The SmarK DVD Rant for Walt Disney Treasures: Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studio
—Love or hate Disney’s corporate mentality and tactics, their recent sub par animated outings, and Michael Eisner in general, they still managed to put out some truly timeless classics over the years. It’s those early years that is reflected in the Treasures series, of which I absolutely loved the original releases in 2001, specifically Mickey Mouse in Color and Silly Symphonies. Now, it’s back for round 2, with Mickey Mouse in Black & White, The Complete Goofy, and a “behind the scenes” collection, which is the subject of this review.
The Film
Cable TV as those in the US know it didn’t really exist in Canada until a few years ago. For the most part, until the introduction of microwave carriers from the northern US stations, we Canadians were stuck with only a few channels on the VHF band, generally the CBC and not much else. This was great on Saturdays, because you had hockey, but Sundays were brutal in the 70s because really the only good thing on was the Wonderful World of Disney around dinnertime. And considering some of the snowbound shitball towns I used to live in as a kid, like Smithers BC, there wasn’t much else to do anyway. So began the great crapshoot of life in a two-channel universe: Watching Disney and hoping for something good, like a Goofy cartoon. Usually you’d end up getting a nature short, but sometimes you got the REALLY cool stuff, like reruns of the shows from years before where Walt himself would show the operation of the studio and how animators made the cartoons. Admittedly I didn’t appreciate it at age 6 as much as I do now, but watching this stuff again really makes me wish I had been paying closer attention back then.
Leonard Maltin hosts this two-disc, four hour extravaganza of backstage fun from Disney’s animation guys, almost like getting a lesson on kayfabe in wrestling. The two discs cover distinct sections of the tour — The first disc focuses on the filmed documentaries, while the second disc is selected episodes of the “Disneyland” TV show from the 50s filling in the gaps for younger viewers and older viewers alike. Everything here is excellent and informative, while retaining the Disney sense of humor and playfulness, something lacking in more expensively produced featurettes on DVDs today. Basically, this whole DVD set is one giant special feature.
Disc One:
—”A Trip Through the Walt Disney Studios”. Produced shortly before the release of Snow White in 1938 for RKO Studios and never intended for public viewing, this is a 30-minute documentary created in-house by Disney, showcasing the animation process for RKO executives who weren’t exactly aware of what went into making an animated feature. And it’s REALLY good, covering all the steps required to turn still drawings into what appears on the screen. The narration is somewhat dry, given the target audience, but it’s made up for with an optional subtitle feature that acts like a text commentary, pointing out all the famous animators and creators who pop up during the tour and explaining what they were famous for and what they went on to later in life.
—”The Reluctant Dragon”. This is the showcase feature of the entire set, a feature film produced during the war in order to recoup losses from the foreign markets. The marketing was somewhat misleading, showing the dragon cartoon as the centerpiece of the feature, when in fact it’s actually a clever and entertaining tour within the giant Disney studios in California, as seen through the eyes of comedian Robert Benchley. The idea is that Benchley is sent to see Walt Disney by his wife, with the intent of pitching the children’s book “The Reluctant Dragon” as a feature film to Walt. While traveling through the studio, he gets delayed several times, learning about art school, sound effects (aka foley), storyboarding, color mixing and animation along the way. Some of this stuff is absolutely incredible, like meeting the voice behind Donald Duck, and it’s a shame that this movie was panned by critics and audiences at the time, because it’s pretty much required viewing for those interested in the art of animation. Along the way, we segue into a few Disney shorts, most notably “Baby Weems”, “How To Ride a Horse” and “The Reluctant Dragon” (from which the movie gets its name, of course). “Weems” has become regarded as a hidden gem over the years, featuring a storyboarding course that illustrates how still pictures can also evoke the feeling the animation, and telling the story of a baby who is frighteningly intelligent, in a cartoon that immediately reminded me of Tex Avery’s best work. “How to Ride a Horse” is one of the classic Goofy shorts, as he demonstrates the “proper” way to prepare and ride a horse, and of course constantly gets outsmarted by the animal. Being a big mark for Goofy, this was actually my favorite of the bunch, but “Baby Weems” is the better cartoon, objectively speaking. Rounding out the shorts is the title cartoon, featuring a take on St. George and the Dragon that is decidedly different than legend. In this case, a dragon who brings new meaning to “flaming” battles a dragon-slayer who is more concerned with afternoon tea. The results end up looking like something out of pro wrestling, except with better acting and dialogue. The whole movie runs about 75 minutes and is a must-see for fans of features from that early period who want to know the people behind them.
—Finally, you get a sort-of remixed version of the initial documentary, re-titled “How Disney Cartoons Are Made” and with altered narration for a wider audience. Pretty much the same thing, dumbed down a bit for mainstream consumption.
Disc Two:
Three episodes of “Disneyland”, each running 50 minutes, give or take…
—”The Story of the Animated Drawing” is an episode of “Disneyland” from I believe 1954, in black & white, hosted by Walt and pretty much covering the whole history of animation from cave drawings up until Fantasia. Some of the stuff here is pretty wild, like the history of the Zoetrope and the early vaudeville takes on cartoons, like the primitive dinosaur act. It all leads into a discussion of animating for emotional response rather than story, and the feature short is the Nutcracker Suite portion of Fantasia. Of course, shown in B&W and mono sound it completely loses all its impact, but that was what you got in the 50s.
—”The Plausible Impossible” is the second episode, now in color rather than B&W, featuring Walt expounding on the laws of cartoon physics and how Mickey Mouse can defy gravity by being ignorant of it. The highlight is Walt using Donald Duck as a guinea pig for a sound effects demonstration, in which he assaults him with a variety of increasingly-painful props to lead up to a cartoon short. Walt’s deadpan delivery of some of the lines is hilarious, like when he casually mentions shooting Donald out of a cannon and Donald freaks out in typical fashion. The meat of the interest in this program, however, is undoubtedly what is the first-ever deleted scene — the lost “washing up” song from Snow White, presented in pencil-test form to demonstrate what unfinished animation looks like. Also shown is a deleted scene from Fantasia, in this case the “Night on Bald Mountain” short with the devil conducting an orgy of destruction on Halloween night. This was a bit dark and intense and I can see why it was cut out. Portions of this show were chopped out and used, in fact, on the Snow White and Fantasia DVDs, and watching this stuff made me want to pull out my Fantasia box set and watch the whole thing in 5.1 surround again.
—”Tricks Of Our Trade” rounds out the disc, with Walt going REALLY behind the scenes and showing the technical aspects of the animation process, like the amazing multi-plane camera and using ultra-slow motion playback of glass breaking to create realistic animation in their features. Some of the acting in the recreations is pretty hokey, but you get rare on-screen appearances from the legends of Disney animation, and the featured portion of Fantasia is the “Dance of the Hours” animal-ballet, which is a riot. Seeing the incredible amount of detail and thought that the animators put into the smallest things — like duplicating raindrops properly or simulating the way a fat guy’s pants move when he dances — really showcases the care put into the early Disney features. Contrast with today’s efforts, which mostly involve computer animation for the backgrounds and ripping off classic novels for the plot. I mean, sure, I thought Treasure Planet was a good romp, but $120 million for THAT? But I digress.
Overall, this is a four-hour set that absolutely flies by, and if you have the slightest interest in what goes on behind the camera of your favorite Disney cartoons, don’t hesitate to pick this up. A worthwhile addition to the “Treasures” library, no doubt.
The Video:
Whereas the information here is top-notch, the source material doesn’t fare quite as well. To be fair, we’re talking about a couple of in-house documentaries, a low-budget feature film and three episodes of a TV show from the fifties, so what they have managed to do with the video is quite amazing. Most of this is either black & white or the early and garish Technicolor, so this isn’t a set to show off your new HDTV with. The second disc especially features tons of noise, scratches and dust, but again, it’s videotape from 50 years ago, so that’s not something to even take into consideration when rating it. Everything is of course full-screen, as intended. Pretty much the best you’re going to get from the material given.
The Audio:
It was all broadcast in mono originally, and that’s what you get here. Fantasia’s portions suffer greatly because of that, but that’s why you should have the DVD box set anyway.
The Extras:
About another hour of stuff total, including a bonus tour and history of the studios hosted by Maltin and running about 30 minutes, an interview with the primary animator for the Reluctant Dragon running about 10 minutes, a radio program from 1946 that even Disney didn’t know about until recently featuring interviews with the animators, and the usual photo galleries and stills. I don’t really see how they’re “bonus” features since there’s no video version of this and they might as well have just put everything under one menu, but it’s there and it’s an extra, so there ya go.
The Packaging:
I would be remiss in not mentioning the swank tin holder for the standard double-Alpha case holding the discs. I love those outer cases, even if it messes up my shelving system a bit. Anything in a steel case looks damn cool and is okay by me.
The Ratings:
The Film: *****
The Video: **
The Audio: *
The Extras: ***
