The third volume of the Donald collection joins this year's Disney Treasures release, covering a short four year period from 1947 through 1950. This collection is a must have, not just for Donald fans.
In these shorts, Donald encounters some of his most famous adversaries, including the Ants and Bootle Beetle. More importantly, Chip and Dale gain their names and tangle with Donald for the first time in the Chip An' Dale short. (They had previously appeared in two Pluto shorts, but had not been named at that point).
I am sorry to say that Disney continues to bury some of the shorts under the From the Vault label. This label gets tacked onto shorts that have some element of political incorrectness in today's world. And it seems the offenses justifying this treatment get sillier with each Treasures wave. But, given this is the company that regularly airbrushes cigarettes from photos of Walt Disney, I don't know that I should be too surprised.
From the Vault:
From the Vault:
The interviews with Tony Anselmo (the current voice of Donald), and with Disney sculptor Ruben Procopio were interesting, but nothing groundbreaking. The real goody in this collection is the Easter Egg hunt.
In the original Mickey Mouse Club series, the end of the opening title sequence featured Donald striking a gong. But it never quite worked out for him—with something invariably going wrong. There were 10 versions of that closing in a somewhat random rotation when the series aired. All 10 of the title sequences have been added to this set, and can only be viewed by finding the hidden links scattered across the two disks. The links have been helpfully numbered when you find them, to help make sure you know which ones you have found.
The interface is very flat with negligible interactivity. The exception this time is the Easter Egg hunt. The video is acceptable, with the colors much more vibrant than I expected after the problems in Volume 2. It is still 60 year old grainy, with visible scratches at times. But overall, it still looked good—even upconverted to my HD television. The audio is likewise acceptable, but little more. But let's be honest—we aren't buying the Treasures collection for anamorphic widescreen special effects with 7.1 surround sound.
A great collection in its own right, the addition of the Mickey Mouse club openings makes this an especially worthwhile addition to your collection.
(Send an email to Tony Phoenix)
Tony is an original MousePlanet staffer and while he isn't seen too often writing, he plays a very important role in keeping everything running.
