DVDizzy Forum

Hey guys! I had a little Disney short marathon lately and there were so many gems I forgot about entirely! I would be really really interested in seeing your take on the topic! I think we can include everything from Pixar to the package movie era shorts! I mean you can name more than just one. Disney and Pixar surely created many timeless shorts!
Love u guys xoxo

Favorite Mickey Mouse Short: "Mickey's Trailer"
This one has some of my favorite visual gags, and it just plays off the main trio and their little eccentricities so well.
Hon. Mention: "Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip"

Favorite Disney Short: "Us Again"
Maybe it was just being in the theater again after a year of lockdown, but seeing this one play in front of "Raya" was an overwhelming experience for me. Everything that made Paperman so charming is here, but taken to the next level. The blending of music and visuals is next level. More to the point, the short just captures the very specific bliss and life-giving euphoria of being out in the rain.
Hon. Mention: "Paperman"

Favorite Pixar Short: "Piper"
The overwhelming adorability of the title character actually matches really well against the more natural and realistic rendering of the beach setting.
Hon. Mention: "Sanjay's Super Team"

Favorite Mickey Mouse Short: Symphony Hour

Favorite Silly Symphony: Music Land

Favorite Package Film Short: Peter and the Wolf

Favorite Disney Short (that's neither Mickey Mouse nor Silly Symphony): The Little Matchgirl

Favorite Pixar Short: The Blue Umbrella

Favorite Disney shorts: The Little Matchgirl, Frozen Fever, Once Upon A Studio

Favorite Mickey Mouse short: Pluto's Christmas Tree

Favorite Silly Symphonies: Goddess of Spring, The Old Mill

Thanks for sharing so far!

PatchofBlue wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 1:24 pm Favorite Mickey Mouse Short: "Mickey's Trailer"
This one has some of my favorite visual gags, and it just plays off the main trio and their little eccentricities so well.
Hon. Mention: "Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip"

I just watched both Mickeys Trailer and Mr. Mouse takes a trip! Really good choices, PatchofBlue! Really funny gags, especially loved the train trip one!

PatchofBlue wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 1:24 pm Favorite Pixar Short: "Piper"
The overwhelming adorability of the title character actually matches really well against the more natural and realistic rendering of the beach setting.

I also really like Piper! It was really adorable and it had a good likeable story! Back then when I saw it in theatres alongside Dory I asked myself if it was real lol. Piper must be one of the most adorable Pixar characters ever!

Vlad wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 2:26 pm Favorite Disney shorts: The Little Matchgirl, Frozen Fever, Once Upon A Studio

Frozen Fever, Interesting pick! The Snowgies were a nice addition to the Frozen Universe

Farerb wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 1:42 pm Favorite Package Film Short: Peter and the Wolf

I always wanted so see that one as I always heard of the tale and it made me curious and your comment reminded me of that! Never really got the chance to see it as for sone reason MMM is the only WDAS film that isnt on D+. But Yesterday I just watched Sergei Parajanovs Peter and the Wolf short, it was cute but not as engaging or memorable as I hoped for ( full short is also on Youtube https://youtu.be/0yTpElS9Ey0?si=HAtUdnMKcR3-z72P ). And I just watched Disneys version on Youtube (in bad quality but i was still curious) and I kinda liked this one more, as the execution felt more straightforward and more traditional and the wolf is way more memorable and threatening and I think the music translated here way better, but the ducks from both shorts (and the raven) were the Highlight for me, both really hilarious and funny in their own way.

Vlad wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 2:26 pm Favorite Silly Symphonies: Goddess of Spring, The Old Mill

I also enjoyed goddess of spring! Disney translated the story really well with this one! I always thought the goddess was like the prototype Snow White, with her essence and design, especially since Snow was suppose to have the exact same hairstyle+ haircolor! I found that always so interesting
And Gotta rewatch the Old Mill!

Farerb wrote: ↑Sun Jan 07, 2024 1:42 pm Favorite Mickey Mouse Short: Symphony Hour

This one was surely one of Symphonies most memorable and experimental ones! Its so unique and I loved how they all communicated through music and melodies.

Fav WDAS short: I agree with Farerb and Vlad, I also go for The Little Matchgirl. Its SUCH a strong short! This is clearly one of Disneys strongest animated media ever as they even went for the original ending! I remember seeing it the first time a few years back and it made me really cry, but I still loved the ending as it was still hopeful, but the ending STILL shocks me everytime I see it . Its always the Andersen Tales where Disney truly shines huh . Also the Animation is extremely pretty and probably one of disneys most detailed ones with the shading like in Klaus. Disney did a wonderful Job with this one. It has everything imo. A Strong story and message, a character with a REAL goal or struggle... (looking at u Asha) pretty Animation, everything. I have nothing to complain about. And regarding paperman i also think the Art style is so unique and memorable. The story is also really entertaining and cool, but not as much as tLMG. But like in Matchgirl, no dialouge needed. There are many Disney shorts i like but these 2 are the strongest ones in my opinion.
I came across the adult swim parody https://youtu.be/w-xIBr_bU54?si=OWOebogcgPBfXKFz and it made me cackle i think thats what a modern Hollywood adaptation would have done with the tale lol "the independent Matchgirlboss" who uses her matches as her weapon . Jokes aside, I still think the Disney of today would still be able to make a faithful movie adaptation but would NEVER approve the original ending, as even Mermaid got a lighthearted ending and Matchgirls director was forced to do a happy ending while he insisted doing the original ending, this being why the short was so long in production, really really interesting, glad he convinced them and went for the faithful one as this makes the short for what it is so impactful and memorable. Also I didnt knew her grandmother died a few days before the events of the short or that she potentially had an abusive father (I read all that here where they talked about making the short: https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/little-mat ... experiment and https://www.animationartconservation.co ... hgirl.html )

Favourite package short: Mickey and the Beanstalk. This is the closest thing we got of a disney Beanstalk spin, and I really enjoy this one. Really entertaining

Disney Short Circuit: Not a huge Fan of their SC shorts as they give the impression that they are just made to demonstrate or experiment with new specific Animationstyles with no real Story unlike Sparkshorts, but I still enjoyed The Race and Drop

Favourite Pixar short: I would say Bao, this one was one of the most striking and touching ones for me as this one hits home. Also the Bao looked delicious

Fav Pixar Sparkshort: Kitbull. Im so invested in both characters! One of Pixars best imo.

Silly Symphony: The Ugly Duckling! I think thats the most classic one out of the SSs. Its really simple but still has a lot of heart!

Favourite Mickey short:
Another strong one for me is "Mickey as the Prince and the Pauper", but i dont know if that counts as its over 25 minutes long. But its really strong and entertaining and as a short still cinematic. Also showed how a potential movie with Mickey and the gang could still work. (Unfair to compare it with a movie but still prefer Barbies Princess and the Pauper all the way)

Thats a hard one.

Paperman is pretty up there, although I would have not had the airplanes be magic or whatever, it was cooler when it felt more like a grounded story.

Little matchgirl was great, refreshing to see a disney short end so bitter sweet.
One by one is another I love going back to.

Runaway Brain has to be my fav mickey short.

I'm not even going into pixar stuff, because thats a whole different level of difficulty, especially those earlier ones, they felt so much more special. Now they tend to be so photoreal its kind of lost its charm.

Back to disney, as tempted as I am to list once upon a studio, I kinda feel like that's cheating almost. It goes hard on those nostalgia strings, and brings back hand drawn in a world deprived of it, but my enjoyment of it is a bit superficial? There's no real story going on here, its mostly a "remember when we made iconic movies?" short, so as much as I love seeing it (on repeat even) I dont it quite deserves the top spot.

I'd say "Once Upon a Studio" has a story. It's kind of thin, as is often the case with short films, but the film does kind of hang on the tension of whether or not this incredible endeavor of rounding up 500 Disney characters from a hundred years of films, with all their little idiosyncrasies, is true good to be true. There's an eleventh hour crisis where it looks like they can't pull it off after Goofy breaks the camera, which is then resolved as all the characters put their hearts together, tokenized by them all singing the Disney anthem.

Again, it's a thin story, but even something like The Red Balloon, which is like three times as long as "OUaS," has the main kid just wandering around the city playing with his balloon, and then some kids come and pop the balloon five minutes before the end, and that's the story. Shorts don't really have room for an 8-sequence narrative, and so they tend to be more guided by ideas than story, as we discuss it in feature filmmaking.

I don’t have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Disney shorts, but I also want to sing the praises of “Mickey’s Trailer.” I saw it on some VHS tape in the late 90’s or early 2000’s and I’ve always loved it. I love their 1930s designs, I love the depiction of Mickey and friends as poor and down on their luck but plucky and making the best of what they had. And their trailer seemed so cool as a kid!

For 25+ years I have thought of this short every time I ate corn on the cob, lol