Studios large and small are mining their archives so they can reintroduce classic short films to a public with a growing interest in this genre. © Buena Vista Home Ent.

The production of animated shorts has been on the rise over the last five years or so. Not only are more and more animators producing short films for the proliferation of content-hungry online and mobile distribution platforms, but the major studios have upped their activity in the animated feature film business and are having their animators create short films as training tools. At the same time, studios large and small are mining their archives so they can reintroduce classic short films to a public with a growing interest in this genre.

The expanding supply of shorts has led many companies to consider releasing compilation DVDs. But compilations remain a small and challenging niche within the DVD business. Competition is fierce, and the offerings at retail are dominated by brand names. At the same time, compilation DVDs face competition from newer digital technologies ranging from video-capable cell phones to video podcasting, which are becoming accepted means of distributing animated shorts.

Big Brands
Both Buena Vista Worldwide Home Ent. and Warner Bros. Home Ent. have ongoing DVD compilation series featuring classic shorts, targeted mainly at collectors. Buena Vista, for example, released Volume VI of its Walt Disney Treasures series in December 2006. "Mickey Mouse and all the popular characters started in shorts," comments Lori MacPherson, BVWHE's gm, North America. "We're appealing mainly to the Disneyphile collector market, but there are a lot of families that end up buying them too."

Each year, four numbered, limited-edition, two-disc Walt Disney Treasures sets are released, packaged in tin cases and includine an exclusive lithograph and an authenticity certificate. Much of the content is animated; Volume VI includes More Silly Symphonies and The Complete Pluto Volume 2, while previous releases have included collections of award-winning shorts, black-and-white Mickey shorts and color Mickey shorts. Each disc contains never-before-seen materials that would appeal to the collector market, in addition to the short films themselves. Marketing includes ads in collectors' publications.

A few numbered, limited-edition Walt Disney Treasures sets are released every year, packaged in tin cases and include an exclusive lithograph, an authenticity certificate and never-before-seen materials. © Buena Vista Home Ent.

Pixar has created a number of short films over the years, largely as a means of professional development for its animators. In 1996, it produced a compilation VHS release, Pixar's Tiny Toy Stories, which featured Knick Knack, Tin Toy, Luxo Jr., Red's Dream and The Adventures of André and Wally B, but no Pixar compilations have been released in recent years. Currently, most of Buena Vista's DVD releases of Pixar feature films include Pixar-produced shorts as extras, such as Mater and the Ghost Light on Cars and Jack-Jack Attack on The Incredibles. Similarly, Disney feature DVD releases sometimes include shorts as extras; the Oscar-nominated The Little Match Girl appeared on The Little Mermaid last October, for example.