Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Vol. 4 - 1951-1961 (Collector's Tin)
by Hamilton Luske, Jack Hannah, Jack Kinney, Joshua Meador, Les Clark
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Billy Bletcher, Clarence Nash, Dessie Flynn, James MacDonald, Paul FreesDirector: Hamilton Luske, Jack Hannah, Jack Kinney, Joshua Meador, Les Clark
Writer: Al Bertino
Writer: Bill Berg
Writer: Brice Mack
Writer: David Detiege
Writer: Dick Kinney
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Animated, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 344 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-11-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Movie Reviews of Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Vol. 4 - 1951-1961 (Collector's Tin)
Movie Review: The final collection with perhaps the most familiar Donald cartoons - PLUS "Donald in Mathemagic Land!"
Summary: 5 Stars
The fourth and final entry in this series allows us to live in a wondrous era in which we can own a comprehensive Donald Duck short cartoon collection. Ain't life grand? Especially when you can share the glory of these classics with new generations. My son watched every cartoon and is now watching the earlier volumes. We must instill the love of fine things in our youth.
These cartoons might be the most familiar of all, since they are the ones most often shown on Disney TV shows, but you didn't always get to see the titles. I discovered that many great Disney music masters composed for these shorts when I assumed most of them came from Oliver Wallace.
The Chronological Donald Volume 4 includes Walt Disney's first animation for CinemaScope, "Grand Canyonscope," which predates "Lady and the Tramp." You have to see this just to marvel at the Eyvind Earle art direction that would later grace Sleeping Beauty. Also, there is the final -- and perhaps funniest -- Daisy and Donald theatrical cartoon, "Donald Diary," in which the Duck dreams he marries his fair love and sees what she looks like first thing in the morning ("What'sa maddah?").
When the cartoon shorts run out, the educational shorts and two-reelers kick in, beginning with the landmark "Donald in Mathemagic Land," narrated by the great Paul Frees and boasting a credits list that easily matches that of a Disney feature-length film.
Less triumphant but nonetheless fascinating is "Donald and the Wheel," which labors under a wincingly silly set of "spirits" and a dated attempt at hipness, but benefits from vocal work from the MelloMen and a delightfully kitschy sequence featuring Donald and a live action dancing girl on a whirling phonograph record (did this inspire Woody and Jesse's similar moment in Toy Story 2?) Fans of the TV series "Mad Men" with surely be pleased to see that this comely young dancer, who like that show's Joan Holloway, captures the far more healthy standard of female plentitude of the early 60's than in today's pipe-cleaner pop culture icons.
"The Litterbug" rounds out this trio and is especially notable for the uncredited narration of John Dehner, one of those character actors who appeared in almost everything in the 60's and 70's but is perhaps best remembered as Doris Day's TV boss ("Yee-ello?") and the radio "Paladin." He also started his career as a Disney animator! Another narrator heard in some of the shorts in this set is radio and Capitol children's record announcer Art Gilmore.
Leonard Maltin is on hand, as on all the Walt Disney Treasures sets, to instruct, enthuse and enlighten, as well as provide a buffer to the shorts which have, for one reason or another, been considered inappropriate for the mainstream. They are in a separate category called "From the Vault."
One of the most notable of these is "No Hunting," likely relegated to the vault for gunplay and violence -- but such a searing satire of recreational hunting, it makes its point as clearly anti-gun and anti-hunting. It also is one of the few, if any, Disney cartoons from Walt's era that nod slyly to a revered animated feature: as loads of garbage flow down a stream and the sound of guns are heard, Bambi's mother says to her fawn, "Man in in the forest...let's dig out." Take that, Stitch-meets-Beauty and the Beast commercials!
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Summary of Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Vol. 4 - 1951-1961 (Collector's Tin)
Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, who provides introductions for both discs included in The Chronological Donald, Vol. 4: 1951-1961, points out that Walt Disney continued to make Donald Duck cartoons well after his studio had stopped creating titles featuring Goofy, Pluto, and even Disney figurehead Mickey Mouse. Perusing the nearly three dozen items included here, it?s easy to see why the "wise-quacking duck" was still in business nearly 30 years after his creation. This stuff is brilliant: clever, funny, endlessly inventive, and sometimes even educational, it simply never gets old. Of course, some are better than others; "Trick or Treat," to name just one, features Huey, Dewey, and Louie, allied with the hag Witch Hazel, taking their Halloween revenge on their mean and stingy uncle, with not one but two original songs, one of them a hilarious "dance" number after Hazel puts a spell on Donald?s feet, all crammed into about eight minutes. Elsewhere, we find traditional nemeses like Chip ?n? Dale (particularly good in "Working for Peanuts," which was originally produced in 3-D) and Black Pete, as well as a variety of newer adversaries, both "human" and animal, on whom the hot-headed duck unleashes his notorious temper. Of particular interest to some will be the educational shorts like "Mathmagic Land" (at nearly 30 minutes, it?s several times longer than the average cartoon in this set), which sports a weird, almost postmodern look and includes jokes about trees with "square roots," information about the value of pi, circles, pentagrams, pentagons in nature, the "golden rectangle" in Greek architecture, and a great deal more, and even some live action footage. Other rarities include "Grand Canyonscope," filmed in CinemaScope (with ample big, wide vistas as Donald lays waste to the Grand Canyon), a look at some storyboards that were never made into a finished product, and more. But the main attraction is Donald. Voiced, as always in those days, by Clarence "Ducky" Nash, the irrepressible duck ("Who?s never wrong but always right? Who?d never dream of starting a fight?" goes the theme song) is one of the great creations in the history of popular entertainment. --Sam GrahamSimilar DVD Movies
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