Product Description

A collection of twenty-six animated shorts in color starring everyone's favorite, Mickey Mouse, released between 1935 and 1938. Introduction by Leonard Maltin.
Cartoons: The Band Concert, Mickey's Garden, Mickey's Fire Brigade, Pluto's Judgement Day, On Ice, Mickey's Polo Team, Orphan's Picnic, Mickey's Grand Opera, Thru the Mirror, Mickey's Rival, Moving Day, Alpine Climbers, Mickey's Circus, Mickey's Elephant, The Worm Turns, Magician Mickey, Moose Hunters, Mickey's Amateurs, Hawaiian Holiday, Clock Cleaners, Lonesome Ghosts, Boat Builders, Mickey's Trailer, The Whalers, Mickey's Parrot, Brave Little Tailor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34181 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-12-04
• Rating: G (General Audience)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 217 minutes

Amazon.com
During the mid-'30s, Mickey Mouse's fans ranged from the more than one million children who were members of the Mickey Mouse Club to Franklin Roosevelt, Mary Pickford, and the Nizam of Hyderabad; theater marquees announced "A Mickey Mouse Cartoon" with the feature titles. These wonderful shorts, many of which have never been released to the home market, remind viewers just how charming Mickey was before his popularity and role as a corporate symbol restricted his behavior. In these cartoons Mickey's personality was boyish, appealing, and slightly mischievous. The superb animation emphasizes that impish appeal. When Mickey dances with a deck of cards in "Thru the Mirror," he displays a stylish grace Fred Astaire might envy; in "Brave Little Tailor," his expressions and body language reveal his thoughts as he outwits Willie the Giant. It's virtually impossible to watch him without smiling. These shorts overflow with color and motion, and their lavish visuals pack an increased impact in an era of minimal television animation. Only Walt Disney would spend the money to animate a full deck of cards, a band flying through the air in a tornado, or a clutch of semitransparent ghosts, and only his animators could make those characters live on the screen. The prints have been lovingly restored without pumping up the color too much: the nuances of the delicate watercolor backgrounds still come through. Parents, Disney buffs, and animation fans will want this superb collection in their home libraries. Unrated: suitable for all ages. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Very good, but a few flaws...
First the good:

This is by far the best compilation of Mickey shorts available to the public to date. Disney produced 87 Mickey shorts in the 30's - by far the most prolific period of Mickey Mouse Cartoons (there were only 120 made from 1928 to 1953). 27 of these shorts are contained on this disc, which constitutes more than half of the color Mickeys made. He was already a sensation before he went to color; these shorts firmly established him as an American icon. To the animation fan, it can be argued that this disc contains some of the best cartoon "acting" of the golden age of animation. By no means should a serious fan avoid this disc.

The not so good:

These shorts have not been remastered. I'm not even sure they come from the best available print. Some of these shorts have looked better on the "Ink and Paint Club." The cartoons in this package contain flaws that some could consider unacceptable, or at least annoying - colors going out of register (albeit probably not noticeable to the casual viewer), a few sound problems (rare, but a bit annoying), dust and dirt. Watch the "Brave Little Tailor" in the scene where Mickey kills the seven flies. The amount of film debris present is alarming - it almost looks like it's snowing. Some have said that the recent remastering of Snow White has resulted in an ultra-clean presentation that takes away from the period animation. Well...this disc certainly doesn't present THAT dilemma. It's not unacceptable as the good far outweighs the bad. But I would have thought Disney to spend a bit more time on presenting the best possible versions of these pieces.

Overall:

An absolute must for the animation collector. Concerning the comments about the mastering - it's highly unlikely that Disney will remaster these shorts in another package. Grab it while it's available as this is supposedly a limited release of 150,000 copies....

Warner Bros take note!
Boy, is this the way to do a DVD of classic cartoons. Ever since I warmed up my DVD player for the first time I've been waiting for Disney, Warner Bros. and some of the other companies to release sets of their classic short cartoons -- there have been the odd collection here or there, but this Walt Disney Treasures Edition is really the way to do it!

To keep it brief, this is simply a collection of cartoons -- all of the Mickey Mouse color cartoons up until 1938, along with some nice behind-the-scenes stuff with Leonard Maltin and a rarely-seen short made for the 1939 World's Fair that seems like an ordinary enough Mickey and Minnie cartoon at first, but has a hysterical (from my perspective) twist at the end -- product placement is nothing new, folks.

While watching these cartoons something Maltin notes in one of his sequences becomes very obvious -- Mickey Mouse may be one of the most beloved characters on Earth, but in and of himself, he's not very funny. Oh he's cute, he's likeable, but he's not FUNNY. The animators knew this and started teaming him up with funnier characters -- Donald, Goofy and even Pluto -- and together made some wonderful cartoons. "Mickey's Trailer," included in this set, is still one of my favorite cartoons of all time.

I can't wait for the Mickey Mouse black-and-white set and the Goofy set scheduled to come out this Christmas -- and let's hope Disney does a Donald Duck collection soon. Word is that Warner Bros. is currently at work on DVDs of their Looney Tunes shorts (even better than the Disney shorts, in my opinion) -- take note, guys! This is the way to do your DVDs!

Experimental Animation History.
In a hasty response to the DVD market's longing for `uncut' versions of features, Disney has set to please. With the Gold Collection DVDs classics like Make Mine Music, Melody Time and others had scenes deleted or elements removed - such as the cigarette in the parrot's beak in The Three Amigos and Saludos Amigos.

The TREASURES COLLECTION provides pure unedited Disney folly - many of which served as experimental tests for the effects used in the following feature films they were to make. With releases like this there's hope that censored Disney material may make the shelves in the future.

In light of these movements, we all cross our fingers once more for the DVD release of `Song of the South'.

In summary, these DVDs are great for Disney collectors or those with an eye for animation history - but younger audiences may be disappointed by the lack-lustre compared with Disney's more recent Tarzan, Toy Story or even House of Mouse creations.

I personally cannot wait for December 4th!