DISNEY DOES DVD.

When DVD first came on the market, some of the studios embraced it wholeheartedly, immediately starting to pour new and, soon after, old titles into the young medium. Others were more cautious, back until consumers beholding began to show acceptance, wary of the commercial failure of laser discs. Conspicuous in its absence was the Disney Studio, and the buzz in the market was that, until Disney endorsed DVDs, the new product was still suspect.

Well, Disney has observed the market, noted the booming sales of DVD players, and opened up its oh-so-valuable vaults, officially granting its imprimatur, to the delight of parents and children alike. With kids in the habit of playing favorite movies over and over until the tapes are fading, pictures are suffering from dropout, and sound is muddy, a crisis was springing up in the VHS arena. The problem was compounded by Disney's carefully conceived sales plan that keeps pulling titles off the market, making replacements impossible. With DVDs, the situation became less critical, since the discs are virtually indestructible with normal play.

The first wave of Disney classic animated features swept into the stores in time for Christmas shoppers to load up, with proper urgency ensured by the limited shelf life of 60 days each, guaranteeing that sales...