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Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse in Black and White

Walt Disney Treasures - Mickey Mouse in Black and White

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: must have for true animation fans
Review: If you consider yourself a true fan of animation and especially disney animation then this is a must have dvd. I wont go on about the whats inside cause it has been listed already in the other reviews but this the ultimate collection of the early mickey mouse shorts. Many of these toons are very hard to find elsewhere and this is a great dvd that packages them all here in a great format.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: UNRESTORED Cartoons with Faked Title Cards
Review: This is a terrible DVD - ALL the original title cards have been removed and replaced with new versions with all references to Columbia Pictures and United Artists being removed!! You can hear the original sound to the Columbia Pictures logo intro but instead you see a reanimated sequence - the same goes for the United Artist Mickey Mouse cartoons - THE MOST OUTRAGEOUS PART is that all the opening and ending sequences have been reanimated and changed to LOOK LIKE the original openings to people who don't realize that they are BRAND NEW ANIMATED sequences - but they are obiviously FAKE when you compare them to original film prints!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: And about time too!
Review: These DVDs are for the historians, for they show us a Mickey developing from the callous creature with a taste for fame of "Plane Crazy" to the hero of "Two Gun Mickey" and the team player of "Mickey's Service Station".
The Iwerks-drawn wierdness of "The Karnival Kid" justifies the purchase of these discs alone. I regret the absence of a "Play All" option but I can see how its omission is justified to prevent the use of this material as electronic babyminder fodder. I have no trouble with the social attitudes and understand many of the jokes of the 1920's/30's but certainly our attitudes about race have changed (I hope) and Al Jolson isn't the easily recognisable stereotype he was when still alive....Leonard Maltin's explanatory announcements before cartoons that would offend the offendable are crystal clear even to those of heightened offensitivity, and preferable to just consigning these cartoons to the bin of history.

If I have a criticism it is that they are not generally available in the uk (all should have the chance to see these).
An especial treat is to see "Steamboat Willie" with a sequence not normally seen, it wasn't on the VHS issue of 1982, and despite being featured in an Ub Iwerks documentary had been excised from the copy of the cartoon that followed the documentary!

Buy it. Its like will not be seen again otherwise, and that would be a crying shame.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Memories of Mickey
Review: These classic shorts from 1928-1935 are worth every penny that you pay for them. We all know who Mickey Mouse is, but how many of us truly have seen him in his infancy days? This DVD shows a classic in the works. It may not necessarily be for younger viewers because the animation is simply not near the kind of storyline and animation style of today. But it is meant more for the adult who truly appreciates the time and musical work that went into these old but classic shorts.
This is a history of Mickey Mouse in the making. As an adult I truly enjoy seeing different animation styles. These shorts are fun and show the work of a great and forever-living character. I'm very happy that these shorts, which are difficult to find on televison, are now available.
Please remember: your younger children may not enjoy them. This collection is mostly for the child in the adult. It's probably best to watch these shorts as an entertaining way to see a classic character evolve into what we know today.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Walt Disney Treasures Part 6: Mickey's Haydays
Review: Walt Disney Treasures Review 6: Mickey Mouse in Black & White;
This is the sixth Walt Disney Treasure. This treasure is one of the four cartoon sets. Mickey Mouse in Black and White begins inside the Walt Disney Treasure Theater. Leonard Maltin introduces the format. When at the main menu, you may choose to go visit the films in alphabetical order or chronoligical. The shows will be listed in Chronoligical. On Disc 1, you will see the pioneering films: "Steamboat Willie," "The Gallopin' Gaucho," "Plne Crazy," "The Karnival Kid," "Mickey's Follies," "The Fire Fighters," "The Chain Gang," "The Gorilla Mystery," "Pioneer Days," "The Birthday Party," "Mickey Steps Out," "Blue Rythm," "Mickey Cuts Up," "Mickey's Orphans," "The Duck Hunt," "Mickey's Revue," "Mickey's Nightmare," "The Whoopee Party," "Touchdown Mickey," and "The Klondike Kid." Head over after watching all of these to the Bonus Features. Here, you will see a featurette called, "Frank and Ollie...And Mickey." Here, Leonard talks about the history of Mickey Cartoons with those two animators. Second, is the Story Scripts. Here, You will see the story scripts for two films, "Steamboat Willie" and "Mickey Steps Out." The final feature on disc one is Story Sketch Sequences, when there are sketches telling parts of some of the cartoons being shown on the screen. There are sequences for: "Blue Rythm," "Mickey Cuts Up," "Mickey's Orphans," "Mickey's Nightmare," "The Whoopee Party," "Touchdown Mickey," and "The Klondike Kid." There is an intro by Leonard before all of the shows. On disc 2, it starts with an intro by Leonard, than go to the Chronoligical order and watch these shorts: "Building a Building," "The Mad Doctor," "Ye Olden Days," "The Mail Pilot," "Mickey's Gala Premier," "Puppy Love," "The Pet Store," "Giantland," "Camping Out," "Gulliver Mickey," "Orphan's Benefit," "The Dognapper," "Two-Gun Mickey," and "Mickey's Service Station." Then go to Bonus Features, where you will find a pencil test for, "The Mail Pilot," A Poster Gallery with audio attachments with Leonard Maltin speaking about select posters, and even more story sketch sequences. There are sequences for, "Building a Building," "The Mad Doctor," "Ye Olden Days," "Puppy Love," "The Pet Store," "Giantland," "Camping Out," "Gulliver Mickey," "Orphan's Benefit," "The Dognapper," "Two-Gun Mickey," and "Mickey's Service Station." There is an intro at the beginning. This set included just over 30 films, half of the original Black and Whites. There should be a second set coming out with the Black and Whites soon. This set all comes in a Limited 250,000 tin with a booklet and collectible lithograph. Get your copy now. You won't regret it. There is something for everyone if you are one or one hundred and one.

Also avaible:

Silly Symphonies
Mickey Mouse in Living Color
Disneyland USA
Davy Crockett
Behind the Scenes at Walt Disney Studios
The Complete Goofy

Look for Reviews by me at these sites or visit the about me link here on this page.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Very entertaining
Review: All of these cartoons, I'm seeing for the first time. I'm 21 years old and have no cable, just to give you an idea of my experience with Mickey Mouse. Before I bought this, I had only seen bits and pieces of Steamboat Willie and Plane crazy. I've very proud of owning this DVD set. It even comes in a nice metal container!
The cartoons are very funny. Lots of slapstick, singing objects, and Mickey smoking cigars in front of a beer. In that age of animation, characters were allowed to drink liquor(Tom & Jerry have gotten drunk quite a few times!) and smoke cigars(ohhhh, I've seen lots of that in old cartoons). This is very fun to watch. There's also tons of information, like the cultural reference of a character yelling "MAMMY!" when they get soot on their face. There was an entertainer back then that put on black makeup and sang a song called "MAMMY!". The term can be offensive to African-Americans today.
I love this DVD set. Some of the visual gags remind me of Tex Avery cartoons. I never knew Walt Disney and his talented crew were THIS good! Definitly something to watch many times. Who CARES if it's black and white, has scratches and is old? It's good stuff.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The Mickey Mouse of our grandfathers
Review: Review of the movie: Walt Disney began his animation carrer, working for Chales Mintz; Walt was the creator of many series of silent cartoons (The "Alice" shorts, where he mixed live action with animation (he didn't invented it, Max Fleischer invented this) and where Peg Leg Pete made his debut, and the Oswald Rabbit cartoons (something like MM but with long ears)... suddendly, Mintz cut out the money for the WD shorts, and he (and Ub Iwerks) quited, and began to work on their own.

The first attempt to made animation was Mickey Mouse (with silent cartoons (Plane Crazy and Galloping Gaucho)), but it was ignored by the public... then Walt Disney had a great idea!, what if the make sound cartoons? (in a almost speechless era in the movies), and he released "Steamboat Willie" that was a big hit in 1928 (Ub Iwerks almost did all the animation for those shorts), from here, Mickey Mouse was a big star, and Felix the Cat and Oswald were straight to the bottom.

The earlier MM cartoons are a little "surreal" and with some "weird humor" (they were similar to the Felix the Cat shorts..., in these shorts, you can expect some Political Incorrect stuff (like MM torturing animals, or some black faces characters, so parental discression is warned), but affortunatelly, in thos non-PC short, you get a disclaimer from Leonard Maltin.

The DVD review: The remastering of those shorts are good (but could be better... perhaps couldn't be perfect because those shorts are almost 70 years old), the sound is good, but you must not expect a Dolby surround 5.1 (considering the age of the cartoons), the amount of the short are good, but could be better (the second disk only have 2 pages of shorts, while the goofy collection have 4), the extras are good (an interview with Frank and Ollie (animators from the Disney era), some picture galleries) but the best feature of the DVD are the shorts themselves; in the foreign language support, only english audio and closed caption in english (some spanish subtitles would be good, but i guess that the WD treasures are intended for the US market only :( )

This is a great DVD for all the animation fans outthere (like me), but maybe the kids will find it boring; if you find this DVD in stock somewhere, don't hesitate and buy it (because there where only 125000 copies)

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great overall....
Review: ...the 34 shorts are wonderful and they can be play either in closed-captioned (CC) or subtitled but for the rest of DVD features such as Frank and Ollie...and Mickey, introductions by Maltin and a few others they are not closed-captioned or subtitled and that was very disappointing.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Good for film students, might be boring for kids
Review: I got this one mostly because it has the first Mickey film "Steamboat Willie", and also out of a sense of curiosity about what the early films were like.
The selections are all pretty clear but still sometimes scratchy, guess the restoration people couldn't fix everything. I found the stories to be rather boring, posibly because the age in which they were produced makes them so alien to modern sensibilities (Maltin touches on this in discussing the types of humor, racial stereotypes were one example).
I found that I didn't like most of the stories except for that one Mickey and the beanstalk story- Giantland(?). I did think it was interesting to see an early version of Goofy, then called Dippy Dawg, little resemblance to Goofy as he is today.
Film students/historians will find something to watch here, casual viewers and small children will be bored.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Almost got it right
Review: My kids and I love these Mickey classics! My 4 year-old watches in awe...however, I would love to be able to play these in their entirity so that when I have to take care of something around the house, I don't have to be beholden to the TV every 10 minutes. Disney managed to set up the "School House Rock" DVD in exactly that way. You have the option of watching any one part, group of shorts together, or the whole DVD uninterrupted...they could have managed with this one. I am very happy that this is my only complaint, but I don't think I would purchase more like this.


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