Walt Disney Treasures - The Chronological Donald, Vol. 3
DVD Review by Jon Cooke
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Duck fans rejoice! The Walt Disney Treasures are back! The future of the DVDs looked grim in early 2007 after word got out that there were plans to terminate the series (which would have left half of Donald's filmography unreleased). Even producer and host Leonard Maltin posted the sad news on his website. Remarkably, the powers-that-be changed their minds and listened to the feedback from the fans and collectors worldwide and decided to greenlight more Treasures collections. I am pleased to report that the quality of this seventh series of DVD sets (which also includes the DVD debut of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and an all-new Disneyland retrospective) is nothing short of outstanding. After dropping the ball and using some awfully shoddy transfers on 2005's Chronological Donald, Vol. 2, I was delighted to see that all issues have been resolved. Every short on Volume 3 looks and sounds amazing. You won't be disappointed.Volume 3 picks up where we left off with Volume 2 and continues with all 31 theatrical Donald Duck shorts released from 1947 through 1950. There are some true stand-outs on this set and some I'd rank as some of Donald's best. Must-see titles include "Donald's Dream Voice", "Donald's Dilemma", "Drip Drippy Donald" (the sound effects alone, which escalate to absurd heights as the cartoon progresses, are very funny), and the surreal "Clown of the Jungle" featuring the hyperactive Aracuan Bird. The cartoons on this set co-starring nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie are also very good ("Soup's On", "Straight Shooters", "Donald's Happy Birthday" and "Lion Around"). A memorable team-up with Goofy, "Crazy With the Heat", is also included.
At this point in Donald's career, there were attempts to give the Duck some new foils to go up against. As you will quickly see, most of them were of the pint-sized variety. There are multiple cartoons on this collection featuring a variety of insect and rodent adversaries --- most notably a little bee named Spike, the wise old Bootle Beetle, and arguably Donald's most famous co-stars, Chip an' Dale. These "Donald vs. little guy" shorts can get pretty repetitive especially if you watch a bunch of them back-to-back. I really don't mind them in small doses, though. Watching a lot of these shorts transports me back to a kid watching these same cartoons on the ancient "Cartoon Classics" VHS tapes and on cable TV during the heyday of the Disney Channel. (On a side note - No matter how repetitive the cartoons may have been, I find it impossible to dislike Chip and Dale.)
Bonus materials include a short feature about Donald's various film roles throughout the years (movies such as The Three Caballeros and Fantasia 2000). This segment features interviews with current Duck voice, Tony Anselmo along with animation historian Jerry Beck and animator Mark Kausler. On disc 2, there's an interesting piece titled "Sculpting Donald" with Ruben Procopio showing us how 2D characters are transformed into 3D models. Hidden around both discs as Easter Eggs are all of the variations to the opening of The Mickey Mouse Club (each of which ended with Donald attempting to hit a gong with the show's logo on it). Rounding out the extras are some fascinating galleries of original artwork.
In the end, I was thrilled with the quality of this collection and would highly recommend it to any Donald or classic Disney buff. Limited to a run of only 50,000 copies, it would probably be a good idea to pick up a copy sooner rather than later. It's great having the Treasures back and I eagerly await the release of the fourth and final collection of Donald's cartoons.
