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Disney Rarities - Celebrated Shorts: 1920s - 1960s DVD Review
Page 1: Set Overview and Disc 1 Shorts Page 2: Disc 2 Shorts, Video & Audio, Bonus Features, and Closing Thoughts |
In the first four years of its existence, the Walt Disney Treasures line mostly presented cartoon shorts and television episodes belonging to an individual series that flourished during Walt Disney's lifetime. That is, for the most part, again the case with this December's fifth wave, with one noteworthy exception. Disney Rarities - Celebrated Shorts: 1920s - 1960s compiles cartoons from the five most productive decades of Walt Disney's career as an entertainer. This set holds a diverse group of 31 short films. Though a handful of characters appear in more than one (one personality indeed shows up in seven), and a few were created in a similar mold, the trait that is most commonly held among this collection's animated shorts (with the exception of the aforementioned) is that they were produced on their own, not as part of a long-running series or featuring any of the characters most readily identified as Walt Disney's creations.
The standalone nature of the selected shorts, which range from just over 6 minutes to 21 minutes apiece, has given them less exposure than the majority of the cartoons that have made their DVD debuts as part of the Treasures or one of Buena Vista Home Entertainment's increasingly prevalent low-priced short compilation alternatives, such as the Classic Cartoon Favorites. While the subjects of Disney Rarities may have not been seen as widely as, say, Mickey and the Seal, Good Scouts, or any of Goofy's "How to" shorts, they are, on the whole, quite well produced and deserving of one's attention, both as oft-ignored chapters in Disney history and as sheer entertainment.
The set opens with the silent Alice comedies, which, aside from a handful of Laugh-O-Gram short subjects, represent Walt Disney's earliest film credits as a producer/director. These shorts came in the early days of what could be clearly classified as animation, with the oldest one (Alice's Wonderland from 1922) released not quite ten years after Winsor McKay dazzled audiences with his depiction of Gertie the Dinosaur. The Alice comedies (which have little explicitly to do with the Lewis Carroll story or heroine that the names "Walt Disney" and "Alice" more immediately conjure nowadays), while indisputably the most dated inclusions on the set, boast a reasonable amount of charm and a more substantial amount of significance. That is not merely because they are among Walt's earliest work, but because they offer a hybrid of animation and live action. Long before Uncle Remus and far longer before Michael Jordan, a young girl named Alice (played in most of the shorts by Virginia Davis) wandered into a world of cartoons, to interact with animals and engage in adventures that defied real world limitations. More than 50 Alice comedies were produced in a span of just a few years. Many are believed to be lost these days, but Disney Rarities provides seven of them, including the debuting short. This may seem an odd way to begin a set devoted to standalone shorts, as Alice was clearly the star character (Walt's first) of a series (Walt's second). Furthermore, they hold far less entertainment value than the rest of contents. Still, as the series is not likely to sustain a Treasures tine all its own anytime soon, one can hardly argue against observing some of the first of all Disney films, if for fascinating historical value more than laughs and giggles (though there are some of these too).
The remaining twenty-four shorts of this two-disc set span 34 years, a number of animation styles, and a fair amount of genres. They include a couple of Best Short Oscar winners (1938's Ferdinand the Bull and 1953's Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom), seven additional nominees, and plenty of adaptations of well-known sources, from Mother Goose nursery rhymes to the legendary tall tale of Paul Bunyan to the Book of Genesis' story of Noah's Ark. This wide-ranging collection is free of any single formula that may mark the chronologically-released sets of irascible Donald Duck or clumsy Goofy, but certain patterns emerge. Many tell of animals overcoming their challenges, be they physical, emotional, or a mixture of the two. Many prominently As you move through Disney Rarities, you'll inevitably notice a trend, in which the shorts gain running time and substance as the years went by. While few could argue that cartoons like Ferdinand and Lambert aren't just right at 7-9 minutes, those which stretch the definition of "short" such as Disc One-closer Ben and Me (1953), Paul Bunyan (1958), and Noah's Ark (1959) feel equally satisfying at their 16-21 minute clips. The meatier of the films on this compilation illustrate how it'd be an uphill battle for one to claim that the 6-8 minute length imposed upon a majority of Disney's character-based shorts of the format's heyday are the best or only running time suited for non-feature-length big screen cartoons. Indeed, many of Disney's subsequent successes in the field of shorts (such as Pooh's debut appearances, Mickey's Christmas Carol, and The Small One) were the so-called "featurette"-length, while Pixar Animation Studios has lately delivered true gems often in 5 minutes or less.
Regardless of their running times, sources, mediums, or production years, the cartoons of Disney Rarities prove to be a truly pleasing array of the studio's undeservedly lesser-known animated works.
Like the fourteen Walt Disney Treasures which preceded it and the three released by its side, Disney Rarities is presented in a double-width keepcase and housed in a silver tin. Past waves have introduced minor aesthetic changes and Wave 5 is no different. The case inside is now black (last December's were white and those before were gray) and the discs are now facing each other, with Disc 1 held on a flap and Disc 2 on the back of the case's inside. Those blue bands which adorned the exterior of the first three waves of tins have not been brought back, and the number of your individual copy is again relegated to the certificate of authenticity inside. A modest total of 125,000 copies of Disney Rarities (and all of the other Wave 5 titles) have been produced, a print count which matches Wave 2's releases and falls upon the lower end of the line as a whole. The certificate of authenticity features the not-really-hand-signed signatures of Leonard Maltin...and Roy E. Disney, who has returned to the Walt Disney Company's good graces after the whole not-quite-two-years-of-trying-to-oust-Michael Eisner episode. The two remaining inserts have stayed consistent to the Treasures line's beginnings. They are a cool collectible card (which reproduces early publicity artwork for Paul Bunyan) and a slick 8-page silver booklet. The booklet holds a few standard things -- a brief paragraph of Walt's career, a page on the four tins of this wave -- as well as a thoughtful and concise overview of this volume by Leonard Maltin and a table of contents.
DISC 1 Disc 1 opens with a video introduction (3:35) from Treasures host Leonard Maltin. He briefly covers the shorts and supplements comprising the set with a clear focus on the first disc. He discusses the primitive nature but importance of the Alice comedies and mentions some other noteworthy Disc 1 pieces and their interesting traits. The introduction plays automatically, but it can be skipped and accessed from the Main Menu as well. The first disc holds 18 shorts, offered individually through alphabetical and chronological listings (the former separates the Alice comedies from the rest) or altogether as a "Play All" option that cycles through the platter chronologically.
THE SHORTS
Alice's Wonderland (1923) (12:27)
Alice's Wild West Show (1924) (12:41)
Alice Gets in Dutch (1924) (9:49)
Alice's Egg Plant (1925) (8:32)
Chicken Little (1943) (8:48)
The Pelican and the Snipe (1944) (8:39)
Adventures in Music: Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953) (10:16)
Ben and Me (1953) (21:00)
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Page 1: Set Overview and Disc 1 Shorts Page 2: Disc 2 Shorts, Video & Audio, Bonus Features, and Closing Thoughts |
UltimateDisney.com | DVD Review Index | Wave 5 on the Walt Disney Treasures Page | Treasures in Direct-to-Video Listings
Other Walt Disney Treasures and Cartoon Compilations Reviewed
The Chronological Donald, Volume 2 • Elfego Baca • The Swamp Fox: Legendary Heroes
The Complete Pluto, Volume 1 • Mickey Mouse in Living Color: Volume 2
Walt Disney on the Front Lines • Tomorrowland • Behind the Scenes at the Disney Studio
The Chronological Donald: Volume 1 • The Mickey Mouse Club: Week One
Davy Crockett: The Complete Televised Series • Disneyland USA
Mickey Mouse in Black & White • Mickey Mouse in Black & White: Volume 2
Timeless Tales: Volume One • Timeless Tales: Volume Two
Classic Cartoon Favorites: Volume 7 - Extreme Adventure Fun • Volume 9 - Classic Holiday Stories
The Ultimate Guide to Disney DVD |
Review posted December 5, 2005. |