Mickey Mouse DVDs

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Hope I'm not repeating something that has already been mentioned, but it as we know the Mickey Mouse cartoons are divided into two major groups; those in colors and those in black and white.

When Mickey Mouse went from black and white to colors, he became a little bit modern also in other ways; he was removed even further away from the original rubber hose style. But shouldn't the color cartoons be divided into two major groups as well?

From The Band Concert to Mickey's Surprise Party (with the exception of Mickey's Service Station and Mickey's Kangaroo, who were the two who came after The Band Concert but still was in black and white), we have the "old" Mickey with a white face and no pupils in his eyes (or more correct, only pupils). These are 28 cartoons, and it shouldn't be a problem to squeese them into a double DVD.

From The Pointer to The Simple Things (18 cartoons in total) we have the modern day Mickey; pupils in his eyes, gradually more updated clothes, a skin colored face and a more realistic body. In their own way, they are just as different from the first color cartoons as the black and white shorts are different from those in colors.
And then we have the three "present" Mickey cartoons from the 80's and 90's; Mickey's Christmas Carol, The Prince and the Pauper and Runaway Brain.
These 21 shorts (althought Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Prince and the Pauper are a little longer than usual) could also fit into a single or double DVD.

Maybe I'm just a bit picky, but personally I would prefer if the two different styles of the color cartoons could be separated this way on DVD releases. Of course there was smaller changes within these mini-eras as well, but not the kind of major makeovers that are mentioned above.

(Even if I was born decades after Mickey got eyes with pupils, I actually prefer the old Mickey with red shorts, no pupils and white face.)








Just for fun; how to divide the black and white cartoons. First we have the silent shorts versus those with sound, then those where he didn't use gloves versus those where he did. And then those where he didn't speak versus those where he did speak.

[Big Disney Fan]

Hope I'm not repeating something that has already been mentioned, but it as we know the Mickey Mouse cartoons are divided into two major groups; those in colors and those in black and white.

When Mickey Mouse went from black and white to colors, he became a little bit modern also in other ways; he was removed even further away from the original rubber hose style. But shouldn't the color cartoons be divided into two major groups as well?

From The Band Concert to Mickey's Surprise Party (with the exception of Mickey's Service Station and Mickey's Kangaroo, who were the two who came after The Band Concert but still was in black and white), we have the "old" Mickey with a white face and no pupils in his eyes (or more correct, only pupils). These are 28 cartoons, and it shouldn't be a problem to squeese them into a double DVD.

Well, it so happens that they have already been divided in two for the Walt Disney Treasures. The cartoon range you listed are from 1935 to 1938. That is found on Mickey In Color, Part One, as part of the Treasures line. In fact, it was one of the first Treasures released. And Mickey's Surprise Party is available on that set as an Easter egg.

From The Pointer to The Simple Things (18 cartoons in total) we have the modern day Mickey; pupils in his eyes, gradually more updated clothes, a skin colored face and a more realistic body. In their own way, they are just as different from the first color cartoons as the black and white shorts are different from those in colors.
And then we have the three "present" Mickey cartoons from the 80's and 90's; Mickey's Christmas Carol, The Prince and the Pauper and Runaway Brain.
These 21 shorts (althought Mickey's Christmas Carol and The Prince and the Pauper are a little longer than usual) could also fit into a single or double DVD.

Again, they are arranged like this on Mickey In Color, Volume Two, but with Society Dog Show starting it off, not The Pointer.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Yes, I am aware that the DVDs called Mickey Mouse in Living Color has been released, this was just my way of saying that I wasn't completely satisfied with them. Some cartoons are not included I'm correct, and the Society Dog Show doesn't, in my opinion, fit too well with the other shorts on the DVD.

Why can't the Disney Treasures present the cartoons on each DVD in chronological order and not excluding anyone? And when there are too many of them to fit into a single disc, why not collect them into different categories that makes some sort of sense if possible? In the first Silly Symphinies DVD from the Disney Treasures there is a mix of black and white and colors.
When some shorts are excluded, the DVD doesn't feel complete.

In the near future when Disney starts to re-release old shorts on Blu-ray, hopefully it will be done a little smoother than what have been done with some of the Disney Treasure collection. I would really like to see them arranged in som sort of a logical system.
I think the whole thing started when Leonard Maltin wanted to present his favorite Silly Symphonies, his favorite Mickey Mouse and so on. In other words, a bad start if we look back on it now. Even if the rest of the Silly Symphonies were released later, the result was a little messy because of hwo the first DVD was made.

[blackcauldron85]

If I'm not mistaken, there is an option to watch the shorts either in alphabetical (?) order or chronological order.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Maybe so, but that's only those cartoons already present on the DVD. I meant that if your were going to watch for instance the Silly Symphonies chronological in at least the first releases of the Treasures, you would have to swithc between different discs more than once.

[MikeyMouse]

I agree with your point and see where you're coming from, but you have to realize that the first few waves of Treasures were made not knowing whether or not the series would continue, so I believe what Leonard and Roy intended to do was give us a sampling of the "most popular" or "significant" shorts, rather than a chronological representation of either Mickey or the Silly Symphonies. As you can see with the Donald releases, they moved to a more systematic presentation in subsequent years.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Are you saying there's something missing, or just that not all of the cartoons Treasures are chronological?

[Rumpelstiltskin]

MikeyMouse:
Yes, the collections a little better now, and I hope it will be perfected when or if these collections are released on Blu-ray.

Lars Vermundsberget:
To be honest, I have only seen the first Treasure with Silly Symphonies, so I don't know if any has been excluded. The same goes for the rest of the Mickey Mouse shorts in colors. But the complete Goofy DVD, which was supposed to contain all the Goofy cartoons, has from what I have heard not included How to Ride a Horse and El Gaucho Goofy. I can partly understand why El Gaucho Goofy sin't there, since it is a part of the movie Saludos Amigos, but it could have been included as a bonus (together with Freewayphobia #1 and Goofy's Freeway Troubles perhaps). Why How to Ride a Horse has been excluded, I don't know.

When complete collections are released, I hope they really are complete.

[MK Sharp]

Why How to Ride a Horse has been excluded, I don't know.

Because it's part of The Reluctant Dragon, which was released in the same wave of Treasures.

I concur that it would be nice to have the Treasures in strict chronological order (because I'm a chronology buff), but given that there was never a guarantee in the early days that the range would cover everything*, certain choices had to be made. The Silly Symphonies disc was a best-of, because there was no telling at that early stage how many people might actually want to buy Silly Symphonies on DVD. The first Mickey Mouse In Black & White set was more or less a port of an earlier laser disc set; obviously playing it safe because there was a risk that people might not want DVD sets of monochrome cartoons. By and large, a lot of those risks that were taken five or six years ago have lead us to the point today where studios are a little more willing to bring out great heaping sets of old cartoons (such as the forthcoming Popeye and Woody Woodpecker sets, both of which would have been inconceivable in 2001).

Anyway, if the Disney shorts ever get re-issued on a new format, there are more pressing issues to deal with than what order they're presented in. Some of the prints on MMBW1 are filthy! Gentlemen, go find some negatives and start again!






* oh, but how times have changed...

[MikeyMouse]

This thread only begs the question: Who's up for putting together a complete Disney Animated Chronology, so that those of us sick...er...dedicated enough could watch all the shorts and features in the exact order in which they were released to theaters. I'm talking years AND months, here, people.

Anybody game?

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Why How to Ride a Horse has been excluded, I don't know.

How to Ride a Horse was not originally released as a short as far as I know, but as part of The Reluctant Dragon. It would be even better to have it included, but I think its exclusion can be justified.

I think the Silly Symphonies, Mickey, Donald and Pluto sets can be considered "complete", but they obviously didn't go by the same system for all of these collections.

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Lars Vermundsberget:
OK, that makes more sense, even if I personally can't see why they can't be released twice; once in the movie they originally appeared in, and once as a bonus in the Goofy collection.

And we still have the absense of Freewayphobia #1 and Goofy's Freeway Troubles, althought there are by some, but not all, considered as educational cartoons.

MK Sharp:
Yes, I understand that the first Treasures were "best-ofs" collections (and Maltin's own favorites), but now when Disney see that people are willing to buy them, it will hopefully be done different next time if released from the start in a different format (or even the already existing "old" format, even if I find this less likely).

From what I understand, the Popeye set is excellent, showing they have really made som efforts. If some of the black and white Mickey Mouse were "dirty", they probably realise that a clean-up is an investment that will pay off.

These days we have not only Disney, Popeye and Woody Woodpecker, even less known cartoons from the golden age are being transferred to DVD sets, like those from Ub Iwerks and Van Beuren.


MikeyMouse:
That could be interesting. TV cartoons as Darkwing Duck, The Gummi Bears and Quack Pack are all available, so what not all the theatrical cartoons in a chronological order (which it looks like has become the intention of the Disney Treasures)? But if starting from the start, where will the collections end? Since theatrical shorts are still made now and then, should it include all of them from the beginning to year 2000 for instance?
Still, these are the more independent shorts, since all those who belongs in some sort of category are or will be collected in such a way in the Treasures; Alice Cartoons, Oswald, Pluto, Silly Symphonies, Donald and so on.

[MikeyMouse]

Well, what I was referring to was a chronological viewing of every short/feature the studio put out. Starting in the 20's we'd have lots of Oswald and Alice Cartoons, but once you get to the 30's and 40's, you'd end up watching a Donald, followed by a Goofy, maybe a Pluto, two more Donalds, then a feature, etc. I'm not saying that they'd have to be all on one set. We'd have to figure out the month/year of each film's release, put them all in order, and then switch discs from different sets to get them all. Catch my drift?

[Rumpelstiltskin]

Well, what I was referring to was a chronological viewing of every short/feature the studio put out. Starting in the 20's we'd have lots of Oswald and Alice Cartoons, but once you get to the 30's and 40's, you'd end up watching a Donald, followed by a Goofy, maybe a Pluto, two more Donalds, then a feature, etc. I'm not saying that they'd have to be all on one set. We'd have to figure out the month/year of each film's release, put them all in order, and then switch discs from different sets to get them all. Catch my drift?

That could be an interesting experiment, to see how many who actually were willing to buy it. But of course, it is way too risky. Disney wouldn't even think about making that sort of coctail. When bying movies by downloading them becomes more widespread, it should be possible to buy all of the shorts and features, and arrange them just as the individual wants. Still, it is not the same as having a real pshysical movie in you hands.

But back to the classic theatrical shorts. Compared to what has been relased of TV series, its surprisingly we havn't seen all the Silly Symphonies on DVD earlier. Lilo & Stitch for instance, is on 65 episodes, while the Symphonies are 75 in number. While Lilo & Stitch are about 20 minutes long, the theatrical cartoons are much shorter. Which mean in total running time, the Lilo & Stitch are longer than the Symphonies.

Correct me if I'm forgetting some, but these are the categories of theatrical animated shorts that Disney owns;

Laugh-O-Grams
Alice Comedies
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
Pluto
Mickey Mouse
Donald Duck
Goofy
Silly Symphonies
Educational cartoons
Humphrey the Bear (only two cartoons of his own)
So-called Walt Disney Specials (including a few few Roger Rabbit)

If Figaro and Chip 'n Dale appeared in their own cartoons without Pluto or Donald or the other present, I'm not sure, but it have to been very few in that case. Anyway, as we can see, it is actually not a limitless amount we are talking about. They are many, but still fewer than the TV-series that are printed on discs.

[MikeyMouse]

That could be an interesting experiment, to see how many who actually were willing to buy it. But of course, it is way too risky. Disney wouldn't even think about making that sort of coctail. When bying movies by downloading them becomes more widespread, it should be possible to buy all of the shorts and features, and arrange them just as the individual wants. Still, it is not the same as having a real pshysical movie in you hands.

Maybe I'm not explaining this correctly. I'm not even REMOTELY suggesting that this is a product that Disney should actually market (and consumers would actually BUY). I'm talking about an EXERCISE for UD members, where we attempt to put everything in chronological order on paper, and then find out what DVD/Collection each film is on (if in fact it has been released and is available), put that particular disc in our players, and then watch it. Obviously we'd be relying heavily on the Treasures and feature films, but other discs would come in handy as well.

There. I don't think I can explain it any better than that. It's a PROJECT, not a PRODUCT. That being said, would anyone be interested in doing something along those lines?

[MK Sharp]

There. I don't think I can explain it any better than that. It's a PROJECT, not a PRODUCT. That being said, would anyone be interested in doing something along those lines?

Last year, I was considering doing exactly that as a bloggy kind of thing. One Disney short per day, every day, from the beginning. I was going to start on December 5th (for obvious reasons). I put it off as it became apparent that we'd be getting a comprehensive Oswald set this year, plus a few new Alice discs; so I figured I might as well wait until a few of those gaps were filled.

As a project, I'm well up for it. I've already got my list...

[MikeyMouse]

As a project, I'm well up for it. I've already got my list...

Seriously? As in down to the year AND month? Most impressive...

[Rumpelstiltskin]

OK, now I see what you mean.
I could be interesting, even if I'm not sure which sources we can trust. Often imdb and bcda has different release dates. Maybe Disney should have its own site where such a list is available, both chronological and alphabetic.

[Lars Vermundsberget]

As for those few shorts not included in the Goofy set - it has been said that the "Complete Goofy" was quite packed as it was. I guess that could make sense, although I'm not sure three more shorts would have made much difference quality-wise.

As for watching Disney shorts chronologically - yeah, let it be an "experiment" or "excercise" for fans. There are so many ways to organize the "perfect collection". At least if we're talking about the "classic theatrical shorts" we are indeed close to a complete set in the WDT line now - the closest to "perfect" we've ever come.

For my own "master list" I prefer to keep the "character shorts" (not Silly Symphonies) chronologically together on one list, with release dates when possible.