• All three DVDs have optional Audio Commentaries: Apple’s features cast members Tim Conway, Don Knotts, Susan Clark and Brad Savage, while both Witch Mountain films’ features stars Iake Eisenmann and Kim Richards along with director John Hough.
• Accompanying each movie is a similarly themed classic animated short: the western Apple has Two-Gun Goofy (1952, previously available on The Complete Goofy DVD); Escape has Pluto’s Dream House (1940), wherein a magic lamp (a la Aladdin) makes life easier for Mickey and Pluto; and Return has The Eyes Have It (1945), in which Donald tries out hypnotism on poor Pluto.
• Each film also has a slightly abbreviated Vault Disney section: Apple has the making of feature A Look Back with the Gang, featuring Conway, Knotts, Clark, Savage and his onscreen siblings Clay O’Brien and Stacy Manning (who reveals she doesn’t like apple dumplings); in Conversations with Tim Conway, the Emmy Award-winning comedian looks back on his Disney career, which including sharing scenes with a man-eating Bengal tiger, a field goal-kicking donkey and a midget in a dog suit; Disney’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Cowboy Stars includes both animated (Pecos Bill) and live action (Davy Crockett) stars of Frontierland; and the excellent Lost Treasures: The Disney Back Lot is a historically rich peek back at the Studios’ late Burbank back lot, where many live action films and television series were shot throughout the years.
• Escape’s Vault includes: Making the Escape, featuring Eisenmann, Richards, Hough and Dermott Downs (who played the red-headed bully Truck), relates that Jodi Foster was originally considered for the role of Tia and that Eisenmann taught himself how to play the harmonica for the role; Conversations with John Hough, which covers both Witch Mountain films but curiously omits his later film for Disney, The Watcher in the Woods (which also starred Bette Davis); the techno mix-clip Disney Sci Fi (including footage from Tron, The Rocketeer and Armageddon); and Lost Treasures: Disney Effects, Something Special, another fine retrospective covering everything from Treasure Island and Mary Poppins to Dick Tracy and The Rookie and featuring special nods to Ub Iwerks’ pioneering optical effects and Peter Ellenshaw’s glorious matte paintings.
• Return’s Vault includes: Making the Return Trip adds associate producer/former Moochie Kevin Corcoran and ‘Earthquake Gang’ members Savage, Christian Jutner and Erik “Poindexter�? Yothers to the mix; the latter three also reunite for The Gang’s Back in Town; Dexter Reilly, Merlin Jones and Peter Pan join Tony and Tia in Disney Kids with Powers; and Lost Treasures offers Christopher Lee: The Lost Interview (of note:  thanks to Lee's resurgent career in the latest Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings trilogies, he has a significant presence on the DVDs packaging).
• And finally, each Vault section includes a Disney Studio Album (1975 for Apple and Escape, 1978 for Return) and a Gallery section including production stills, cast and director biographies and advertising art.

• The Apple Dumpling Gang (originally released in 1975), sired a sequel, aptly title The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, in 1979. A 1982 TV remake of the original Gang was re-dubbed Tales of the Apple Dumpling Gang; it spawned a short-lived TV series the following year titled Gun Shy.
• Apple director Norman Tokar began his career at Disney in 1961 with Big Red, and he stayed almost exclusively with the Studios up until his death in 1979. His many credits with Disney include Savage Sam; A Tiger Walks; Those Calloways; The Ugly Dachshund; Follow Me Boys!; The Legend of the Boy and the Eagle; The Happiest Millionaire; The Horse in the Grey Flannel Suit; Rascal; The Boatniks; Snowball Express; No Deposit, No Return; Candleshoe and The Cat from Outer Space (which he also produced) for theaters, and Sammy the Way Out Seal, Gallegher Goes West and A Boy Called Nuthin’ for television.
• In addition to the two Apple Dumpling movies, Tim Conway also starred in The World’s Greatest Athlete, Gus, The Shaggy D.A. and Air Bud: Golden Retriever. On television, he has appeared on Walt Disney World Celebrity Circus and Hercules.
• Don Knotts also starred in No Deposit, No Return; Gus; Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo and Hot Lead and Cold Feet, as well as both Apple Dumpling movies and the TV movie Quints. Contrary to initial casting reports, Knotts will not be appearing in the upcoming Haunted Mansion movie.
• Harry Morgan also appeared in both Apple Dumpling movies, but as two different characters: Sheriff McCoy in the first film and Major Gaskill in the second. He can also be seen in The Barefoot Executive, Scandalous John, Snowball Express, Charley and the Angel, The Cat from Outer Space and on television in 14 Going on 30.
• Susan Clark also starred in The North Avenue Irregulars.
• David Wayne (Apple’s Colonel Clydesdale) appeared on television in The Boy Who Stole the Elephant and Return of the Big Cat.
• Clay O’Brien (Apple’s Bobby Bradley) also appeared in the feature One Little Indian and The Whiz Kid and the Mystery at Riverton, Hog Wild and The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper on television.
• Brad Savage starred in both Apple as Clovis Bradley and Return as Muscles. He can also be seen in No Deposit, No Return and on television in The Secret of Lost Valley and Christmas in Disneyland.
• Veteran cowboy actor Slim Pickens (Apple’s Frank Stillwell) also appeared in The Great Locomotive Chase, Tonka, Savage Sam, Never a Dull Moment and The Black Hole (as the voice of Old B.O.B.) and in Bristle Face; The Saga of Andy Burnett; Stub, the Best Cowboy in the West; Swamp Fox and Runaway on the Rogue River on television.
• Don Knight (Apple’s John Wintle) returned to Disney for Treasure of Matecumbe.
• Apple screenwriter Don Tait also wrote the scripts for Snowball Express, The Castaway Cowboy, Treasure of Matecumbe, The Shaggy D.A., The North Avenue Irregulars, The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again, Unidentified Flying Oddball and Herbie Goes Bananas.
• Escape to Witch Mountain, based on the book by Alexander Key, was also released in 1975, followed by the sequel Return from Witch Mountain in 1978. A television pilot, titled Beyond Witch Mountain, aired in 1982, but no series followed. Escape was remade as a TV movie in 1995, and is reportedly being remade yet again as a theatrical feature sometime in the future.
• Eddie Albert reprised his Escape role as Jason O’Day in Beyond to Witch Mountain. He also starred in Miracle of the White Stallions and the 1995 TV remake of The Barefoot Executive.
• Kim Richards returned for Return and No Deposit, No Return. Her television appearances include Hog Wild, Return of the Big Cat, The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper, The Whiz Kid and the Mystery at Riverton and The Mystery of Rustler’s Cave.
• Ike Eisenmann (who now spells his first name Iake) also came back for Return, and appeared on television in Kit Carson and the Mountain Men, Shadow of Fear, The Sky’s the Limit and the Secret of the Pond. He also had a cameo in Tom and Huck.
• Donald Pleasence also starred in the television programs The Horsemasters and Black Arrow.
• The role of Mrs. Grindley in Escape was Reta Shaw’s last film appearance. She also played Tillie in Pollyanna and Mrs. Brill in Mary Poppins.
• Denver Pyle (Uncle Bene in both Escape and Return) appeared on television in The Boy Who Talked to Badgers, Three on the Run and Hog Wild.
• Dermott Downs also appeared in Freaky Friday and The Young Runaways on TV.
• Walter Barnes (Escape’s Sheriff Purdy) also appeared in Pete’s Dragon.
• The film Tony and Tia go see during their field trip from the orphanage early in Escape is, appropriately, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
• Legend has it that Walt originally considered classic screen icon and multiple-Oscar winner Bette Davis for the role of … Mary Poppins?
• Dick Bakalyan (Return’s Eddie the cab driver) appeared in several Disney films, including The Strongest Man in the World; The Shaggy D.A.; Follow Me Boys!; Never a Dull Moment; The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes; Now You See Him, Now You Don’t and Charley and the Angel. He narrated the short It’s Tough To Be A Bird and voiced Dinky in The Fox and the Hound. On television, he appeared in Way Down Cellar, The Whiz Kid and the Carnival Caper, The Young Runaways and A Boy Called Nothin’.
• Christian Jutner (Return’s Dazzler) appeared on television in The Boy Who Talked to Badgers, The Million Dollar Dixie Deliverance, Mystery of Rustler’s Cave, Return of the Big Cat and The Ghosts of Buxley Hall.
• The actor who plays Return’s Crusher is billed as just Poindexter, but his real name is Erik Yothers, as in the brother of Family Ties’ Tina Yothers. He also appeared on television in The Young Runaways.

Coming Soon:

• “Once upon a dream … �? Sleeping Beauty in its long-awaited DVD debut as a two-disc Special Edition, now available.
• Get those shovels out to dig some more Holes, coming to DVD on September 23^rd.
• The circle of life will be completed on October 7^th when The Lion King finally makes its DVD debut in a deluxe two-disc Platinum Edition. Bonus features will include the never-before-seen animated musical number “The Morning Report�?.
• Also available October 7^th, a Special Edition of Frank and Ollie, a documentary on the legendary Disney animators Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.