Disney Classics Thoughts

[major_kerina]

About six volumes of old Disney cartoons. I don't recommend buying them because the versions are tape quality at best. I'm forgetting a few in this list but that's for good reason, they're not too memorable...

The Relunctant Dragon - Awesome, despite the poor visual version. Great verse and writing. A fun short. The dragon is such a sissy. I recognize the VA from the Mad Hatter in Alice.

Ferdinand - Omg...sooo dated in racial stereotypes...*jaw*...I liked the style of the cartoon reflecting the original book. Read the original book though.

Goliath II - Much later work. Probably Jungle Book era. Little Elephant takes on a tiny mouse! A clash of the titans of tiny! Fun and good animation if a little ridiculous. I love how the tiger is dealt with "he was never seen again". Hehe.

Johnny Appleseed - Seen sooo many times. It's okay. It's kinda hokey now. But the songs are like viruses...you can't stop singing them dammit. Native American stereotype abound. Get on the wagons rolling west!

Mickey & the Beanstalk - Donald as an ax-wielding maniac sick with hunger = awesome. A lot of tension in this one. I absolutely love it. The only weird thing is Professor...Drake? *I think so* He was awesome for a while...but I think he feels out of place in this short.

Brave Little Tailor - SEVEN IN ONE BLOW!....I still say that a lot. Short but neat.

Gulliver Mickey - other than the reference in Kindom Hearts, this one is kinda forgettable.

Thru the Mirror - Classic of mind-screw. Land of living objects in Mickey's dream. Fun for the glove dancing classic scene and other little bits.

Ms. Mouse Takes a Trip - I never knew Pasadena was so desolate...A cute Mickey and Pluto piece the usual villain of these things.

Prince & the Pauper - Easily the biggest reason to track down these DVDs. Fun short. Amazing work. Feature-quality. Donald and the whole story kinda comes together so well. I would've liked to have seen more but that might've been stretching it.

Wind in the Willows - another classic. So much fun. Weasels! And toad's mania. I think this is one of the few Disney cartoons to feature not only and...asylum/prison...but a courtroom as well. Really a very distinctive work.

Ugly Duckling - Dang this one was really depressing till the end. When I was a kid...I kinda wondered if his family was real or just a hallucination past the point of heart-breaking insanity. It kinda disturbs me that I thought that and that you can't rule out that they're all in his head. But I prefer a happy ending. ^^

The Grasshopper & The Ants - Goofy Grasshopper! This one always had me emotional because of Grasshopper's pleading at the end for being so stupid.

The Golden Touch - pretty dang disturbing for Disney. I think King Midas is the same as the Seven with One Blow King.

The Robber Kitten - Never seen before. It was interesting but not terribly so. Cookies! Any kid running away has to take cookies with them.

Wise Little Hen - I remember this one. Piggy and Donald get stomach-aches when it's time to work. Which conveniently disappear when it's time to reap the benefits of the hen's crop. One thing though...she's not really doing it 'herself' because she has a troop of little chicks doing most of the work for her. Oh well. Fun little short.

Tortoise & the Hare (Race and then Punch Each Other) - Two shorts. One with the traditional race between the two animals. It follows about the same as the original story. One addition I like is how the tortoise legs out the finish with speed and then reaches with his neck. So, after that, we have a boxing match between the two. The tone is similar. The Hare is fast (and floats like a butterfly) and the tortoise can't land a punch...until the hare plays dirty and uses...explosives?...where's the ref?...it works out fine for the tortoise with rocket-powered punches. I'm not as fond of the second one because of this device which allows the tortoise to win.

Babes in the Woods - Retelling of Hansel and Gretel (and not too far off the original actually). I never knew the witch turned kids into spiders and rats though...I thought she just ate them. Strange. Okay short.

Goddess of Spring - the Story of Demeter...only Hades is depicted really Satanically...as is much of the imagery in the short. A little surprising for a kid's cartoon. The whole style feels different than the usual. However, I don't rate it that highly.

Big Bad Wolf (in all incarnations) - There are three shorts that figure the BBW prominently. The first is a typical retelling of the original story with the three pigs. Wolf loses. Same for the Little Red Riding Hood one. Not impromptu surgery on the wolf though. So he comes back with little wolves...and so the cycle continues.

Lambert - Sooo many times seen. It's cute...and fun. But sooo many times. I know it's an award-winner but still. I've seen it.

3 Blind Musketeers - A lot of singing and blindly stabbing. Fun.

Paul Bunyan - Fun short. I like the books better because they're sooo crazy. Same for Pacos Bill. Calfs standing on the side of a hill...hehe...

Saga of Windwagon Smith - Now this one...I don't really recall but it's a lot of fun. Sea captain on the prairies. I liked it. Fun discovery.

Chicken Little - My personal favorite. Probably the best Disney short I've ever seen. It fits social commentary in! Seriously, I kept wondering if this was an allergory to the Red Scare or something like that. I love how it all plays out. This is one smart wolf. He even out-smarts the narrator (love that bit of fourth-wall breaking).

There you go...a lot of cartoons! ^^V

Comments

[allieflowlight.livejournal.com]

I looooooove Wind in the Willows. ^__^

Also, I forgot a lot of these existed until you listed them here! ^^ Fun memories. But oy, yeah, the racial stereotypes... >_<

Thanks for this post. ^^

[major-kerina.livejournal.com]

No prob! ^^ Glad you liked it!

question

[(Anonymous)]

good review, but i have a question or two:

1.)Goliath II: what happens to the old tiger (what do you mean by "he was never seen again")

2.)How does the old Chicken Little movie end (what do you mean by "outsmarting" the narrator)?

thanks

Re: question

[major-kerina.livejournal.com]

Well it looks the tiger is going to be eaten but he gets away "never to be seen again"

And the fox eats all the chickens in the hen house (against what the narrator expected would happen).

Re: question

[(Anonymous)]

You sure about Goliath II? Because i heard somewhere that the old tiger actually falls into a crocodile's mouth and is thus "never to be seen again". But i hope i was wrong, because i'm thinking about buying this volume 6 of old Disney cartoons for kids, and i really don't want any cartoon inside to have such scary scenes or unhappy ending for any character.

Re: question

[major-kerina.livejournal.com]

The tiger escapes with his pride down a notch ^^. I don't really recommend the set too well though. The quality is not very good on the transfer. A rental is best.