A couple of years ago I joined the Disney Movie Club and was able to get 9 Disney Blu-ray movies for about $90, so $10 each on average. The next time I enrolled I got a little smarter and got 9 movies for $80 (about $9 each on average) by pre-ordering new releases for my two commitment titles while the prices were marked down from $29.99 to $24.99 temporarily, saving $10 total. Now they have loosened up the rules a little more and will count titles priced as low as $19.95 as a commitment. However, they don’t have many titles for that price, mostly older titles, often older editions that don’t include a digital copy of the movie.
After my third enrollment, I started to run out of movies I wanted to own, but Disney is also making new movies and releasing new editions of old ones, so I just have to be patient. After my third enrollment I stayed a member for a year until Disney released two new titles I wanted as commitments to complete my obligation. During that time I was lucky someone used my Refer a Friend link and I got two additional movies for the cost of shipping only. So that time around I got 11 movies for $85. Plus all of these movies come with Disney Movie Reward points that you can save up and get an older Blu-ray title. I have gotten 9 more movies for free using those points, most of which come from the movies I am getting at the club (also other movies, movie tickets, and little bonuses Disney gives away).
Today I finished up the commitments on my fourth enrollment. This month they were offering free shipping with any regular price title. Shipping for one movie is $3.95, so shipping is a chunk. I wound up choosing The Fox and the Hound as one of my two commitments. It isn’t that highly ranked in the Disney canon, but I have never seen it and some people like it. Plus it includes a sequel for free and each of the movies should come with a digital copy and 150 Disney Movie Reward points each, twice as much as most movies. Plus the movie was only $21.95 shipped. Usually when I get a commitment I pay $24.99 plus $3.95 shipping, so $28.94. This movie is $7 less. And when I am paying on average only $9 per movie, that’s like getting this movie for only $2 (or like lowering the average cost of all of the movies).
I really couldn’t think of anything else to get, but that was such a good deal that I kept thinking about it. I was a little disappointed with most of the new movies by Disney this year including A Wrinkle in Time (B+), Solo (B+), The Incredibles 2 (B), and Avengers: Infinity War (B), so I probably won’t buy those. The old re-released titles this year included Lady and the Tramp which I got in my 4th enrollment and Peter Pan which maybe is one I could skip (and did skip, this past week its price went back up to $29.99, but I could get it in a future enrollment). I was hoping they would re-release a third movie from the vault and it could possibly be Cinderella which I also have not seen, but ranks very high. Last year it was already known at this time of year that Lion King was coming out, so maybe they won’t do a third title.
Somehow I thought about getting Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which I remember liking and it still has a lot of fans. Researching it, the only version the club has is the 25th anniversary edition which came out in 2013 and includes Blu-ray and DVD, but no digital copy. However it is also priced at only $19.95. That is $9 less than the usual $28.94 price and at $9 less than the average price of $9, it is like getting the movie for free! I held off getting it hoping maybe I would think of something better, but then decided I may as well go ahead and get it. Then if new re-releases come out I can make those part of a fifth enrollment. However if I don’t get this year’s titles (I didn’t even see Ant-Man and the Wasp and probably won’t see the upcoming Wreck-It Ralph 2, so I sure won’t buy them) then it could be a while before the next enrollment. I am thinking that within the next year not only Cinderella but also Sleeping Beauty will be released and I would get both of those due to their high rankings. And I would also like to get Black Panther, but I need six titles for an enrollment. So, again, patience is required.
I got a Refer a Friend bonus today, probably through the blog, so thanks to whoever clicked my link. Only the second time that has happened. While the friend gets full access to all enrollment titles (and hopefully used the code for the best deal), there is a special subset of movies available for my 2 free movies. I was surprised it included fairly new releases like A Wrinkle in Time and Peter Pan, but disappointed it did not include Black Panther, which is one of my main reasons to re-enroll. I picked The Avengers and Peter Pan. I still pay shipping, but this made an already inexpensive enrollment even cheaper. These two picks put me further away from being able to put a new enrollment together, though, so when I eventually get Black Panther it will probably be after all of the slipcovers have disappeared (though maybe it will show up at a good price on Black Friday).
Over Black Friday, Best Buy had great prices on Black Panther and Avengers Infinity War, so I bought both of those, leaving me that much further from my next Disney enrollment (there is a code now which gives you free shipping on all orders, not just the enrollment, which is a nice savings). Then on the weekend after Black Friday, I had two refer-a-friend signups. It takes about a week for them to activate and offer me the two free movies I get. I thought the likelihood of two people signing up on the same day when this is only the third time in 2 years that it has happened meant that one was an error, but a week later both counted and I earned four free movies (I still have to pay shipping, but that comes out to about $3 each with tax). Yay! So thank you again random internet people! And Google, I guess, who must have helped them find the post.
I really don’t have that much more I want at Disney, but the low price opens more possibilities, so I chose two old Pixar movies I don’t have yet: A Bug’s Life and Monsters, Inc. Rather than rush into buying something else (was thinking about The Rescuers double feature and Tangled, but neither comes with a digital copy), I would wait a month or two and maybe get two titles that aren’t on the list yet, Incredibles 2 and Ant-Man and the Wasp, despite not being crazy about the former and not having seen the second after not being impressed with the original. Rumors are that the next Signature release from the Disney Vault will be The Little Mermaid, which I already have. I was hoping for Cinderella, but the last time they released Cinderella people complained that in an effort to clean up dirt and specks from the film they also wiped out a lot of detail. Maybe they are re-scanning it.
I decided not to wait for new titles to show up and instead just ordered The Rescuers and Tangled. The Rescuers is really two movies from the Disney canon and I haven’t seen either. I liked Tangled and it is also canon. This turned out to be a great decision because this week Disney Movie Club is doing free shipping on all orders and I was surprised to see that I got free shipping on my free movie picks. So just two totally free blu-rays!
This week another person signed up (thank you, whoever you are!). Also Ant-Man and Wasp became enrollment eligible this week, so I am hoping I can pick it (won’t know for a few more days when they hopefully award the two movie selections). I don’t want it that much, but it is fairly new, so still selling for around $20 and will almost certainly come with a slipcover (plus I haven’t seen it). So I think it’s just a better value than an older title like Aristocats or Brave. [Wound up getting Ant-Man and the Wasp as well as Brave, figuring this release of Brave came out last year and may still come with a slipcover [it did not, but Ant-Man and the Wasp was better than expected].]
At the end of February, I got a fifth sign up from the forward to a friend program. This time I picked Incredibles 2, which just recently became eligible as a selection, and Disney’s Robin Hood, which I remember seeing in theaters as a 7-year old and liking. Though I wasn’t crazy about the movie when I saw it at the theater, I watched some of the extras from Incredibles 2 including a new Edna Mode short referenced in the movie (where she babysits Jack Jack and finds out about his different powers) and a feature about Brad Bird who started working at Disney as an intern when he was 14 years old, working for Milt Kahl who had done animation on Snow White, Pinocchio, and Bambi. So thanks to two very long careers a movie directed by Bird in 2018 is only one generation removed from the Disney classics made in the 1930’s!
After a dry spell of a few months, I got another Disney Movie Club referral and was awarded two free movies this morning. Really it would be better to wait a couple of months to redeem those and pick Captain Marvel and Cinderella (or End Game or Toy Story 4 not much later), but I went ahead and picked A Wrinkle in Time, which I had liked even though most people didn’t, and Pocahontas, which is canon, but ranks pretty low. I think with Pocahontas some of the dislike is political since it white washes history, but it seems like I remember thinking it was pretty good. The other movies may make a good enrollment in a few months, though if I continue to get referrals, I wouldn’t have a reason to re-enroll. However, one person on Blu-ray Forum was banned for life from the Disney Movie Club for having too many referrals (hundreds) even though he hadn’t redeemed many of them.