Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald, Vol. 4 - 1951-1961

Released: Tuesday, November 11, 2008

M.M. Rating	:
User Rating	:	(Rate This Movie)

Share:

---

Who’s got the sweetest disposition?
One guess says who-
Who never never starts an argument?
Who never shows a bit of temperament?
Who’s never wrong, but always right?
Who’d never dream of starting a fight?
Who gets stuck with all the bad luck?
No one, but Donald Duck.

With this bit of amusing but humble bravado (most assuredly written by Donald himself), this Walt Disney Treasures series takes Donald where no other Disney character followed – into a prolific theatrical animated short career of the 1950’s.

Theatrical animated shorts were disappearing for many reasons. Costs to produce these animated shorts were skyrocketing. Walt Disney was unwilling to lower standards to reduce these costs, and theater owners were unwilling to increase payments. Television was hitting its competitive stride, and even the Disney vaults were becoming a low cost method of providing animation programming for their TV series. Despite all of this, (though you hate to make him any more big-headed than he already is) it is quite a testament to this foul fowl that his immense popularity of the 1940’s could propel him alone, past many of these obstacles, and into the next decade.

One of the reasons for this success is explained in a video included in the bonus material, entitled “Donald Goes To Press”. Our Duck may have been difficult to understand on screen, but in the comics he was verbally and intellectually lucid, and readers could connect with the character, and empathize with his desires and foibles. His screen persona might actually have been more of an extension of his printed personality, and not the other way around.

There are a couple of reasons why you should include this Treasure Series in your collection. For those of you that already own Donald volumes one thru three – well, what else can I say? Can’t really complete things without volume four, can you? For those of you that might not own any or all of the previous volumes, there are still some great reasons to own this set. As mentioned earlier, there is no compromise on quality here. With animation greats like Bill Justice, (and his penchant for the Duck and foiles, the Chipmonks), and creative background work from the likes of Yale Gracey (think Haunted Mansion effects), and despite the tiring 50’s pop culture references, these shorts are still as beautiful and entertaining as they were then.
 
Just as the Silly Symphony short films of the 30’s served as a creative experimental vehicle for the animation medium, the Donald shorts of the 50’s and early 60’s were also a creative outlet for many of the new advancements in animation, and fortunately they are included here. Grand Canyonscope is a very Saludos Amigos stylized Donald short, and was the first Disney animated widescreen Cinemascope film. Many of the educational ‘edutainment’ style films included here, such as Donald In Mathmagic Land (which should still be shown to every 6th grader in the world), The Litterbug (his last solo film), and my favorite, Donald and The Wheel, all offer an advancement in the combination of live action and animation never before seen on film. 1953 was the year of the 3D film craze, and Disney’s inclusion was the Donald Duck film, Working for Peanuts, also included in the bonus material (unfortunately not in 3D, but how could they, really?) It was a nice trip down memory lane, since I was able to see this film in all of its 3D glory while visiting at Walt Disney World many, many years ago. Leonard Maltin and Jerry Beck offer a great historical commentary track for both this film and Grand Canyonscope.
 
Disc one of this two disc set includes the Donald shorts from 1951 thru 1953, and disc two covers the remaining shorts from 1954 thru 1961. Disc two also contains the made-for-TV-Donald Duck Mouseworks Cartoons, and this disc is probably the only way for the serious DD collector to find them. Leonard Maltin, as usual, provides the superb introductions. This disc set is more than just a Donald Duck finale tribute; it is a great piece of animation history. Enjoy it.

Rate This Disney Film:

-- Backlot Bob