TCM and Disney

So news came over the wire yesterday that TCM will be partnering with Disney. TCM will apparently be providing mateiral for the "Great Movie Ride" at Disney's Hollywood Studios attraction in Orlando, while Disney will be letting TCM show some material from the archives in prime time blocks on TCM. The first o those blocks is scheduled for December 21.

I have a feeling that anybody looking for Disney's animated features to show up on TCM will likely be disappointed. Disney have always seemed to me to be exceedingly controlling of their material, especially the classic animation that shows up o nthe latest home video format for a brief time, only to go back into the vaults before the next advance in home video comes along. I find it difficult to believe that Disney are just going to let TCM run something like Snow What and the Seven Dwarfs or Cinderella uncut and commercial free.

Still, some of the animated shorts are going to be showing up; the article mentions a 1932 short called Santa's Workshop that's on the December 21 schedule. For the most part, though, it looks like lesser-known stuff that, like MGM's Traveltalks shorts that I love to talk about, is of historical interest even if it isn't the greatest material the studio produced. I just wonder how long it will be until people start complaining about the lack of the truly classic stuff in these blocks.