August 23, 2005

Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts 1920s-1960s

A Cowboy Needs A Horse

Disney has announced the contents for the fifth wave of their Treasures dvd sets. Of particular interest is the contents of DISNEY RARITIES: CELEBRATED SHORTS, 1920s-1960s, which includes the majority of the studio's most highly stylized films. Among the shorts included are the offbeat Bill Justice/X. Atencio stop motion shorts NOAH'S ARK and A SYMPOSIUM ON POPULAR SONGS, Ward Kimball's MELODY and TOOT WHISTLE PLUNK AND BOOM, and other nicely designed one-shots like PIGS IS PIGS, PAUL BUNYAN, THE SAGA OF WINDWAGON SMITH, JACK AND OLD MAC, THE STORY OF ANYBURG, USA and THE LITTLE HOUSE. The biggest omission is Kimball's 1969 short IT'S TOUGH TO BE A BIRD, which fits into the theme of the collection, but was excluded for some unfortunate reason. Also, the audio commentaries seem lacking. There's one for composer Richard Sherman on A SYMPOSIUM ON POPULAR SONGS, but why not get a commentary from NOAH'S ARK song writer Mel Leven, or from artists like X. Atencio and Art Stevens who were both heavily involved in numerous shorts on this collection? There's not a lot of these guys still around, and it would have been nice to document the contributions of these undervalued artists. Nevertheless it's a pretty solid set with a lot of difficult to find cartoons. DISNEY RARITIES will be out on December 6. Pre-order at Amazon.


Posted by AMID at August 23, 2005 12:22 AM