Disney Cinemagic

Disney Cinemagic was a channel available in the United Kingdom, which launched on March 19, 2006, replacing that countries version of Toon Disney, and proceeded to launch throughout Europe in later years as well as Australia. It also had a timeshift service called Disney Cinemagic +1. Despite the name, Disney Cinemagic has no formal connection with the CineMagic children's film festival based in Belfast, UK.

Disney Cinemagic ceased broadcasting at midnight on March 28, 2013 and was effectively replaced with Sky Movies Disney, as part of a multi-year film output deal between the BSkyB and The Walt Disney Company.

The channel was unavailable in the United States or Canada.

Channel description

The original UK incarnation of Disney Cinemagic showed regular screenings of Disney movies, typically three to four each day, the movies were, with very little exception, the cinematic releases such as those from the animated canon and the live action material, as well as their direct-to-home video films. Cinemagic did not show movies from the Disney Channel Original Movie library with the one rare except of the first two High School Musical films, which were shown in conjunction with the channel premier of the third film. During the channels run, all Disney movies would have their UK TV premier on the channel.

Disney Cinemagic also showed the archives of classic Disney Cartoons and Disney television animated series. From the beginning of its run, the television shows broadcast were entirely those that were spun off from the movies in the animated canon, such as the Aladdin series, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and The Legend of Tarzan, as well as the shows that starred the Mickey Mouse characters, such as House of Mouse, Ducktales, and Goof Troop. In the later half of the channels run, several of Disney's original animated television series', such as Recess and Kim Possible, would also begin to be shown. On September 3, 2007, the channel received new branding, including a new logo and continuity graphics.

Aspect ratio

Unlike its counterparts, Disney Channel and Playhouse Disney, its movies are sometimes shown in their original aspect ratio though these are usually available only on Sky Digital. Notable exceptions are Tarzan II, Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World and Bambi II, which have only been broadcast in fullscreen, and not their proper 16:9 ratio. Films in the 2.55:1 ratio, such as Lady and the Tramp,^[1] are cropped to 16:9, the only exception being The Incredibles. Disney Cinemagic is slowly abandoning this process of showing 16:9 films in their original ratio, favouring prints in pan-and-scan due to the availability of widescreen on digital platforms.

Disney Cinemagic HD

Disney Cinemagic HD launched on Sky+ HD on Monday December 1, 2008 on EPG channel 631. The channel was available to Sky+ HD customers who had a Sky Movies subscription.^[2]

Disney Cinemagic in Europe

The channel has been also launched in France on September 4, 2007 (including one hour timeshift Disney Cinemagic +1), replacing Toon Disney on French satellite platform CANALSAT, this probably means that the channel is ready to launch in more countries despite its small audience. [1] A version in HD (High Definition) launched in France on November 30, 2007. It will be a simulcast of the main channel and will consist of a mixture of original HD content and upconverted 16:9 and 4:3 "SD" (standard definition) content. In Spain and Portugal, the channel was launched at July 1 and October 1, 2008 respectively and ceased broadcasting on January 1, 2015 and November 1, 2012, respectively.

The final active Disney Cinemagic channel, on Germany, was replaced with Sky Cinema Special on 30 September, 2019, thus bringing an end to the Cinemagic brand after 13 years.

Antenna TV

The current Disney Cinemagic logo, was used for the programming block of the Greek Television channel Antenna TV with Disney Movies for the 2014 season, but the programming block was named "Ο Θαυμαστός Κόσμος της Disney, στον ΑΝΤ1".

Disney Cinemagic films

Former films

Christmas Films

These are the films being shown for Christmas on Cinemagic:

Disney Cinemagic programmes

Programming is scheduled for early mornings and evenings, whilst more programmes are broadcast later in the evenings. Disney Cinemagic movies are therefore shown during the day. Many shorts will air between Disney Cinemagic movies.

Former programming

101 Dalmatians: The Series
Aladdin
Disney Animated Shorts/Disney Classic Toons
DuckTales
The Emperor's New School
Lilo & Stitch: The Series
The Little Mermaid
The Legend of Tarzan
TaleSpin
Timon & Pumbaa

BunnyTown (Sneak preview)
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command
Cars Toons: Mater's Tall Tales
Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers
Dave the Barbarian
Goof Troop
Mickey Mouse Works
Mickey Mouse - Have a Laugh!
Hercules
House of Mouse
Jungle Cubs
Kim Possible
Lloyd in Space
My Friends Tigger & Pooh (Was shown as a special event)
The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Phineas and Ferb (Sneak preview)
Quack Pack
Recess

Pixar short films

In between showings of films, Disney Cinemagic also aired some of Pixar's short films. shorts that have been aired are:

Single shorts

Knick Knack (1988)
Mike's New Car (2002, Based on Monsters, Inc.)
Boundin' (2003)
One Man Band (2005)
Mater and the Ghostlight (2006, Part of the Cars Toons series)
Lifted (2006)
BURN-E (2008)

Short series

Disney Cinemagic events

Disney Cinemagic tend to broadcast certain special events occasionally or part of their regular schedule.

Former events

Disney Cinemagic brought back the Movie Showdown (after Disney Channel ceased broadcasting this show years ago) where viewers go to the Vote page on the website and choose one of the two selected films till Saturday at 9am.

Features included are Inspector Gadget 2, Basil the Great Mouse Detective, Oliver and Company and a special screening of My Friends Tigger & Pooh.

Pre-release

Two early teasers where first shown for the channel on all three Disney channels starting from September 2005. The first one shown was a slightly altered version of the original theatrical teaser trailer for The Incredibles, with the ending tagline, "The Incredibles! Coming Soon!". Later on, during the Autumn/Winter period of that same year, another teaser trailer was shown, featuring a musical montage of the movies set to be shown on the channel, such as Bambi, Brother Bear, Dumbo, Cinderella and The Lion King II: Simba's Pride. This was the first ad to feature the early working title, "Incredible Movies" (To correspond with the channel's main movie, The Incredibles). Nobody had any idea what this was supposed to be, as the only thing said near the end of the ad was "Coming soon, to Disney".
During early 2006, another ad was shown several times (Again, throughout all three Disney channels), finally being showcased as "Disney Cinemagic". The ad featured Mickey Mouse, dressed in his The Sorcerer's Apprentice attire. He walked on to the completely blank white screen, took a magic wand and pressed the center of it with his finger, making magically morph into a TV remote. Mickey presses a button on the remote, and it starts blasting out magic holograms of several Disney characters. The remote starts vibrating uncontrollebly, Mickey tries to regain control of it by randomly mashing different buttons, until finally, all of the holograms disappear. Mickey stands at the corner of the screen, smiling at the audience, while the Disney Cinemagic logo appears in the centre.
In the early morning of March 16, 2006, Toon Disney were showing several repeats of Kim Possible, until it was completely shut off. Since that time and throughout the first four hours of the morning, Toon Disney broadcast a test card saying "Disney Cinemagic is coming soon". At about 10:00am that morning, Toon Disney was officially taken off the air, and Disney Channel was moved to Toon Disney's former channel slot, while the newly launched Disney Cinemagic took over Disney Channel's original channel slot. Its timeshift, Cinemagic +1, took the original channel slot of Disney Channel +1, which was also removed along with Toon Disney (Disney Channel +1 did eventually return in June 2006).