Disney Animated Films, Live Action Films

The Reluctant Dragon

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Original release date: June 20, 1941

Rating: G. “Contains tobacco depictions.”

Length: 1 hour, 14 minutes

Background: You’d think, going by the poster and name, this was an animated movie about a dragon who is, perhaps, reluctant. You’d be wrong.

“The Reluctant Dragon” came out during the 1941 Disney animators’ strike, so it isn’t all new animation. In fact, the film is a hybrid of live action studio tour and animated shorts.

There wasn’t much cultural impact, but the Dragon character – yes, there is one – appeared again in “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

Review:

Our picture starts out today in black and white at the home of Robert Benchley, best known for his Academy Award-winning short “How to Sleep” as well as magazine columns and radio work. His wife is suggesting he sell the rights to the book “The Reluctant Dragon” to Walt Disney.

They eventually hit the road and make it to Walt Disney Studios. They tell the security guard they have an idea for Walt and he lets him right in. That easy, huh?

This is a glorified studio tour, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Robert sneaks away from the worker taking him to Walt, instead stopping at the art studio (this is where he meets a guy lighting up a cigarette, hence the disclaimer).

After a pratfall, Robert meets the art crew. In this case, they have an actual elephant in the room as they work on drawing it. Hmm, it’s almost like there’s an elephant movie coming up soon. Robert is apparently very anti-elephant, unloading several jokes about them.

His next stop is a film score and vocal recording session, seeing an orchestra play music. He sits next to a gentleman who turns out to be Clarence Nash, the voice of Donald Duck. Florence Gill, the voice of Clara Cluck, comes in and sings in… chicken. Clarence joins her to sing in Donald voice, delighting Robert. The whole scene is a delight, really.

The next stop on the accidental studio tour is a foley session, which is where they record sounds for movies. They’re recording for Casey Jr., complete with clips, which is neat to see. Casey Jr. is also featured in the upcoming “Dumbo” film.

Robert finds his way into not only the camera room but also color himself, as the film goes from black and white to color as he enters the room. He sees the giant multiplane camera, getting a look at it from above. The multiplane camera is part of the genius of Walt and crew, invented for the process of making animated films.

This leads into a demonstration of Donald being animated, complete with Donald coming to live full of sass as always.

The “Rainbow Room” is next, full of paint. Good thing we went to color, huh? The artists are mixing colorings and painting up a deer that I think we might just see in a very depressing film sooner than later.

This is followed by a trip to the maquette department, where they make… yep, maquettes. Maquettes are clay statues they use to see characters from all angles. The guard who lost Robert way earlier finally comes searching for him, so Robert ducks into a closet.

Next is the storyboard department, drawing up sketches of a character called Baby Weems. I have no memory of this character going anywhere. They have an actual baby in the room they are using as a model to sketch. As the baby leaves to rest, Robert gets sucked in by the storyboard artists to listen to their pitch.

We get the whole Baby Weems story though storyboards, complete with voicework and very slight animation effects in a few of the boards. Baby Weems would have gotten the “skip it” treatment, sorry. There are some VERY stereotypical animations of characters from other countries in this part.

The chase continues and Robert ducks the guard some more, ending up in the animators’ room with famous animators like Ward Kimball. This leads to a preview of “How to Ride a Horse,” a new Goofy short.

The Goofy “How To” shorts would become a staple, with this first one eventually being rereleased by itself. I’m not going to review the short itself here, as I imagine at some point it’ll hit Disney+ by itself. It’s good though!

We return to live action and a theatre, where Robert has found Walt Disney himself. He prepares to pitch “The Reluctant Dragon” to Walt, but decides to wait until after the feature playing.

That feature? “The Reluctant Dragon.” Yep, Walt found the book first. Nobody is surprised.

The story of the dragon is definitely something. The Boy (that’s his name) meets the dragon, who is friendly and a fan of poetry and not the scary dragon you’d expect. Sir Giles arrives in town to fight the dragon. The dragon tells him that he is a peaceful dragon and will never fight. They go back and forth for a while, eventually staging a pretend fight which leads to the dragon being accepted into society.

As the short ends, we close on Robert and his wife riding home. She’s harassing him because he didn’t sell the picture to Disney, instead wandering around. And that’s the end.

Extras:

All you get is a 1 1/2 minute clip from the actual dragon portion of the film.

Should you watch it?

Yes, watch it. The actual dragon portion is the weak spot in an otherwise strong and fun movie. It is a very interesting behind the scenes look at how things happen.

Mickey Shorts

Canine Caddy

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Original release date: May 30, 1941

Rating: TV-G. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: seven golfin’ minutes

Background: Outside of being one of several golf shorts released in the time period, there isn’t much background for “Canine Caddy.”

Remember the buck teeth that Mickey grew in the last short reviewed, The Little Whirlwind? This is the last short with those. Easy come, easy go.

Review:

It should be noted that this is a Pluto short – the short begins with the Pluto title card – and not a Mickey short, despite Mickey appearing in it.

And appear he does. We start with Mickey, golfing in red pants but no shirt – surely against every country club dress code – and his buddy Pluto reduced to a caddy.

As Mickey goes for a swing, he notices Pluto sniffing and scratching and gets mad First of all, wash your dog. Second of all, he’s a dog.

Mickey finally smacks the ball, sending it flying. Pluto points it out, dog-style, before lifting the flag for Mickey to putt it in.

Nope. Because this isn’t a three minute short, we aren’t done yet. Mickey just misses. Then he ends up in a sand trap somehow. Honestly, he’s not great at golf. He has the Happy Gilmore game, with a great long shot but absolutely no putting skills.

Eventually, Pluto finds himself going at it with a gopher. This gopher is much more active than the famed Caddyshack gopher, basically antagonizing Pluto and helping him tear up the entire course.

In the end, Mickey laughs it off. Why not. He’s a rich mouse. He can play golf somewhere else.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

Cute and inoffensive but non-essential. Skip it.

Mickey Shorts

The Little Whirlwind

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Original release date: February 14, 1941

Rating: TV-Y7. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: nine windy minutes

Background: While not a hugely historic short, “The Little Whirlwind” does have a little history to it.

Mr. Mouse had a bit of a redesign – again – with this short. It was the debut of him having ears that worked in perspective. He also lost a little weight and grew some buck teeth. If you don’t remember the teeth, you aren’t alone… they didn’t last long.

It hasn’t been confirmed, but some say this short was also the debut of Gale, a character that wouldn’t reappear until “Frozen II.”

Review:

Minnie starts us out baking a delicious cake and singing happily. As the smell wafts from the windowsill, Mickey, his hat and his newfound teeth float right up to the window.

He begs at the window and Minnie says no, because… I guess they were fighting at the time. Mickey offers to clean up the yard in exchange for cake.

Meanwhile, a little whirl of wind appears quietly in the yard. Mickey gets a load of leaves together, only to have the wind move his basket on him. The yellow of the leaves really pop off the screen.

Mickey finds a way to keep the basket in place, but the wind still blows the leaves out before taking off with his hat. The wind marches around the house, as wind does, leading a trail of marching leaves. Why not.

Mickey catches the leaves and wind in a sack – again, as is natural – and kicks it, only for it to come back and smack him. Has Minnie not noticed her love interest fighting with weather outside?

The big cheese finds himself on the losing end of the fight as the wind becomes a gigantic tornado, blowing him and everything in his path around. It sucks up pretty much everything in its path before dropping him in a fountain.

Minnie finally notices, going outside and calling Mickey a dog as she sees how destroyed her yard is. Oops.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

Yes, watch it. It’s cute, the animation and colors look good, and it goes by seemingly in about five minutes.

Disney Animated Films, Uncategorized

Fantasia

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Original release date: November 13, 1940

Rating: TV-G. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: 2 hours, 5 minutes of magic

Background: Ah, yes. Fantasia. She was great on “American Idol.” She even won the third season and followed it up with a #1 album.

Oh, wait.

Ah, yes. “Fantasia.” “Fantasia” was an experiment of all kinds for the Disney company. For one, it wasn’t just one complete story. It wasn’t all animated either. It’s a series of eight animated segments (or shorts) pieced together with classical music performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra.

“Fantasia” wasn’t originally the plan. You’ve seen or heard of the segment “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” the one where Mickey where the big pointy blue hat and red robe. It’s iconic. It was originally supposed to be its own deal. However, costs kept going up and Walt decided to take it from short to feature film, combining it with other animated shorts and music.

It was also the first film released with stereophonic sound.

Even the release was out of the ordinary. Walt and crew decided to release it as a sort of travelling roadshow film, first debuting in thirteen theatres across the country. Unfortunately, this became costly due to World War II cutting off the European market and the cost of moving a movie across the country.

It was rereleased in the old fashioned, widespread theatre format shortly after and many times over the years after. It’s a certifiable classic, being on the American Film Institute’s “greatest 100 films” list and also number five of their “top animated films” list. It won two Academy Honorary Rewards and is preserved in the Library of Congress National Film Registry.

Its impact is still felt far and wide across the Disney universe today. Besides spawning a sequel (“Fantasia 2000”), it has inspired two live-action Disney films thus far, “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and “The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.” It’s also the inspiration for a Disney+ show in development.

It is big business at the theme parks as well, with Mickey in the famed outfit leading the Fantasmic! water show at multiple parks. There’s Fantasia Gardens at Walt Disney World, a mini golf course completely themed to the movie. A giant version of the Sorcerer’s hat was the controversial icon for the Hollywood Studios park for years before finally being removed, but a smaller version faces a pool complete with a Fantasia-themed pool at Disney’s All-Star Movies resort also in Florida.

Even in the video game world, “Fantasia” has spawned more generations than most Disney properties. “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” was released for the Atari way back then, featuring Atari’s legendary “you can’t really tell what you’re looking at” graphics. A “Fantasia” game was released for the Sega Master System and Genesis systems. Characters from the movie have appeared in the”Disney Infinity,” “Epic Mickey” and “Kingdom Hearts” series, and most recently “Fantasia: Music Evolved” borrowed the movie name for its music rhythm game on the Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Review:

The film begins very simply, with the Philadelphia Orchestra filling into their spots against a blue background and doing a slight warmup on their instruments. It’s an immediate reminder that music is the real star of this film. As do most films from the time period, you’ll have the black bars on the right and left of the screen.

“Fantasia” is a story of eight songs, and the first segment features Bach’s “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.” You’ve likely heard the song somewhere, probably as a creepy Halloween song.

The “Toccata” segment is first a meeting of the orchestra, as we see the silhouettes against various color backgrounds – something the HD upgrade immediately pops out and makes look great. The sound is fantastic.

As the song gets going, the focus goes away from the band and into Disney animation. It isn’t your well-known Disney animation – crazy looking animals doing things – but instead colors popping with outlines of musical instruments, strings, and notes moving here and there with the music in an abstract style. It’s beautiful. Eventually it all joins together with the conductor conducting the animation.

Our second segment features “The Nutcracker Suite” by Tchaikovsky. There’s no nutcracking going on though, as the segment focuses on the seasons changing and its effect on nature. First we meet a crew of fairies, working their magic on plant life and bringing them to their vibrant summer life. Mushrooms dance – the mushrooms have an Oriental look between slanted eyes and their caps resembling Chinese headware – to “Chinese Dance” from the Suite, which I’m guessing could fill in that cultural depiction category nicely.

Flowers dance in another portion to “Russian Dance,” filling the screen with bright, vibrant colors as well as a sea of greens. Fall hits and the colors turn to reds and oranges, before winter takes over and the orchestra hits its peak.

The third act features the star himself – Mickey – as well as the wizard Yensid (Disney backwards). The music is “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” by Paul Dukas, which of course would also be the title of the sequence. Mickey watches Yensid work his magic, then tries to do it himself by putting on Yensid’s blue hat. It works, and Mickey brings a broom to life, teaching it to carry buckets and march. Then he teaches it to fill said buckets with water… and falls asleep. As happened to Mickey before, his spirits pops right out of his sleeping body and dreams of splashing water everywhere and conducting the water.

This doesn’t work out for him, as broomsticks explode into smaller broomsticks, multiplying by the dozens and flooding the place with water. How can he stop it?

He can’t… but Yensid shows up and stops it immediately. This does not end well for Mickey, who quietly and quickly hands the sorcerer’s hat over to its rightful owner with a sheepish grin. Oops.

“Rite of Spring” by Stravinsky is the next tune, giving us a look at the beginning of the world. This is done quite directly by taking us into space and showing us a trip through stars. This is done QUITE well and looks amazing even by 2020 standards.

After seeing the actual universe develop, we hit planet earth and see it develop, and then we get the arrival of the dinosaurs. Honestly, this segment seems like it has been dragging on for too long. The animation is great and the dinosaurs look good, but I’m a little bored.

The dinosaurs are peaceful. Then they aren’t. You know, as dinosaurs were (supposedly). This whole scene could’ve used some Jeff Goldblum, honestly.

Following the never-ending battle of dinosaurs, things get really bad for the whole crew. The sky turns purple, signifying that the storm is moving into the circle on the Fortnite battle field. No, wait. It means things are drying up and the dinosaurs don’t have much to live on. It gets bleak. They start dying. Then they all die. How exciting did I just make extinction sound?

The earth goes wild! Mountains crumble! Wilds blow! Bright red sun! We end the short the way it began, zooming back to outer space as the sun fades behind the planet… roughly 900000000 minutes after the short started.

The band goes for an intermission, giving us the “Fantasia” title card a good hour into the movie. This is when you go pee. This would be useful in today’s world of three hour movies.

With the return of the band, we wrap up intermission with “Meet the Soundtrack.” This is a humorous look at how the soundtrack character – a thin yellow line – moves and grooves with various instruments.

Beethoven’s “The Pastoral Symphony” is our next tune, bringing us to a Greco-Roman time period complete with adorable four-legged creatures in colors that would make My Little Pony proud.

As various centaurettes bathe, we get the first naked breasts in Disney history (there are no nipples). We also get the naked butts of baby cupids, but those are probably less of a draw. They are half women, half horse, but there are some out there who will be offended by cartoon boobs. If you’re one of those, this is the short to skip. It’s pretty harmless, though.

As the tune plays, we take a look at various characters from classical mythology. This is all just a backdrop, however, to the action about to take place.

There’s a festival to celebrate the god of wine, Bacchus. If it was 2020, white women everywhere would be celebrating this. However, this is the ancient time and instead Zeus creates a storm and gets a helper to throw lightning bolts at the party-goers. Ah, Zeus.

Long story short, Zeus stops. Everyone is happy. There’s wine. This goes on forever too. The colors are pretty though.

“Dance of the Hours” is our next segment, featuring several characters who live on in various places, mostly theme park topiaries. This is indeed a dance of the hours, with various acts performing ballet at different times of the day.

First we meet Madame Upanova and her ostriches as they pull the morning shift. Afternoon brings Hyacinth Hippo and her team of dancing hippos, all wearing tiny ballet skirts that look tinier on giant hippo bodies.

As evening rolls around, we are introduced to Elephancine and her fellow elephants, all of which have a bubble blowing act. Finally, Ben E. Gator and his night crew – a troop of aligators, of course – bust out their moves. It all rolls into a huge finale where all of the animals dance together.

Finally, “A Night on Bald Mountain” Mussorgsky brings us into our final segment of the night… and what an evil segment it is. A character Walt Disney himself once referred to as Satan himself, Chernabog appears and raises the creatures of the night using his powers of darkness. We have ghosts, monsters, witches, and even imps. What did imps do to be part of this?

They dance and fly around, as creatures do… then he throws them into a volcano and makes them demons. Well, okay then.

Suddenly the church bell starts ringing and “Ave Maria” starts playing. That’s all it takes for Cherny and his crew to pack it in. You’d think it take more.

With “Ave Maria,” the movie ends. No goodbye from the orchestra. No end credits. That’s the end, folks.

Extras:

There’s only one extra, a minute and a half clip from the movie featuring some of the “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” part. Assuming you watched the movie, this clip does you no good.

Should you watch it?

This was a very hard choice in the end, but I’m going with watch it. It is historic. Some of the sections of the movie are fantastic. The music is great. The colors pop. Then again, some of the sections drag on and on. Overall it is worth it, but there’s no shame in using the fast forward button if you need it.

Mickey Shorts

Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip

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Original release date: November 1, 1940

Rating: TV-G. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight sneaky minutes

Background: After a somewhat quiet year for the big cheese, Mickey returned to the screen with “Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip.”

There’s a fascinating footnote to this short that was only recently discovered in the last few decades despite the short nearing its 80th birthday. As he did for Mickey shorts at the time, Walt Disney himself provided the voice of Mickey.

However, film exists of the entire voiceover session for this film. It’s the only known footage of Walt performing as Mickey. It hasn’t been seen often, but was included as a bonus feature for the DVD version of “Fun and Fancy Free.”

Review:

We start in Burbank at the train station, Mickey whistling happily and awaiting his train ride. Pluto is nearby with his suitcase packed as well, ready to take a ride.

As they board, Conductor Pete throws them right back off. “No dogs allowed!”

Mickey crams Pluto into the suitcase, which appears to have been otherwise empty. Travelling light, Mouse. They hop on the train and Pluto, understandably, is not happy in the suitcase. Mickey sneaks him out in a fun visual sequence.

Pete comes through asking for tickets, which I’d think you would do before you took off but I’m no train guy. Pluto is back in the suitcase, which Pete puts up in the overhead compartment.

A chase eventually ensues, with Mickey and Pluto finding a way to hide before being caught. They run again, leaving Pete punching a mattress. Who is actually running this train, anyway?

We eventually hit a point where Mickey is dressed like a Native American, which would fall under that “outdated cultural depictions” category. It doesn’t last long, and Pluto ends up outside of the train. Mickey jumps out after him and, well, Pete wins. Mickey and Pluto win too though, being thrown right at the train station they needed. Everyone is a winner!

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

Sure, watch it. It’s a funny short and a good show of the play between Mickey and Pete.

Donald Duck Shorts

Mr. Duck Steps Out

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Original release date: June 7, 1940

Rating: TV-G. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight steppin’ minutes

Background: Donald Duck continued his rise as secret top star in 1940 with “Mr. Duck Steps Out.” Oh, you’re fancy with “Mr. Duck” now, huh?

Donald isn’t the focus here, however. Mickey had a love interest in Minnie. Donald had nobody… until “Mr. Duck Steps Out.”

Daisy Duck made her grand entrance in this short and has stuck around since, appearing in shorts and movies and greeting guests at Disney parks around the world.

Review:

Daisy is the immediate focus as we start, zooming out from a signed picture of her. Donald is getting in his dapper best (minus pants, the duck will not wear pants). The nephews – Huey, Dewey, and Louie – join in as well, trying to dance out the door with Donald. He’s not having it. This is his big date.

Donald clarifies that it is an adult-only date, marching the boys back into their room and LOCKING THEM IN WHILE HE LEAVES. Where are their parents?

Donald dances on out and the boys, having a saw in the room, saw right through the wall and follow.

Donald rings Daisy’s doorbell… and out pop the nephews. He’s not happy… until the beautiful Daisy appears from behind a curtain. The boys also seem to have an interest in Daisy, because why wouldn’t Donald have to compete with his own nephews.

Donald does the classic “arm stretch” cuddle move, which Daisy rejects only to alluringly and literally shake her tail feathers at him. Hide the kids!

The radio comes on and Donald and Daisy dance, only for the boys to tag themselves in one-by-one. The boys then decide to make popcorn on the stove, accidentally shooting it right into Donald’s mouth.

As it pops in his stomach, it gives him all kinds of dance moves that makes Daisy swoon. She’s clearly sold on Donald, popping away, and the boys decide to use her piano and other household items to play some big band music for them instead of trying to win her heart.

The popcorn continues to pop in Donald minutes later, which seems like something he should get checked, but leads to a spinning grand finale of the dance. Daisy is immediately in love and showers Donald with kisses.

One thing to notice – Daisy doesn’t have the sweet, somewhat regular voice we hear today. She’s as ducky-sounding as Donald.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

Absolutely watch it. It’s a good short, Donald is almost always fun, and Daisy had quite the introduction here.

Mickey Shorts

Tugboat Mickey

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Original release date: April 26, 1940

Rating: TV-G. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: seven distressing minutes

Background: “Tugboat Mickey” was the first short of the 1940s to bring the big trio – Mickey, Donald, and Goofy – together.

Mickey is no stranger to boats, having captained a steamboat and being part of a crew to build a boat before this tugboat operation.

1940 was actually kind of an off year for Mr. Mouse, appearing in only three shorts. Donald pretty much took over the operation with ten shorts in 1940.

Review:

Mickey – wearing what some will recognize as basically the outfit he wears on Disney Cruise Line merchandise – starts the short being hoisted up the mast by Donald and Goofy, doing some general cleaning. Then it happens…

A distress call! Mickey panics, getting the crew into prep mode. Prep mode, naturally, is running around with buckets on the head.

Donald and Goofy struggle to get things working in the engine room, fighting with large mechanical pieces and coal. Mickey continues to panic, ready to get the tugboat moving… and they do!

The S.O.S. call continues and the crazed tugboat goes in circles, running crazy before finally just springing into disaster, throwing the crew and the radio off the ship.

Oh yeah, the radio. The distress call was just a program airing on the radio. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy? Not pleased.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

I try not to automatically say “watch it” for every Mickey, Donald, and Goofy short. This is only seven minutes and it’s decent, but there are better uses of your seven minutes. Skip it. Sorry, Mickey. Please don’t raise ticket prices because of me.

Disney Animated Films

Pinocchio

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Original release date: February 23, 1940 nationwide, premiered at the Center Theatre in New York City on February 7, 1940

Rating: G. “Contains tobacco depictions.”

Length: 1 hour, 28 minutes

Background: You’ve heard of this one. It is a Disney classic. Even if you’ve never seen the movie, you’ve heard somebody say that a nose is growing like Pinocchio’s because of a lie.

“Pinocchio” is Disney’s second feature-length animated film and one of its most endearing. Based on the 1883 Italian children’s novel, “Pinocchio” was originally meant to be the third Disney animated film after “Bambi.” The poor deer, however, had some technical difficulties that pushed it back after “Pinocchio.”

With the success of “Snow White,” Walt wanted to hire celebrity voices. While most of the names don’t stick out to you and me in 2020, Cliff Edwards is a name to know. He’s the voice of Jiminy Cricket in “Pinocchio” (and future movies where he appears, which we will get to one day). He was also a popular musicians in the 1920s and 30s under the name Ukulele Ike. Ah yes, Ukulele Ike. A true artist’s name indeed.

Mel Blanc, most famous for being the voice of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and a large number of the popular Looney Tunes characters, was also hired on to do vocals for “Pinocchio.” He was set to be the voice of Gideon the fish. However, as development went on, Gideon became a fish with no words. One thing he recorded for the film – a hiccup – was left in. Easy work.

The movie was not a box office success, underperforming and making about a million dollars less than it cost to make the movie. Of course, that amount has been made up many times in later day VHS, DVD, and Blu ray sales.

It was a success in the awards world, winning Academy Awards for Best Original Song and Best Original Score, the first Disney film to win either. The movie was deemed significant enough to be added to the National Film Register, while Time magazine named it the best animated film of all.

The movie and its characters live on daily at Disney theme parks. Pinocchio’s Daring Journey takes guests on a ride in California, Tokyo, and Paris, while Pinocchio, Geppetto, and Fowlfellow all meet guests at parks around the world. Pinocchio has his own quick service restaurant at Orlando’s Magic Kingdom as well as parks in Tokyo and Paris.

Pleasure Island, a central location in the firm, was also the longtime namesake of part of what is now Disney Springs at Walt Disney World. It offered adult-only nightclubs.

The wooden boy had his own video game on the Sega Master Drive, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, and Super Nintendo. He also appears in the Disney hybrid game “Kingdom Hearts” as well as one of its followup games.

Review:

In my review of the 1940 version of “Swiss Family Robinson,” I pondered about perhaps the movie being from 1940 being why I didn’t enjoy it. Nope. This one is a 1940 movie and is words better. Sorry Robinson family, you’re just boring.

The movie begins with the credits sequence but, more notably, the voice of Jiminy Cricket singing “When You Wish Upon a Star.” “When You Wish Upon a Star” is maybe the most notable song in Disney history, used in Disney commercials, parades, fireworks shows, and anywhere else they can find to stick it.

Following the opening credits, we meet Jiminy as he sings, a little green cricket (imagine that) with his top hat, coat, and yellow shoes along with his fashionable umbrella. He opens the rather large nearby book – “Pinocchio” – and tells us the story. The “let’s look into a book” gimmick is one used in many early Disney movies.

The animation is well done and the colors look great, a testament to both the original animation crew and the teams that have worked on remastering the film for the HD era.

Jiminy’s story starts with himself, showing a more poorly dressed version of himself finding his way into a house as bugs often do. He notices the various wooden toys and clocks around before noticing a wooden puppet boy, strings and all. As he does, Geppetto, the woodworker, as well as his cat Figaro come down the stairs. Jiminy runs for cover, taking a spot next to a rather… rear-enhanced doll.

Early parts of the film really show how the Disney crew had already mastered the art of a great animated film. While Geppetto makes Pinocchio dance to his song, several other of his other creations play the song. At the same time, Jiminy has to run around both undetected and unharmed by the gears of the items.

Geppetto does his nightly wishing on the stars, wishing the Pinocchio would be a real boy. That’ll never happen, he’s a wooden puppet. And that’s where the movie ends.

Not really. A magical blue fairy comes and turns Pinocchio into a real boy. She dubs Jiminy as Pinocchio’s conscience as well, giving him a spiffy outfit as she does. “Always let your conscience be your guide,” she advises him – and us – before she disappears into Fairyville.

As the film goes on, we meet some of the supporting cast. Honest Jon, a fox who probably doesn’t deserve his name, roams the streets with Gideon the cat. As with a lot of Disney lore, some animals have evolved more than others. While Figaro is a housecat, Gideon walks on two legs and wears clothes. Figaro, however, might be smarter.

Honest Jon sees a naïve child and tells Pinocchio about the world of theatre. His name will be in lights! Pinocchio is warned by Jiminy about Honest Jon (“Honest Jon???”) With Stromboli directing, Pinocchio performs “I’ve Got No Strings.” Jiminy thinks he looks like a fool while Stromboli sees dollar signs. It’s a little of both, with Jiminy leaving dejected and Stromboli counting his money.

Stromboli, of course, is not a nice man. As Pinocchio plans to leave to see his father, Stromboli locks him in a cage. He’s just an act now. As they ride off in Stromboli’s carriage, Jiminy sadly watches them go… before decide to chase and wish Pinocchio luck. What he sees needs more than wishes though, as he unsuccessfully breaks the boy out of the cage. The fairy appears again, wondering what happened as if she isn’t a magical fairy. She asks why he didn’t go to school and he lies, causing his nose to do some growing. Nope, don’t like that.

She helps him shrink it back down and warns him that she’s done helping. Oh, and he’s out of the cage too. Pinocchio and Jiminy head down the road. Meanwhile at the Red Lobster Inn (free cheddar bay biscuits?), the wolf and cat are smoking up a storm (hence the disclaimer). They meet an old creeper who offers them good money to find him “stupid little boys” to take to Pleasure Island.

Sure enough, the bad animal crew meet the wooden boy and cricket on their way home. Ol’ blockhead falls for it, joining a sea of other white boys on the island. There’s all the food the want, Tobacco Row with all the free smokes they could want (the 2020 version would just be a strip mall of vape shops), as well as gambling and fighting. Creepy old man watches and demands the doors locked, knowing his experiment is off to a good start.

Jiminy finds Pinocchio mid-cigar and mid-pool game, demanding he leave at once. When Pinocchio declines, Jiminy says he’s done and tells him to go ahead and make a jackass of himself. Foreshadowing!

The boys begin to turn into donkeys, which is probably a weird side effect of the island. This goes for Pinocchio too, who begins growing ears and a tail before escaping the island with Jiminy.

Finally making it home, Pinocchio and Jiminy notice that not only is Geppetto gone, but the house is full of spider webs. A certain fairy drops a message saying he went looking for his child and was swallowed by a whale. Well, that’s a sudden plot twist.

We learn Geppetto is still alive in the whale, so Pinocchio decides to go after it. Jiminy warns him that it is Monstro, a monster of a whale. Down they go into the water to find this whale, something that is apparently much easier than it seems.

I’m not going to spoil things for you, but I’m pretty sure you can figure out how the movie ends. The underwater effects are very impressive for 1940.

Extras:

We get five of them for this feature. First, “Pinocchio Trailer” is exactly that… a minute or so trailer for the movie that was used for one of the many reissues.

“Deleted Scene: Alternate Ending” is a two-minute clip put together by storyboard art.

“Deleted Scene: In the Belly of the Whale,” is a little over four minutes. It is put together with storyboards, early artwork as well as audio.

“In Walt’s Words: Pinocchio” is what it sounds like, Walt talking about the movie. In addition to classic footage of Walt and the movie development, this is several 1956 interviews spliced together.

“Deleted Scene: The Story of the Grandfather Tree” is another deleted scene lasting three minutes, splicing together story notes, a storyboard, and model sheets of character artwork.

Should you watch it?

You 100% should watch it. It’s one of the best Disney classics of all time. The animation is great, the story is good, and the music is superb. I’d also recommend watching the “In Walt’s Words” bonus feature both for insight and for the footage of scary early Dwarf costumes.

Live Action Films

Swiss Family Robinson

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Original release date: February 8, 1940

Rating: PG for parental guidance. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: 1 hour, 34 minutes

Background: As of this blog posting, this 1940 adaptation of “Swiss Family Robinson” is the oldest live-action film on Disney+. It is notable for many reasons.

Most notably, this 1940 version isn’t necessarily a Disney movie. Originally released by RKO Radio Pictures, the film received decent acclaim and was nominated for an Academy Award, namely Best Special Effects.

It is said that Walt Disney decided to make his version after seeing this version, but went out of his way to make sure this version was forgotten. This included buying the rights to the RKO version, keeping it from being re-released and hiding it away in that notorious Disney Vault. The Disney version was released in 1960, something I’ll review in another… twenty years of catalog titles.

Up until its full release on Disney+, the 1940 version mostly remained in the vault. A 20-minute part of it was thrown into the special features of the 1960’s modern day DVD release, the only appearance of any of the film on a Disney DVD release. The film itself did get a very brief release as part of the Turner Classic Movies Vault Collection series, but the run on that ended almost as quickly as it started.

The cast included names like Thomas Mitchell, Edna Best, and Tim Holt (no relation to Steve Holt). I don’t know them, but I do know the one uncredited role in the movie… Orson Welles. Orson played the narrator, his first credit in a feature-length film.

Review:

The movie – black and white – does start out with the Disney castle start as well as the RKO Radio Pictures symbolism, followed by the normal (for the time period) opening credits sequence.

A mishmash of scenes – dancing, champagne pouring – introduce us to William Robinson’s application to leave England with his children. This is your first chance to notice that yeah, this is a black and white movie from 1940. Lots of film blemishes appear, but you’d kinda expect that from a film Disney has mostly kept hidden for decades.

We meet Jack Robinson, dressed like the guy from Panic! at the Disco dresses in 2019, returning home to greet his mother Elizabeth. We then meet another Robinson child before William himself returns home. The Robinsons are mostly jerks to their servant.

William announces to the family that he’s done something crazy. He’s not a fan of how his children have acted in England. So what has he done? He’s sold it all and resigned from his job… kids, we are moving to Australia!

The family board a fancy ship – thanks to a time jump – and are forty days into their voyage by boat to Australia. It’s clear the ship was a set and the ocean behind is video, but it is what it is. This is matched up with the classic “line on map” animation, showing the ship having travelled from point A to point B.

There’s a surprising amount of cattle on ship, something we notice as the weather goes from decent to “Wizard of Oz” levels of bad. All hands on deck! A large dose of ACTING! shows the crew astray before on-screen text tells us the ship was washed ashore. Whatever shall they do?

First, the Robinsons have to get their entire farm full of animals off the boat and onto land. This involves some intercut construction scenes, creating a raft and other flotation devices out of barrels. While donkeys bray on their swim through the storm, the Robinson men paddle the barrel raft.

The crews all make it through the storm, the animals – real animals, no CGI here – swim and frolic in happiness while the family takes in the random land they’ve stumbled upon. They begin to make camp, but you can’t help to notice characters have perfectly styled hair. We know y’all just went through a storm.

Adjusting to island life isn’t easy for the spoiled brat kids, having to – gasp – wash dishes. This includes teaming with dad to leash a very large, very fake turtle, which helps their vessel go a little faster.

The movie slowly drags on, but hey… here’s another storm to get caught in! This time dad passes out mid-storm, which is pretty impressive, leaving the kids to man the ship. They are capable enough to hit land right near the family, bringing dad back to reality and doing… things. I’m bored, y’all.

The family finds a giant tree, deciding to build a treehouse around it. The family get things built, learning to adapt to their surroundings for cooking and cleaning. Well, “adapt” as in “make pretend good faces about mom’s adventurous survivor cooking.”

The gang learns to hunt, gathering both food and clothing options from their kills. Very pleasant.

This is the point I’m going to be very real with you all. This movie lost me at about the hour mark. It was on but it lost all interest for me. Is it because I’m an 80s baby trying to watch a movie from 1940? Is it because we are used to continually action-packed movies like “Endgame” now? Or is it just a really boring movie?

It’s a really boring movie. It might have been great in 1940. It was in Academy Award talk (granted, a lot of movies nominated for Academy Awards in 2020 also bore me). In 2020 though… my attention span can’t take it.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Clip – There is one clip taken straight from the film that lasts just over a minute.

Should you watch it?

I’m sorry. I tried. This gets my biggest skip it recommendation. Maybe it is a generational thing, but I don’t think it is. I think it just wasn’t that great.

Mickey Shorts

Beach Picnic

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Original release date: June 9, 1939

Rating: TV-G. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight sandy minutes

Background: There isn’t much history behind this short, but it is one of the very few times that Donald and Pluto have been paired together. Can a bad duck and a good dog make magic together? Let’s find out!

Review:

Donald prepares a gigantic picnic, pies and sausages and all, before running to jump in the water.

Despite being a duck, this doesn’t go well for Donald. He struggles to get on his large inflatable and it does not go well. This is where I noticed, for the first time, that you can see the film patterns a lot more in this short than usual. Those little fuzzy dots are all over. It doesn’t really take away from it, but they are there.

Meanwhile in cartoon world, Pluto goes on the chase of the inflatable. This, too, does not go well and Donald gets a good laugh at Pluto’s misfortune.

Pluto’s battle with the inflatable goes on for quite some time, perhaps a little too long. Eventually the inflatable inflates Pluto, sending him soaring through the air before crashing to the ground.

Over in picnic area, an ant – in what is definitely stereotypical Native American facepaint and feather – goes marching onto the picnic. The ant calls his fellow ants and they do a Native American call before stealing all of the food. Yep, I found the cultural depictions this time!

Donald catches them in the act, screaming in regular Donald fashion before setting out fly paper for the ants. As an ant sneaks away a giant piece of pie, Pluto – still stuck from his flight – notices and starts sniffing after it. If you were thinking Pluto gets stuck on the fly paper, you win! The prize is dessert. You’ve earned dessert. Eat well.

The ants are likely eating well with the giant piece of cake as Pluto battles the flypaper stuck to his rear-end. Donald also ends up stuck to the same paper and, therefore, the butt of Pluto. An argument ensues and Donald ends up in a lot more flypaper, ending the short under a licking attack from Pluto. Awwwww.

Extras:

Nothing.

Should you watch it?

I went back and forth on my recommendation on this one. I drifted away during the overly long Pluto vs inflatable battle. The Native American ants scene was, well, culturally an issue. While the ending is a lot better than the majority of the short, I’m going to end on skip it. You can do better.

Riding in the Disney time machine to review everything Disney from 1928 to today!

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