Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites Vols. 1-4 (2004)

Mickey Fun

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Walt Disney's Classic Cartoon Favorites: Vol. 3 on DVD.

Disney has already released several hundred of its cartoons in fancy, special edition DVD box sets with metal covers. Those editions are for hard-core collectors, but these four new single-disc editions are for fun.

Volume 1 features Mickey Mouse, Volume 2 is Donald Duck, Volume 3 contains Goofy and Volume 4 collects Chip 'n' Dale. Each disc runs about an hour and contains between 7-9 cartoons each. For some reason, though, none of the discs contain anything close to a classic; they're all just middle-of-the-road favorites.

99% of these shorts involve some kind of repetitive chase, which can get tedious when watching more than a couple of cartoons in a row. Remember that these shorts were originally meant to be seen one at a time in front of feature films.

For my money the Goofy disc is the best, and then only for the "How to" series. These hilarious cartoons ("How to Fish," "How to Swim," "How to Dance," "The Art of Skiing," etc.) are among Disney's cleverest, due to their use of juxtaposing sound and image. For example, the narrator describes the grace and beauty of a particular high-dive, but Goofy's actual onscreen execution is something entirely different. The Goofy disc comes with nine cartoons, but unfortunately omits my all-time favorite, "Motor Mania." You may remember that one from your Driver's Ed. Class in high school.

January 19, 2005