Starring Mickey Mouse, Pluto, Leonard Malton, John Hench
Written By:
Directed By:
Studio: Disney / Buena Vista
Buy on Amazon.com link
I’m not really a fan of the old Mickey Mouse cartoons but die hard Disney animation fans will love this limited DVD set! Why? Because it’s the final set of black & white shorts from the famous cartoon icon.
With all Limited Edition Walt Disney Treasure DVDs, Leonard Malton provides introductions and narration. He gives the viewer a tremendous amount of interesting info concerning Walt Disney, the cartoons, the studio and the animators. The man really knows his stuff about Disney, but i’m sure he also just reads off the cue cards as well.
Mickey’s early animated career is completed with this series of shorts released from 1928-1935. There’s about 40 animated shorts and some haven’t been seen in a long time, or at all. Some of the cartoons have been censored or were never even shown on television. The cartoons quality is still rough, but it’s been cleaned up a lot though. It’s probably the best the cartoons are going to look. Even though I don’t find these cartoons all that great (i’m new school haha) , it’s still amusing to watch the shorts. Like Leonard Malton said in the introduction, Disney made Mickey Mouse like Charlie Chaplin. His antics, facial expressions and the crossover between serious and comical situations makes him a fun character to watch. Some of these shorts aren’t as famous as Steamboat Willie but they are similar in the way they were made.
The DVD extras contain a few small featurettes. One is about collecting merchandise of Mickey Mouse. Around the time these animated shorts were made, Mickey was a huge phenomemon. So everything from lunch boxes to statues were made and people went on a collecting spree. Leonard Malton interviews and discusses merchandise with a life long Mickey Mouse collector. “In the Vault” cartoons are all the animated shorts you won’t see on TV or anywhere else because they aren’t socially acceptable today. Many of them contain violence, cigar/cigarette smoking and enthic/racial stereotypes. Leonard Malton warns viewers about the contents of the shorts, which is good because people might get the wrong impression. Yeah, the cartoons might be racist but it’s how things were back then, and it’s important to show people how people did things back then…even though it’s wrong. There’s a few other extras on here, like galleries and comic strips.
Overall, hardcore Disney animation fans will want to own this DVD set. It has the remaining 40 classic B/W Mickey cartoons and lots rare shorts that people haven’t seen before. Another Limited Edition Tin to add to the collection!
Features:
Mickey Mania: Collecting Mickey Merchandise
Mickey’s Portrait Artist: John Hench
‘Pioneer Days’ And ‘The Castaway’ In Several Versions
Art Galleries: Mickey Mouse, Fully Covered;
Mickey’s Poster Archive;
Background Paintings;
Animation Drawings
Audio:
ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo CC
Video:
Standard 1.33:1 Color
Standard 1.33:1 B&W
Subtitles:
Favorite Scenes: Mickey’s Pal Pluto 1933, Barnyard Olympics 1932, When The Cat’s Away 1929
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 334 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: