Toon Talk: Walt Disney Treasures - Disney Rarities and The Chronological Donald V2
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From a fountain of originality to a stream of the familiar: The Chronological Donald, Volume 2 continues the gathering of “The Duck’s�? many exploits, this time covering his output of 31 shorts from 1942 to 1946.
As could be surmised from those dates, a big chunk of these cartoons (segregated here into a disclaimered “From the Vault�? section) are from Donald’s “war years,�? and were thusly already included in last year’s landmark On the Front Lines set. Arguments could be made for both sides on whether or not they should have been included here as well, but completists (as well as those who missed out on owning the Front Lines set) would surely rule out any complaints of “double-dipping�?. Besides, any chance to see Der Fuehrer’s Face once again is a good one.
The remainder of the cartoons herein are mostly standard fare for the Donald, with Donald’s Crime, The Clock Watcher and Donald’s Double Trouble (featuring his Ronald Coleman-voiced doppelganger) as stand-outs, plus the usual cast of co-stars and guest stars (Pete, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto and Huey, Dewey and Louie) to liven things up a bit. Hidden amongst the lot is one curiosity, Duck Pimples, a bizarro bit of meta decades ahead of its time.
As far as bonus features go, disc one’s sole offering is the 1956 black and white Disneyland episode titled A Day in the Life of Donald Duck, which focuses on a typical day for the superstar: Mr. Duck begins his day by driving from his “modest cartoon house�? in Beverly Hills (great sight gag) to the studio, where he answers fan mail, takes a meeting with his alter ego Clarence Nash (some funny, funny stuff here), listens to a new song by Jimmy Dodd, and leads the Mousketeers on a guided tour of the studio. Interspersed throughout are several truncated versions of his movies, including The Vanishing Private and Good Scouts.
Disc two offers Drawing and Talking “Duck�? with Tony Anselmo, a Maltin interview with the current voice (since 1987) of Donald Duck. Anselmo, who started at Disney as an animator under his mentor, frequent Duck director Jack Hannah, relates his first meeting with Clarence “Ducky�? Nash and how he was personally picked by Nash to take over as Donald. The Art and Animation of Carl Barks offers an overview of the career of Barks, the Disney Legend who brought Donald to life in comic book form and created Scrooge McDuck and the residents of Duckburg, U.S.A.
The “Bonus Cartoon�? The Volunteer Worker is another (in this case, unnecessary) carry-over from the On the Front Lines set, while Timeline: The War Years, 1941 to 1945 presents faux newsreel coverage of events around the Disney Studio during that time (but do we really need to know about first aid classes and blood drives?), plus Animation Art Galleries for several of the shorts found elsewhere in the set.