Cinema Tuesdays Review

Rare and Nearly Well Done
By Nathan Cone

Disney Home Video’s latest wave of “Walt Disney Treasures” contains a real gem of a release: “Disney Rarities,” with short films that span a timeline from the 1920s to the 1960s, and whose subject matter is equally as broad. But though the set is easy to recommend for its entertainment and collectable value, it is unfortunate that some of the short films on these discs do not live up to previous Treasures’ audio-video standards. More on that later.

The “Disney Rarities” set is unique among the Walt Disney Treasures series of DVD sets, as it gathers into one place several of the limited series or “one-shot” cartoons that Disney produced. Some of these shorts, like “Noah’s Ark,” (from 1959) are unlike anything the studio produced before or since. “Noah’s Ark” is a stop-motion animation short; the characters are all built out of household items like corks, pipe cleaners, and the like. Other shorts are proto music videos like “Jack and Old Mac,” a jazzy take on “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.”

Some of the more recognizable titles on this set include “Ben and Me,” a cute feature about a little mouse who helps Benjamin Franklin along the path to greatness, “Lambert, the Sheepish Lion,” which some may remember for its catchy tune, and a whole series of the “Alice” comedies produced by Walt Disney in the 1920s, before he made it big in Hollywood. The star of these short films, Virginia Davis, even appears elsewhere on the DVD set in a lively interview with Disney Treasures series curator Leonard Maltin.

There are also Oscar-winning shorts, including “Ferdinand the Bull” and “Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom,” which was the first cartoon filmed in the widescreen CinemaScope process. But this brings me to my main complaint with this set, which is the poor video quality of some of these shorts.

None of the CinemaScope films are presented in anamorphic widescreen, which translates to lost video resolution when viewed on a widescreen television. And a couple of the shorts, particularly the aforementioned “Noah’s Ark,” look almost dreadful, with dark patches and color distortion. It appears obvious that while great care was taken in planning the set and compiling these shorts, that same amount of attention to detail did not carry over into the technical aspects of the set. Although he is not responsible for the mishap, I emailed Mr. Maltin (whose name appears on the outside of the DVD case), and he wrote me back the same day, assuring me that the company is aware of the complaints coming in about the set.

Still, it’s hard not to recommend the “Disney Rarities” set. The shorts on this 2-disc set are hard to find elsewhere, and since there are only a limited number of sets being produced (125,000), if you’re interested in taking a fascinating trip through the Disney archives, this is a set for you. But if you pick it up, I’d write a letter to the company about the video problems. Just to let them know, as Jiminy Cricket might say, “I’m no fool.”

12/30/05

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