The Digital Bits has good news for you Disney fans. In an online conference call with share holders regarding Q2 FY03 financial results, the studio revealed that it plans to accelerate its Platinum Edition DVD release plans. Part of the reason for this is that the company expects HD-DVD to be available by 2007, and they want to get all their catalog animated titles out on standard DVD by then (presumably so they can then do it all over again in HD). By accelerating these plans, we mean that the studio now intends to release their Platinum catalog at a rate of two films a year, one in March and one on October. Also, they now plan to leave them available for two years at a time, and then take them off the market for only five years (as opposed to the ten-year moratorium they'd previously announced). And they've added several more titles to their eventual 2-disc Platinum line-up, including Sleeping Beauty, Pinocchio, Fantasia and Peter Pan.

The specific release schedule is TBA, but here is the new list of Platinum titles on the way:

Snow White (released 2001)
Beauty and the Beast (released 2002)
The Lion King (coming 10/7)

TBA:

Aladdin
The Little Mermaid
Bambi
Cinderella
Lady and the Tramp
101 Dalmatians
The Jungle Book
Sleeping Beauty
Pinocchio
Fantasia
Peter Pan