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| Dvdivas
was founded by John Gabbard in 2000. It's purpose has been and
remains to be to provide you, the entertainment community with
the latest dvds and movie reviews. It will continue to be your
link to the most popular dvd movies. |
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"Walt Disney Treasures -Mickey Mouse in Living Color Part
2 "
|
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Reviewed
by: |
Wayne A. Klein |
| Genre: |
Family Animation
|
| Video: |
1.33:1 Full
Screen |
| Audio: |
Dolby Digital
2.0 (Mono) |
| Languages |
English |
| Subtitles |
English |
| Length |
345 minutes
|
| Rating |
G |
| Release Date |
5/14/04
|
| Studio |
Walt Disney |
| Commentary:
|
None |
| Documentaries:
|
Introduction
by Leonard Maltin |
| Featurettes:
|
"Mickey's Cartoon Comeback",
"The Voice Behind the Mouse", "Mickey Mouse Club Titles in Color",
"Mickey Meets the Maestro", "Mickey Cartoon Physics from 'Plausible
Impossible'", "Mickey on the Camera Stand", "The Making of Mickey's
Christmas Carol" |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
None |
|
Interviews: |
None |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
None |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
Deleted animation
from "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
"Mickey and
the Beanstalk", "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", publicity and memorabilia
gallery, story and background art gallery |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Walt Disney,
Florence Gil, Clarence Nash, Wayne Allwine, Bill Farmer, Arthur
Burghardt, Tony Anselmo, James MacDonaldCharles Adler, Jim Cummings,
Kelsey Grammer, Russi Taylor |
| Written
By: |
Charles Fleischer,
Gerrit Graham, Samuel Graham, Chris Bailey, Bill Berg |
| Produced
By: |
Walt Disney
|
| Directed
By: |
George Sribner,
Tim Hauser, Riley Thomson, Charles A. Nichols |
| Music:
|
Fred Murray,
Nicholas Pike |
| The
Review: |
Mickey in
color was never has much fun as Mickey in black and white. Walt
Disney's mascot increasingly became a blander character as time
went on. Things happened around Mickey or to him but he rarely
started the trouble. The earlier shorts are classic examples
of Disney animation and even when the story material wasn't
up to par, the startling rich Disney animation makes the short
worthwhile. Although not quite as cutting edge as the Looney
Tunes cartoons or even the MGM cartoons, the Disney shorts featuring
Mickey helped set the standard for strong character based animation.
These delightful shorts are still gems worth watching. The longer
ones such as "Prince and the Pauper" and the more recent "Runaway
Brain" regain some of the elements of surprise and fun missing
from later Mickey Mouse cartoons. --- |
| Image
and Sound: |
Disney has
spared no expense to return these shorts to as close to pristine
condition as possible. The clarity, richness of color and even
the mono soundtrack all look and sound great. Packing so many
shorts on a two disc set created its own set of challenges but
the transfer looks exceptional with little of the compression
problems (i.e., static looking backgrounds) and few of the grain
problems that the Looney Tunes four DVD set had. |
| The
Extras: |
Mickey Mouse
and Disney animation fans will rejoice when they see some of
the extras included here. "The Voice Behind the Mouse" discusses
the evolution of Mickey's voice as his character became more
sophisticated. Walt Disney supplied the voice for Mickey originally
and the folks that stepped behind the mike when he died have
done a great job of giving the little rodent character. We also
get to see the "Mickey Mouse Club" titles in color. Included
are 5 of the original openings for the show. Walt Disney did
his last voice work as Mickey for these titles. We also get
an inside look at animating these classics and "The Making of
Mickey's Christmas Carol" provides insight into the challenge
of taking an icon and putting it into a classic story (from
Mark Twain's classic novel). We get to see animation art, interviews
with the directors and voice talent. The publicity, memorabilia
and story/background art galleries will be a treasure trove
for fans who are unable to purchase much of the material released
to the public over the years. Much of this exists only in the
Walt Disney archive now and, as such, this really is the only
place you'll get to see much of this material. |
| Commentary:
|
No commentary
as such, but Leonard Maltin provides interesting introductions
to many of the classic cartoons included. Maltin (who has written
a book on the classic animated cartoons of the 30's 40's and
50's) provides a thumbnail sketch discussion on the changes
to Mickey's character, the cartoons and the quality of animation
over time. Maltin delivers it in his typical breezy style making
it less teaching and more like a monologue about the changes
in Disney animation over the years. --- |
| Final
Words: |
Disney has
done a great job with these classic shorts putting them in a
great package as well. These collectibles (which were produced
in batches of roughly 200,000 each) will go out of print after
the initial run so I'd snatch them up while you can. The picture
quality and careful restoration of some of these shorts is,
at times, nothing short of astonishing. Disney clearly has taken
great care of the original negatives for many of these classics.
While there are some minor blemishes, some of them were created
during the original animation for certain shorts or are a part
of the negative. Disney has carefully tried to clean these up
as much as possible for the higher resolution of DVD. |
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