For the second week in a row an animated movie dominated the DVD sales charts, only this time it was the new Platinum Edition of the Disney classic, 101 Dalmatians, that took the top spot. Last week's winner, Beowulf, dropped to #3, but held on to the top spot in the rental category, where it has grossed nearly $20 million in two weeks, nearly a fourth of its box office total.
Obviously Beowulf, which sold nearly a million units on DVD its first week, is doing very well on DVD. These kind of DVD rental and sales performances are behind the "DVD effect" on graphic novel sales -- just think over six million people have rented or purchased the Beowulf DVD, while during its first week of release over half a million customers purchased the 30 Days of Night DVD with the full color IDW insert touting the 30 Days of Night graphic novels (see "IDW Insert in 30 Days DVD").
As for this week's winner, the 101 Dalmatians DVD represents the perfect marriage of a wonderfully entertaining Disney animated feature and a jam-packed disc of extras with plenty of features for both kids and adult animation fans. Released in 1961 after the failure of Sleeping Beauty had led to the downsizing of Disney's animation, 101 Dalmatians, with its innovative use of Xerography, proves that in this case "less is more" with a distinctive visual style that looks like a New Yorker cartoon come to life. The film was a smash hit in the 1960s and a good deal of its success was due to Bill Pete's amazing storytelling contributions as well as to its distinctive look.
The DVD market may have crested (though rumors of its demise are greatly exaggerated), but there is no doubt that in terms of creating a great "value-added" package, the medium is at its peak right now. Consider the extras on the 101 Dalmatians disc. For the kids there are games in which they can take care of their own puppy, a puppy profiler feature to find out what kind of puppy they are most like, a language contest that teaches numbers and the names of household items, plus a Selena Gomez music video of Cruella DeVil for tweens and teens. For animation buffs there are eleven different Backstage Disney featurettes about the animators, the technical processes, and even a 12-minute dramatization of the correspondence between Walt Disney and Dodie Smith, the author of the original 101 Dalmatians novel.
