I won't stand for — but it's hard to deny this box set is seriously overpriced.
I’m a lapsed Blu-ray hoarder, but even if my collecting days are (mostly) behind me, I still treasure my Alien Anthology and Batman: The Complete Animated Series box sets. So, I definitely appreciate the value of a well-put-together and presented Blu-ray set. Plus, I can acknowledge that a collection of classic Disney movies on an increasingly niche physical media format is going to carry a hefty price tag, but the math on this one doesn’t add up to me.
The Disney Legacy Animated Film Collection costs $1,500 and comes with 100 movies, which works out at $15 per disc, a value proposition that any collector would balk at. $15 per disc is within the regular retail price bracket for a Blu-ray (roughly $15-30). With a set of this scale, I would have expected the per-disc cost to be around $10 at most. In fact, the majority of people would be much better off just picking their couple dozen favorites from the 100 movies in this set and buying them each individually — you would save a lot of money that way, and not be saddled with discs for movies you don't particularly care for.
Of course, there is definitely some value in the extras included in the set. And when it comes to presentation, Disney has done a hell of a job making this box set look like a premium product. But unless you are a committed Disney collector, this 100-movie Blu-ray collection is a tough sell at such a high price. And that’s before you consider that $1,500 could pay for more than a decade of Disney Plus, where almost all of these movies are available to stream right now.
