Walt Disney Treasures: Disney Rarities, Celebrated Shorts 1920s-1960s

The Walt Disney Treasures sets provide animation buffs with a privileged pass through the studio archives, and this two-disc collection offers an especially welcome anthology of rarely seen short subjects and featurettes, ranging from Walt Disney's “Alice Comedies”—groundbreaking pre-Mickey Mouse shorts that combined animation and live-action—to the stylistically adventurous and Oscar-winning “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom,” the first Cinemascope cartoon. Another notable experimental cartoon included here is “Jack and Old Mac,” which features a sequence in which characters are created by the words that spell their names (c-a-t, d-o-g). Several of the short subjects may not have pioneered the art of animation, but they tell endearing and enduring stories about misfits who become heroes, including: "Ferdinand the Bull," "Lambert the Sheepish Lion," "Morris, the Midget Moose," and "Goliath II." Others, such as “The Little House” and the Oscar-nominated “Pigs Is Pigs,” are based on children's books, and “Chicken Little” is definitely a more faithful telling of the classic fable than Disney's own 2005 computer-animated feature. Devotees of Disney's original Winnie the Pooh productions will recognize the voice of Pooh Bear himself, Sterling Holloway, in several of these cartoons, most memorably “Ben and Me” about a mouse who inspired Benjamin Franklin. Other American folk heroes represented in this set include Paul Bunyan, Casey Jones (in “The Brave Engineer”), and Mudville's Mighty Casey (in "Casey Bats Again”). “The Truth About Mother Goose” is an ambitiously animated short that reveals the origins of three beloved nursery rhymes, while favorite Disney character Ludwig von Drake conducts himself admirably in “A Symposium on Popular Songs,” featuring tunes by Oscar-winning brothers Robert and Richard Sherman. For serious collectors or a new generation who missed out on this now bygone era in animation, this entertaining set goes a long way toward preserving Disney's proud legacy. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. (D. Liebenson)