I am wondering if I can weed out my Disney Gold Classic Collection of DVDs; i.e. the titles that have been reissued by the company in "better" or expanded editions. Has anyone on this forum (or anywhere else for that matter) done extensive research regarding the differences in the editions?

Well which Gold Classic DVDs do you already own? And are you simply looking for newer editions? Because some of them (not sure which) have simply been repackaged and have only a game or other worthless bonus feature added.

There might not be a quick list, but browsing Ultimate Disney is probably your best bet.

To rjh_54: I am basically looking to weed out Disney Gold Classic titles that I have newer DVD editions of. But I want to know if the newer editions are always better picture-wise (mastering, widescreen vs. fullscreen where applicable, etc.) and extras-wise.

To joltman: Thank you for steering me to the Ultimate Disney site. I wasn't aware of it. Surely I can find some answers there.

As far as I know the following have never been re-released as better editions:

Hercules (shocked this hasn't been given an upgrade)
The Rescuers Down Under
A Goofy Movie
Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Fun and Fancy Free
Melody Time
Make Mine Music
Pocahontas II

Check also dvdcompare.net to see which extras were passed from one edition to the other.

It's up to individual taste of course, but I have held on to many of mine even when there has been a spiffy new remaster. The latest golden interpretation of Peter Pan that came out taught me that lesson. Of course the gold was outdone only by the rather odd color choice for the indians' skin. Now the song "What Makes the Redskin Red?" doesn't even make sense. Don't know what they were thinking, but they're full of shit if they want me to believe that's how it looked back in the day.

The Gold Collection Jungle Book, Aristocats, and Robin Hood are all FS OAR.

The later editions ("Platinum," "Special," and "Most Wanted" editions, respectively) are cropped to 1.75:1 (and anamorphic).

In my collection, I also have the Gold Collection Sword in the Stone, as I believe the newer version only has an added game.

FYI, there's debate over which is the proper OAR for those 1.33/1.75 titles.

I don't think there is. I remember seeing Jungle Book theatrically during the 1990 reissue and it was definitely a "widescreen" presentation. If anything, the 1.33:1 copies just open up the top and bottom.

Yeah, I kept that one too because there are a few special features on the Gold Collection that were missing from the newer version.

I don't know what the current debaters are saying. I read quite a bit about it on various forums at the time that the Robin Hood "Most Wanted" came out. I am willing to believe the opinion that they were animated primarily for airing on TV.

I get the other side's argument. There are quite a few things that are animated in FS, but the top and bottom are just filler material (like Justice League). However, I just refreshed my memory by looking at the screenshots at UltimateDisney, and as I said, I'm willing to go with the side that says the animators were planning on TV as the main medium for these movies (initial theatrical run and then extended life as periodic re-broadcasts). The screenshots of the widescreen Jungle Book at UltimateDisney even show things getting cut off on top and bottom.

How it was shown in the theaters doesn't matter to me as much as the animators' intents. Just because theaters "screwed it up" doesn't mean that's the "OAR."

All the other films from that era have been preserved from version to version in FS: Sword in the Stone, 101 Dalmatians, The Fox and the Hound, and the features from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Although The Rescuers predates The Fox and the Hound, it appears it was animated in some kind of widescreen, like later features. The Great Mouse Detective had the opposite occur: the earlier 1.66:1 version seems to be cropped compared to the later 1.78:1 version.

I believe that Disney released the 2nd versions of Robin Hood, Jungle Book, and Aristocats at a time when they simply didn't care about the ideas of preserving original intent or artistic composition, but were instead focusing on "filling the screen" of new WS TVs. We've seen other studios do this, too (1st season of Kung Fu, for example), but thankfully, for the most part, it has stopped.