Trope of the Week: Keep Circulating the Tapes

So another month is coming to an end, even though a new week has started. Going back to the new tradition of explaining a trope, this week’s trope is Keep Circulating the Tapes, which is not really a trope, but rather a fact under Trivia from TV Tropes. As the smallest section on each work’s page, these are the actual off-camera events related to the work. As the main tropes and YMMV tropes are about what happens on-camera, this is for off-camera events. Those are stuff like availability, creator opinions, and production notes.

Keep Circulating the Tapes – Explanation:

When a movie first comes out, we can watch it in theaters. But it only stays in theaters for a limited time. Once it exits the theaters, you’ll have to wait for it to come out on home video. And it’s out.

But in an age where movies are available on streaming services and digital stores like iTunes, you would expect many films to show up. And they do show up. But not all movies will be available on digital stores. If a movie has been out of print for a while, and doesn’t show up digitally, then it’s practically made unavailable. Hence the famous quote: “Keep Circulating the Tapes”.

This trope is about the limited availability of older works. Everything has their heyday. Shows when they are airing new episodes, video games when their platforms are the primary consoles, and comic series when they’re getting new issues, and many more. But once those days are up, you may not get to experience them, unless if they’re available among newer libraries. Many older audiences that like to experience them again or newer audiences that want to experience them can gain access through these mediums. However, not all older media will show up on them. This is where the trope applies. If something has been made unavailable or hardly accessible, then you will see this trope when reading about it.

There are some possible reasons why this happens:

• The work is highly controversial, making it unthinkable to have it available in today’s time. Examples include Song of the South (1946) and “Electric Soldier Porgyon” from the Pokémon anime.
• The work has several licensing issues. It can’t be placed on a modern platform without going through disputes.
• The work has technological issues (i.e. requires extra hardware) that would make it difficult to put on modern platforms.
• The work had generated a lot of negative reception or was hated by the creators.

Without going over too many examples that TV Tropes posted, I will go ahead and cover a few examples.

Disney:

Out of all media companies in the world, Disney is the best when it comes to availability of older media. Nearly every movie they owned or made is available on Disney+ or a digital store. However, even they aren’t the best company when it comes to availability. For the longest time, they had something called the “Disney Vault”, where movies are only available in stores, including digital stores, before they are pulled completely. Those days are over, but that doesn’t mean every Disney property is available.

• The most obvious example of this is Song of the South. While it’s not outlawed by any government, Disney didn’t want to do anything about the movie. It’s very racist. They even got to the point where Splash Mountain was redesigned into a different theme, while the one signature song from Song of the South was removed from their parades.
• While you can find both Brave Little Toaster sequels on digital stores and Disney+, the original movie (the only one that matters) is not available on any digital stores. That’s because Disney doesn’t own the rights to the original movie, and the studio that owns the rights to it has been dormant for two decades.
• Not even the animation canon of Disney’s is safe from this. Out of all the movies in the animation canon, the only one that has not been released on Disney+ or on iTunes is Make Mine Music. The possible reason would have to be the first segment, which was excessively violent by Disney’s standards. The one time Make Mine Music got released on home video was in the early 2000s on DVD, and even that was missing the segment in question (The Martins and the Coys).
  • The good news to you Disney fans is that the entirety of the Disney Renaissance is available on Disney+ and digital stores. When Disney+ first launched, the Renaissance Era collection was missing at least one movie, until Netflix’s rights to it expired.
• Certain versions of movies (like the original theatrical releases of the Star Wars original trilogy) aren’t available in modern ages. However, you can still see the up-to-date versions of the movies that are available.
• The one department that is the most neglected is the Disney Channel shows, particularly the animated shows. Some, like Brandy & Mr. Whiskers, Dave the Barbarian, and Buzz Lightyear on Star Command, have rarely been put on home video during their time, and have never been released digitally, whether for purchase (like iTunes) or for streaming (like Disney+). One show that really got hit hard was Hailey’s On it, which was the first animated show on Disney+ to be removed from the platform.

Nintendo:

While the re-release of older games shouldn’t be taken for granted, Nintendo is a lot better than other gaming companies when it comes to that. The truth about movies, books, and songs, because they weren’t made for a specific platform, they are easy to put on newer platforms. But video games were made for a specific platform, and the platform has a limited run on the market. Once the platform is discontinued, pretty much the entire library is halted as well. Certain titles eventually avert this trope if they’re translated onto a retro console service or get an HD remaster, but that is difficult because they essentially have to remake the game. Translating an older game to a modern device is like translating Anglo-Saxon to contemporary English.

Two consoles that come to mind are the Nintendo 64 and the Nintendo 3DS.

• Before the Nintendo 64 app was launched in 2021, many famous games exclusive to the Nintendo 64 have not been re-released for the longest time. Sure we had Super Mario 64, both Legend of Zelda games, Paper Mario 64, and a couple others, but some like Mario Party, Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Stadium 2, Hey You Pikachu, Goldeneye007, and Diddy Kong Racing, suffered the unavailability curse.
  • Because of Microsoft’s buyout of Rare Ltd, the games made by Rare (except for the Donkey Kong games) could not show up on Nintendo’s Virtual Console because they have lost the rights to them. They include Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Perfect Dark, and Conker’s Bad Fur Day.
  • Mickey’s Speedway USA and Goldeneye007 have been hit even harder by licensing issues. Not only are they produced by Rare, but there were three-way licensing issues. Thankfully, Nintendo and Microsoft were able to put the original version of Goldeneye 007 on modern platforms through retro services.
  • Although Pokémon Stadium, Pokémon Stadium 2, and Hey You Pikachu did not have any licensing issues since Nintendo owned the rights to them, the hardware was the reason why they haven’t been rereleased for modern consoles. Both Pokémon Stadium games are practically worthless without the ability to transfer Pokémon into the games, and Hey You Pikachu requires the Voice Recognition Unit.
  • The first Mario Party game was unavailable for a long time, and for a reason. It’s because it caused controversy (because some of the mini-games required rotating the control stick as fast as possible, which caused health issues). It eventually got added to Nintendo Switch Online after years of being out of circulation, but it came with a warning.
• With both the 3DS and the Wii U discontinued, and with their eShop services shut down in 2023, every game made for the 3DS and Wii U except for the ones that got remade or ported to the Nintendo Switch have entered this territory. This includes Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Pokémon X/Y, Pokémon Sun/Moon, Steel Diver, Nintendogs+Cats, and the 3D remakes of the Zelda games.
• Pretty much every GameCube game and Wii game that didn’t get a remake or a port on a newer console faced this fate. At least Super Mario Sunshine got a temporary rerelease under the Super Mario 3D All Stars game. The release of the GameCube app has helped some games exit this territory.

Rescued Works:

Of course, for some works, if a work that has been made unavailable for a long time eventually get released on another platform (like YouTube), they would leave the Keep Circulating the Tapes territory. Not every book, movie, song, show, or game will be remembered or made available in the future, but the classics may continue on for generations. That is, until the world ends.