Disney have announced that it is giving up the lucrative direct to DVD sequel ouput with the last being The Little Mermaid 3.

Disney has been a big culprit for doing this, releasing a strong film in the cinema and gathering a big audience, both young and old alike, and then releasing sequels on DVD with strong advertising to the existing fan base. While the sequels haven't garnered the critical attention, Disney have put enough into them for the audience to buy them, usually as presents, and keep the demand going.

Now though Digital Spy tells us that the process is about to stop. Now DisneyToon Studios will merge with Walt Disney Feature Animation and the existing President will stand down before moving elsewhere.

Now while I'm not really shedding a tear over this news, I am thinking that Disney are going to have to rely on their main features a lot more. This DVD sequel process they had going was pretty slick and pulled in a fair amount of revenue, and although I don't know the figures, I would imagine that losing this means the big releases will have to take in more to support the company.

Still, what that could mean is that we see more quality releases from them and less sequels. Now that's a very good thing. Let's hope they can follow through.