History Main / DirectToVideo

* The pioneer of this for spin-offs of TV series was probably the ''BabylonFive'' spin-off ''TheLostTales'', which was intended to be the first of a series of [=DVDs=] until JMichaelStraczynski decided that he couldn't tolerate the artistic limitations created by the low budget (which many cynical people translated as "not even enough [[CrackIsCheaper completist fans]] bought it for it to make any money").

In the United States, while there have been plenty of direct-to-video films and such since the advent of home video, they were usually things that were considered financially unsound to release in theaters, like instructional videos, specialized documentaries, films with controversial or niche subject matter (such as HeroicBloodshed, {{Wuxia}}, LeFilmArtistique, Euroshlock, and pornography). The practice of creating and releasing regular fiction specifically for video didn't really take off until 1994 with {{Disney}}'s ''[[Disney/{{Aladdin}} Return of Jafar]]'' and [[{{Universal}} Universal Studios]]' ''TheLandBeforeTime II'', neither of which was intended to hit theaters at any point in its production. [[note//The financial failure of ''TheRescuersDownUnder'' was what caused Disney to decide to do this with their sequels. Ironically history repeated itself when in the mid 2000s they tried again with sequels for Peter Pan and The Jungle Book. Once again the failure of those films resumed their straight to DVD methods.[[/note]] Other studios started following suit, hardly limited to child-oriented animation. In particular, independent studios and filmmakers quickly picked up on this distribution model, due to its lower distribution costs and reduced censorship (video stores will often stock [[UnratedEdition unrated]] films that theaters won't touch).

In the United States, while there have been plenty of direct-to-video films and such since the advent of home video, they were usually things that were considered financially unsound to release in theaters, like instructional videos, specialized documentaries, films with controversial or niche subject matter (such as HeroicBloodshed, {{Wuxia}}, LeFilmArtistique, Euroshlock, and pornography). The practice of creating and releasing regular fiction specifically for video didn't really take off until 1994 with {{Disney}}'s ''[[Disney/{{Aladdin}} Return of Jafar]]'' and [[{{Universal}} Universal Studios]]' ''TheLandBeforeTime II'', neither of which was intended to hit theaters at any point in its production. [[hottip:*: The financial failure of ''TheRescuersDownUnder'' was what caused Disney to decide to do this with their sequels. Ironically history repeated itself when in the mid 2000s they tried again with sequels for Peter Pan and The Jungle Book. Once again the failure of those films resumed their straight to DVD methods.]] Other studios started following suit, hardly limited to child-oriented animation. In particular, independent studios and filmmakers quickly picked up on this distribution model, due to its lower distribution costs and reduced censorship (video stores will often stock [[UnratedEdition unrated]] films that theaters won't touch).

In the United States, while there have been plenty of direct-to-video films and such since the advent of home video, they were usually things that were considered financially unsound to release in theaters, like instructional videos, specialized documentaries, films with controversial or niche subject matter ([[HeroicBloodshed including]] [[{{Wuxia}} many]] [[LeFilmArtistique foreign]] [[{{Euroshlock}} films]]), or [[PornTropes pornography]]. The practice of creating and releasing regular fiction specifically for video didn't really take off until 1994 with {{Disney}}'s ''[[Disney/{{Aladdin}} Return of Jafar]]'' and [[{{Universal}} Universal Studios]]' ''TheLandBeforeTime II'', neither of which was intended to hit theaters at any point in its production. [[hottip:*: The financial failure of ''TheRescuersDownUnder'' was what caused Disney to decide to do this with their sequels. Ironically history repeated itself when in the mid 2000s they tried again with sequels for Peter Pan and The Jungle Book. Once again the failure of those films resumed their straight to DVD methods.]] Other studios started following suit, hardly limited to child-oriented animation. In particular, independent studios and filmmakers quickly picked up on this distribution model, due to its lower distribution costs and reduced censorship (video stores will often stock [[UnratedEdition unrated]] films that theaters won't touch).

** ''[[RescueSentaiGogoFive Gogo-V]]'' had a tie-in video titled ''Clash! The New Super Warrior'' (aka ''Gogo-V vs. Zeek''), which focused on a new hero created just for the movie in order to make up for the lack of an actual SixthRanger in the series itself.

* The American releases of the ''{{Film/Pokemon}}'' movies, beginning with the sixth one.
* ''{{Legend of the Galactic Heroes}}'', being 110 episode-long (i.e, longer than most TV series ) was - to many viewers' surprise - an OVA released straight-to-Laserdisc. The result is a tight script with virtually no PlotHole nor {{Filler}}. Limited animation budget somehow effectively avoided StockFootage usage throughout long-winded space battles... almost (StockFootage was used occasionally, but the interval between each usage can easily be wide up to tens of episodes that you won't notice it once it's in effect).

* The live-action ''Film/{{Casper}}'' film produced several. They could hardly even really be called "sequels" seeing how they disregarded the continuity of the original movie so completely that the presence of Casper and his uncles was literally the only similarity to the feature film. They haunted a different house in a different town and all movie-based characters were dropped, all without explanation. And, of course, there was also the expected downgrade in the quality of the CGI.(It should be noted that [[StevenSpielberg Amblin]], ILM and Universal were not involved with the sequels, though Universal and Amblin did produce the better-received animated series.) Incidentally, the ''Casper'' "sequels" gave a very young HilaryDuff her first acting role as Wendy in ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4DXSGhF-To Casper Meets Wendy]]''.

** ''SamuraiSentaiShinkenger'' and ''TensouSentaiGoseiger'' both had "Come Back!" specials that were released on home video after their respective finales were aired.

** DC now has a whole series of direct-to-DVD animated films, from Warner Premier.

[[quoteright:264:[[HomestarRunner http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/StrongBadDTV.jpg]]]]

* ''HomestarRunner'' parodies this and {{Mockbuster}}s in the [=SBEmail=] ''unlicensed''. One of the DVD examples is pictured above on this page.

* All of the ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' films except for [[TomandJerryTheMovie the first one]].
* ''Batman: Mask of the Phantasm'' is a borderline case. Intended as DTV, it received a short theatrical run with no alterations.

* The third and fourth ''An American Tail'' movies, which screwed with the canon by putting Fievel back in New York, making ''Fievel Goes West'' AllJustADream, and omitting characters from the first movie.

* The live-action ''Film/{{Casper}}'' film produced several. They could hardly even really be called "sequels" seeing how they disregarded the continuity of the original movie so completely that the presence of Casper and his uncles was literally the only similarity to the feature film. They haunted a different house in a different town and all movie-based characters were dropped, all without explanation. And, of course, there was also the expected downgrade in the quality of the CGI.[[hottip:*:It should be noted that [[StevenSpielberg Amblin]], ILM and Universal were not involved with the sequels, though Universal and Amblin did produce the better-received animated series.]] Incidentally, the ''Casper'' "sequels" gave a very young HilaryDuff her first acting role as Wendy in ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4DXSGhF-To Casper Meets Wendy]]''.

* All of the ''TomAndJerry'' films except for [[TomandJerryTheMovie the first one]].

** Pixar is significant for averting this. Disney asked Pixar to produce a DTV sequel to ''ToyStory'', which was turned over to a secondary production crew. Disney was so impressed with the work they were doing that they wanted to expand the runtime from the projected 60 minutes so it could be theatrically released, but John Lasseter didn't like the direction it was taking, and so had the script entirely rewritten and put the entire crew from the first film on the project in order to finish it within the 9 months left on their deadline.
*** Until recently with the coming of ''Film/{{Planes}}'', a spinoff to the ''Film/{{Cars}}'' franchise.

* The live-action ''Film/{{Casper}}'' film produced several. They could hardly even really be called "sequels" seeing how they disregarded the continuity of the original movie so completely that the presence of Casper and his uncles was literally the only similarity to the feature film. They haunted a different house in a different town and all movie-based characters were dropped, all without explanation. And, of course, there was also the expected downgrade in the quality of the CGI.[[hottip:*:It should be noted that [[StevenSpielberg Amblin]], ILM and Universal were not involved with the sequels, though Universal and Amblin did produce the better-received animated series.]] Incidentally, the ''Casper'' "sequels" gave a very young Hilary Duff her first acting role as Wendy in ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4DXSGhF-To Casper Meets Wendy]]''.

* Another film starring Morgan Freeman, ''TheMaidenHeist'', was released straight to DVD after the distributor Yari Film Group went bankrupt. The film co-stars Willam H Macy and Christopher Walken, both also big names.

* The majority of video game franchises from the 1980s and 1990s originally began as arcade games and are nowadays released directly to consoles. Even during the "Golden Age" of the arcades (the 80s and 90s), some of these franchises already had a few console sequels.

Sometimes, things that were originally intended to be Direct to Video end up getting retrofitted to show on television or in theaters. Usually, only some minimal editing is done to make it fit for theaters, but there have been cases where the project was intervened midway and beefed up to make it quite a bit better. An example of the former is ''{{Doug}}'s First Movie'', which was put into theaters after the success of ''The {{Rugrats}} Movie''. A famous example of the latter is ''ToyStory 2'', on which {{Pixar}} expanded tremendously for its theatrical release. More recently, ''Honey 2'' - intended as a DirectToVideo movie (which is still the case in North America) got a European theatrical release first... and no, JessicaAlba [[CaptainObvious did not return]].

** The same studio also created sequels for ''{{Balto}}'' and for ''AnAmericanTail'' (see below).

* ''{{Stargate SG-1}}'' has had two very good direct-to-video sequel movies so far, ''Stargate: TheArkOfTruth'' and ''StargateContinuum'', with plans for a third. And a ''StargateAtlantis'' one in the works, too.

* In the run of ''{{Peanuts}}'' animated specials, ''It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown'', ''It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown'', and ''It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown'', and ''Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown'' are all direct-to-video releases. (The first was intended for [=TV=] but would not air until after its video release.)

* In the run of ''{{Peanuts}}'' animated specials co-produced by Bill Melendez, ''It's Spring Training, Charlie Brown'', ''It Was My Best Birthday Ever, Charlie Brown'', and ''It's the Pied Piper, Charlie Brown'') were all direct-to-video; the first was supposed to air on [=TV=] but would not until after its video release. ''Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown'', a 2011 direct-to-DVD short film, was made by a different production company and could be seen as a ContinuityReboot for the animated adaptations.

* Starting in 1994 with ''[[Disney/{{Aladdin}} The Return of Jafar]]'', Disney released sequels, prequels, and interquels to a significant portion of the DisneyAnimatedCanon, animated by the company's various television animation units. At first they were follow-ups to TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation titles, but they gradually shifted back to films from the [[Main/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation Golden]] and [[Main/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation Dark]] ages. There were also a few titles based on ClassicDisneyShorts characters and Winnie-the-Pooh, while at least one film (''Atlantis: Milo's Return'') was a CompilationMovie consisting of the completed episodes of an aborted [=TV=] spinoff. When Pixar head John Lasseter took over Disney's feature animation department he brought this trend to an end, with the key exception of the ''[[Main/DisneyFairies Tinkerbell]]'' CGI films.

* Starting in 1994 with ''[[Disney/{{Aladdin}} The Return of Jafar]]'', Disney released sequels, prequels, and interquels to a significant portion of the DisneyAnimatedCanon, animated by the company's various television animation units. At first they were follow-ups to TheRenaissanceAgeOfAnimation titles, but they gradually shifted back to films from the [[Main/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation Golden]] and [[Main/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation Dark]] ages. There were also a few titles based on ClassicDisneyShorts characters and Winnie the Pooh, while at least one film (''Atlantis: Milo's Return'') was a CompilationMovie consisting of the completed episodes of an aborted [=TV=] spinoff. When Pixar head John Lasseter took over Disney's feature animation department he brought this trend (deeply unpopular with critics and adult Disney fans) to an end, with the key exception of the ''[[Main/DisneyFairies Tinkerbell]]'' CGI films.