Disney title cards

[Fredrik]

I've been wondering about the title cards on Disney cartoons, especially when watching the early color Mickeys. How come some of these have a grey title card, and some have a red one? The grey ones look "older", are the red ones reissues or what..?

[David Gerstein]

Yep. The red ones are reissues.

[Ray Pointer]

The answer is in the titles themselves. The gray sandstone title art carries the United Artists name, while the red reissues on the water color paper texture carry RKO Radio, since Disney changed affiliations to RKO in 1937. The same applied to a number of the SILLY SYMPHONIES as well.

Some of the earlier Technicolor Symphonies used a changing color wheel effect as on THE PIED PIPER OF HAMLIN. This, and aside from the truck in on the full face of Mickey Mouse was the only animation that was used in the title sequences of Disney cartoons, which generally were static. What is interesing is that studios such as Lantz and Famous used animated title sequences, while Disney with more elaborate budgets did not.

[Fredrik]

Yep. The red ones are reissues.

So are the originals completely lost for those cartoons that were reissued? I suppose so since Disney used many reissue cards on the DVDs...

[Daff Doc]

I think the reissues were just easy to pick up and use while the very, very originals would require some restoration work and then disney would be right where WB is with their Looney Tunes DVDs and we would only see one WDT a year.

[Timber Wolf]

Many Disney cartoons originally distributed by RKO Radio Pictures now have Buena Vista titles that were used in the reissue prints. On Disney Channel and Toon Disney, nearly all Disney cartoons with RKO titles have Buena Vista reissue titles. However, at least "Hooked Bear" had RKO titles.