Donald's Mouse Works shorts fit in the Treasure line...NOT!

[geniuswalt]

In all honesty I can't believe how Mr. Maltin, the man all Disney enthusiast have come to love for championing classic and "quality" Disney fare, can
claim:
"I think many Disney fans are in for a pleasant discovery when they check out the bonus cartoons we’ve included from the 1999-2000 Saturday morning TV show Mickey Mouse Works...The results are surprisingly good, I chose the ten Donald cartoons I liked best for our DVD set, and while they can’t compete with the vintage theatrical shorts for beauty of animation they’re certainly clever and funny."

I'm sorry but I could not watch more than a minute of each of the MODERN shorts available in the Donald treasure. I mean, not only do these display very poor production value, if any at all, but unlike what Maltin says, they're not clever nor funny. The mildly amusing bits I found are nothing but a rehash of previous CLASSIC shorts gags. Now, I'm not saying that all CLASSIC Donald shorts are on the same level but it is fair to say that the bar is never as low as in these cheap Mouse Works shorts.

For the life of me, except for a couple of Mouse Works shorts taken from a film source, the rest look like they've been made in FLASH or something!!

They could have used the disc space for much better featurettes but hey, this option was much cheaper for Disney (in every sense of the word).

Does anyone agree or am I the only one thinking this?

[KubrickFan]

Well, they are part of Donald's legacy, so they should be included just for 'history's' sake. But I thought the shorts from the Mouse Works series were just remakes? I swear I saw one that was exactly the same as a classic short. Just goes to show how much originality and creativity went into those shorts .

[shr_fan]

I actually like them and am glad they were included in the set. I agree that they are not as good as the older ones, but I do enjoy watching them. Also, I think it is good to include the shorts to have a more rounded collection of Donald shorts by having some of the more recent stuff added to the old classics.

[blackcauldron85]

So, are there more Donald "Mouseworks" shorts that didn't make the DVD set? I'm asking because, based on what Mr. Maltin said in the quote geniuswalt posted, it seems like there are more Donald "Mouseworks" shorts out there. I know that the goal of the Treasures is to showcase Walt-era media, but the set is at least a little more complete as far as Donald shorts, right?

(Sorry if this doesn't make sense- I'm a little sleepy...)

[Chernabog_Rocks]

Donald Duck has appeared in 43 shorts from 1999-2002, about 8 of them from House of Mouse (I'm not sure if they count as Mickey Mouse Works or not)

So there's still 33 "new" shorts not included on CDDV4

[Mr. Toad]

I quite like the Mouseworks/House of Mouse shorts. Are the production values as high, no they never are for tv shorts when compared to theatrical. I thought they had charm and stayed true to the original characters.

[Chernabog]

I really hated them and was very upset that they occupied discspace with this crap. How much better should it not have been, to include the Chip and Dale cartoons instead, as they did with the Figaro shorts on the Pluto Collection. Disappointed to say the least

[Kyle]

I loved the house of mouse shorts. it has been a a while since Ive seen most of them though.

[yaksplat]

They could have just left them off and not added anything extra to the dvd. I'd rather have these than nothing.

[geniuswalt]

Wow, Chernabog is the only one agreeing with me so far

I guess I'm not the intended audience for the mouseworks shorts since these cater to those who enjoy the direct to DVD sequels
which I'm sure I'll never watch because I could care less about them.

[akhenaten]

ive only seen a pluto short from mouseworks and yes i hate the color,style,timing and antics.guess i never really cared for new shorts..cause u gotta admit not even the NINE NEW MEN can capture the essence of the characters well..donald was made to live in his time..and only clarence can voice him.even the donald in fantasia2k was poorly done. including his trademark boxing gesture.

[Goliath]

When I first watched Mickey Mouse Works, I was asthonished by the poor quality. Of course I knew Disney's television series never looked anywhere as good as their theatrical productions, but this was surely the poorest thing I've ever seen. The animation is crude. The coloring is far too bright; no nunaces, just big chunks of different colors. The writing is formulaic. There's almost no story in any of the cartoons, it's just a lot of pain afflicted to the characters which is supposed to be funny.

For this to even be on a Treasures set is a shame and is definately a guarantee for any collector of vintage Disney stuff to be turned-off from modern Disney completly.

[Mr arrow]

Im so glad it wasnt just me thinking the mouseworks shorts were out of place in a treasure set...and thats coming from a previous employee of disney tv animation!!!
Even mouse factory or old anthology series specials would have been preferable (I think anyway)...Im not suggesting for a minute that they dont deserve a dvd release but a TREASURE they are not and I for one thought it was out of place with treasures series and concept.

[Escapay]

One fan's trash is another fan's treasure.

I'm likely in the minority, but as someone who grew up watching both the classic shorts and the "Mickey Mouse Works"/"House of Mouse" shorts, I'm glad to see the MMW shorts get some kind of release beyond the two House of Mouse DVDs. Now if Disney will only release complete sets of the rest of MMW shorts and HoM episodes...

"Donald's Dinner Date" is easily my favourite of the shorts included (highly quotable too, at least between Kram and me as we've practically memorized the whole thing), though I was a bit upset that Mr. Maltin didn't see it fit to include "computer.don" or "Whitewater Donald."

Still, I can understand some fans' resentment towards this fairly recent and slightly substandard stuff being included on the Treasures set. It's like finding out Criterion Collection will release a new Lawrence Olivier boxset with some of his greatest films, and they'll include 1980's The Jazz Singer as a bonus movie.

albert

[geniuswalt]

I couldn't agree more with Goliath.
I mean sometimes the flash animated shorts (I'm sorry, that's what they look like to me) even show aliasing!!

Nobody is saying that these modern shorts should even come close to
the artistry of the classic ones, but products this sloppy and cheap
would make the old Disney animators roll over in their graves.

Saying these should be destroyed for posterity and never be seen again (ever) is an understatement

[Goliath]

Im so glad it wasnt just me thinking the mouseworks shorts were out of place in a treasure set...and thats coming from a previous employee of disney tv animation!!!

Cool! What did you work at? I like many Disney tv series, but not stuff they've put out in recent years (except Kim Possible). Animation in things like Teamo Supremo and Dave the Barbarian makes me cringe.

the flash animated shorts

That's a good description.

but products this sloppy and cheap
would make the old Disney animators roll over in their graves.

I believe Walt is weeping.

[PrincePhillipFan]

Saying these should be destroyed for posterity and never be seen again (ever) is an understatement

Wow, I'd say that's a bit radical. I understand that people here might not like the Mickey Mouse Works shorts, but this discussion I'd say is almost just getting hysterical now. I personally love the Mouseworks shorts, and think it's great to at least see that Disney cares enough about its classic characters to give them new shorts to work in. Do some of them have creative originality? No. But that even applies to all cartoon shorts of old. Seeing characters in a Looney Tunes cartoon get hit by an anvil or exploding might be cliche, but it worked every time. The same can be said for Disney. Goofy did things that were goofy, Donald always lost temper, and many of them had gag cliches they kept repeating over and over again. (Donald having an adversary with another animal or his nephews, or an object that wouldn't work right). While the style and the production values have changed, I personally don't see how radically different these cartoons in terms of plot or gags compared to the ones of old.

Nobody is saying that these modern shorts should even come close to
the artistry of the classic ones, but products this sloppy and cheap
would make the old Disney animators roll over in their graves.

Xerox anyone? While many might praise xerox as giving Disney animation its distinct style, it still doesn't show that Walt himself wasn't beyond cost cutting in terms of animation quality and production value. I personally found the xerox animation of the 60s films and cartoons to be more sloppy and cheap with all its rough edgy pencil lines in the characters and backgrounds than the Mouseworks cartoons of today. Even though they're cheap and might miss the mark a little bit, at least they tried to emulate the style of the cartoons of old.

[JiminyCrick91]

One fan's trash is another fan's treasure.

Agreed.

I'm likely in the minority, but as someone who grew up watching both the classic shorts and the "Mickey Mouse Works"/"House of Mouse" shorts, I'm glad to see the MMW shorts get some kind of release beyond the two House of Mouse DVDs. Now if Disney will only release complete sets of the rest of MMW shorts and HoM episodes...

Agreed again.

"Donald's Dinner Date" is easily my favourite of the shorts included.

Still agreeing. But must add in it is one of the few I could explictly remember that had not been on DVD.

-Sky

[Goliath]

Xerox anyone? While many might praise xerox as giving Disney animation its distinct style, it still doesn't show that Walt himself wasn't beyond cost cutting in terms of animation quality and production value.

Wait a minute! You can't compare Walt's cost-cutting methods with what has been done to MMW and other Disney television programs. At least Walt always made sure that, despite any money-saving techniques, his pictures always brought quality. Even though they worked with Xerox, they still managed to put out truely classic films, with animation animators put their heart and soul into. These projects always had great production values, were always handled with great care and consideration. MMW was out-sourced to an animation-*factory* in the Phillipines, where hundreds of assembly line-workers made the cartoons without any dedication or conviction. There's nothing that stands out. No care is shown.

I personally found the xerox animation of the 60s films and cartoons to be more sloppy and cheap with all its rough edgy pencil lines in the characters and backgrounds than the Mouseworks cartoons of today. Even though they're cheap and might miss the mark a little bit, at least they tried to emulate the style of the cartoons of old.

Wow. You honestly think the animation on MMW can be compared to the work of talented artists like the 'Nine Old Man', who delivered such incredible products like The Jungle Book?

[Mr arrow]

Very well said Goliath..
Actually they were not only outsourced all over the phillipines but farmed out to little animation factories all over asia...Everything is done at the literal crack of a whip and modern tv animation is a far cry from the in house studio animated short subjects created for theatres where the intention was for inhouse animators to improve and experiment as well as create a quality product for theatres.
Once again this is not meant to offend fans of MMW etc. They have there place. For fans of the show they deserve there own DVD release or set as do several other shows...but putting them on a treasures set (my personal opinion) sort of defeats the purpose of a...treasure.