Treasures: WALT DISNEY ON THE FRONT LINES Discussion

[quasi72]

Von Drake, I asked myself the same question when I watched it. By the way, the church is burnt in Education for Death. It's interesting to see the list of Forbidden Names for the German kids. Some are cristian, others jewish.
I love that film. I'd never show it to my kids, since it's not entertainment and the propaganda issue was designed for something that happened many years ago. I will show it to my college students this fall when I start teaching my "Disney Animation Class". That tin set is gonna be of great help. Well, the whole Treasures and Collectors Editions will be.

[Ciaobelli]

You teach Disney animation? Thats pretty cool!

[quasi72]

Well, see:
I did my dissertation on Disney Propaganda during WWII, so this tin set is like gold to me. The chair of my department here in Maryland asked me do prepare a course to start this comming fall about Walt Disney Animation. The main reason was that I know quite a bit about Disney, cartoons also and that the medium of animation has not been covered in our Department of Video, Film and Theatre. I am very excited about it, and so are the students. The demand was so high, that we have to offer it in the spring again.
... and some people thought this was a Mickey Mouse thing...

[Ludwig Von Drake]

It's interesting to see the list of Forbidden Names for the German kids. Some are cristian, others jewish.

It's also interesting that the first two names on the list are Winston (Churchil) and Franklin (FDR).

I just saw Victory Through Air Power and it was amazing. Besides on other WWII short, Little Johnie Jones, I don't think that I have seen a propoganda film which really made leanr the information and fell pationalty about it.

[Maerj]

I've watched a bit of content from both discs of this set. I have to say that some of the films are a little on the boring side. Obviously, they weren't made for entertainment value, but I am still glad that I own and have seen these films. The shorts freaturing the Disney characters are all good as well as stuff like Education for Death. Films like four Methods of Flush Riveting are a bit hard to get through, which is why we get the lil montage of training films. as much as I am a completist, I must admit that it would be hard to sit through 200 training films of that nature. I think this set covers the time period very well, giving us the major films that Disney created for the war effort. I intend to actually watch many of these again, and to give them my full attention.

[Ludwig Von Drake]

I think that if you are used to Chicken Little being a children's story then you are in for a surprise. I can easily picture the fox quoting Mein Kemph instead of a psychology book. It is very interesting to see the working of a Nazi's mind and if looked at the wrong way can be used as pro Nazi propoganda or that someon can take it and use the ideas themselves.

[jebsdad]

As with the other Disney Treasures DVD sets, I have had most of the contents of this set for years.

What I most wanted from this set and am glad to have is nicer DVD quality picture and sound of the film and cartoons.

I especially enjoyed Commando Duck - my two copies were only fair quality, so I'm thrilled to have a nice copy.

I realize this is a very special collection - I give it a grade of "A". But I wanted more. I have a few of the educational shorts that are not in this set and I feel room should have been made for more of them. I also have several training films that were not included, which have some nice animation. I feel the Training Film Montage should have been longer and contained the nicer animation scenes from some of the missing training films. Then I would have given the set an "A+".

But I am thrilled to have the contents of the set. I'm still surprised that Disney actually did release this set, after the long delay from the first hint of the set back in early 2002 for the December 2002 Wave 2 release. A long wait...but very much worth it.

[DDMAN26]

This is definitely one of the top five discs to come out this year just amazing stuff. Very brave, dark and brillant stuff. Certainly not for kids. Parents I'd watch some of these before letting your kids check them. A+

[Prince Adam]

I bought this set last night (my first Treasure-yay!), and I love it. It's an amazing representation of how almost everything was used to try and boost the war spirit. However, some are a little dull (but like everyone's said, they weren't all for entertainment), and also, these were made to entertain people in the 1940's-our standards for entertainment have changed.
Finally, it wasn't easy to watch the "Vault" shorts (Chicken Little, Education for Death, Der Feurer's Face), as it didn't deal with easy subject matter. It was hard to sit and listen to so much "Heil!", and when my grandparents came over last night, I thought it best to turn it off (they lived in Holland during the time of the Nazi occupation, and don't like to even talk about the time).

[STASHONE]

I agree about those training films - I had to fast forward through the majority of that flush riveting short, I just couldn't favor sitting through 8 minutes of illustrative play-by-play demonstrations on the effective methods of fastening rivet bolts. It's inclusion in the set is interesting to note in context to the extent that the studio was delving into the various mediums of training and assistance to aid our country and troops in the war effort, etc. but those few films along with the montage were enough for me!

[TheZue]

I really enjoyed this set, it's great insight into some common views during the war. Victory through air power was really interesting as well.

Did anyone else find the two educational shorts about not pooping in your corn field hilarious? I wasn't expecting that when I watched it with my mom and we were just howling

[Luke]

Did anyone else find the two educational shorts about not pooping in your corn field hilarious? I wasn't expecting that when I watched it with my mom and we were just howling

Yes! Those were two of my favorites.

[Maerj]

I found those strange as well. Was crapping in corn fields that common back then? Eeek!

[wwwjim]

I found those strange as well. Was crapping in corn fields that common back then? Eeek!

Since a sizeable percentage of the population didn't have indoor plumbing in farming communities in the 1940s (both of my parents' families included), I'd imagine it was more common than you think -- I'll have to ask my mom about that!

[Porce]

Apparently the original version of CHICKEN LITTLE really did have Foxy Loxy reading MEIN KAMPF... Not just planned, but actually in the original version. Thad Komorowski posted the following at the Big Cartoon DataBase's forum:

ON THE FRONT LINES -
According to my good friend David Gerstein, one of his colleagues, Milt Gray, swears he's seen an original RKO copy of CHICKEN LITTLE, in which Foxy Loxy does INDEED read Mein Kampf (this is Disney's answer to Columbia Picture's CHOLLY POLLY). Most people think this idea was scrapped, but the only version most have come across (including Maltin, and the version on the DVD) is the 1950s reissue version, and it's very possible the Disney crew reshot the scenes where Foxy Loxy is reading the book. I have not seen the original of CHICKEN LITTLE myself, but David Gerstein is a person I'd trust any day, and the fact that it's Milt Gray who told him (the man who discovered Floyd Gottfredson), it puts my trust even further.

The Big Cartoon DataBase itself also says:

In the original version of this cartoon, Foxey Loxey reads the book Mein Kampf. In a re-released version, the title has been changed to read Psychology.

[Joe Carioca]

Hmm, strange... according to Leonard Maltin, the idea of the Foxy Loxy reading Mein Kampf was scrapped during the production.

[DDMAN26]

Oh and did anyone think it was hilarious in the Defense Against Invasion when the narrator called the kid "tubby". No way they get away with that today.

[rodneyf]

I loved this set from beginning to the end. It's so strange, but my favorite Donald Duck shorts are on this set and they were all from this time period. Donald's enlisted days brought forth some of his greatest cartoons. I love everything from Donald Gets Drafted to Commando Duck. They're all great. I was very excited about seeing the shorts from the vault. I had seen Der Fuehrer's Face, but I had never seen the other ones and they were really good. In fact, some of these are some of the best Disney ever made (in terms of shorts). I even liked the educational films that they made. The highlights for me were the ones made for the office of Inter-American affairs (about malaria, cleanliness, etc...). These were very interesting to me.

Victory Through Air Power was surprisingly entertaining. The octopus & eagle scene at the end was amazing, and I loved every minute of it. It made so much sense, and I can see what the appeal was for Disney. I was surprised to see Joe Carioca in the image gallery with Donald next to him. I didn't know he had been created during this time. I thought he came later. Still, it was all very interesting.

[Class316]

Hmm, strange... according to Leonard Maltin, the idea of the Foxy Loxy reading Mein Kampf was scrapped during the production.

Yea, and I doubt he'd be lying about that. He specifically says they were intending to have him read Mein Kampf but scrapped the idea

[rnrlesnar]

Reason and Emotion could easily have the Germans replaced with Islamic Fundamentalist terrorist and be shown to the public today. It's a perfect portrayal of today in that there are people who think we're losing against terrorism and are afraid to confront the problem. Its a great short and my favorite of the "From the Vault" cartoons.

Victory through Air power was great and very interesting. I'm gradually going to watch every thing on all the treasures. So many DVD's came out this month!