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This thread will be the thread for discussing the <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... vemz">Walt Disney on the Front Lines</a></b> set.

The shorts on Disc 1 were a fascinating collection of propaganda, war-themed, and educational films. The middle class were rather entertaining, where the former and latter engaged on a different level, out of fascination and curiosity. I thought the three Conversation featurettes on Disc 2 were really well done, especially Roy Disney's. Victory Through Air Power was interesting to see, although a bit difficult to get through.

In much more detail, there is <a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/onthefrontlines.html">my review</a>.

Thoughts? Agree/disagree?


My 10 favorite shorts from this set are (in this case, "favorite" is an admittedly odd word choice)
The Vanishing Private
Fall Out; Fall In
Thrifty Pigs
Seven Wise Dwarfs
Out of the Frying Pan, Into the Firing Line
The Winged Scourge
Defense Against Invasion
Cleanliness Brings Health
Der Fuehrer's Face
Education for Death

I popped in the 1st disc as soon as I got home tonight and started watching the Vault section, I couldn't believe Education For Death. That must have really hit hard during the war I was fairly shocked by it, having never seen it before.

Der Fuehrer's Face having seen clips of it over the years I sort of knew what to expect.

More thoughts to come

I only had time to see Der Fuhrer's Face. I had seen a bootleg, bad quality version of it. The quality of the DVD one left me speechless. The video was awsome, the sound not so groundbreaking but still great. The subtitles are probably the best thing since I could only understand 60% of the dialogue before.

I've been watching the Front Lines DVD for the last couple hours and went against my word to watch the Donald DVD first I guess it was cuz I've heard so much talk about this one so by the time I got home, I was most interested to see what was in this DVD set. The ones that I've watched so far, were quite intriguing. I watched all the ones in the Vault section, none of which I saw before and it kinda shocked me to see that they did so many cartoons about the Nazis.

The other ones that I watched were quite entertaining, specially the Donald ones, which is a perfect lead in to when I start viewing the Donald DVD Plus, I noticed that Victory Vehicles is featured in this DVD set as well as the Goofy DVD. I saw no overlaps of the Donald DVD and this one, based on the listing of the shorts in both booklets.

How to Be a Sailor is also an overlap from the Goofy collection, but I think i like that because these shorts belong in both collections.

so far i'm most impressed with Education for Death. the animation was way intense and as Maltin pointed out, what was done with shadows and lighting was mad cool

i like the fact that they released a few of the training films, but found them to be the ones that dragged the most. i wish they were available for collector's sake, but see no commercial value in releasing all 200 of these films. still it would've been a nice suppliment to have a list available of the 200 training films just to sift through and see what was made. :cringe: i hate to ask fore more when we are given such cool and amazing stuff.

by the way, my front lines tin did NOT have a number on it, just a certificate inside. i think i liked the tins better when the numbers were indented on the tin themselves.

I already started a discussion about these cartoons and the Victory through air power feature last year (on July 14 2003), but then it was obvisously not many who had seen them - now when many more have done so, can we please continue it from there:
http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/vie ... ight=#6601

I'm less than half way through, but I'm loving every minute of it. I just watched The Winged Scourge last night... it's kind of fun to see the dwarf cottage adorned in screens. Grumpy was pretty upset at Dopey for killing the mosquito on his neck... he should have been thanking him. He doesn't want to end up like the guy on the porch, does he? It's full of recycled animation, but it's great! I'm so glad they finally released it.

Education For Death was amazing propoganda as was Chicken Little. I also very much enjoyed the Canadian war bond shorts.

I just saw New Spirit and Spirit of '43 they are amazing. I remember watching Spirit of '43 on a cartoon VHS I had growing up and I always enjoyed it. I can't wait to see Victory Through Air Power.-

I plan on picking this up tomorrow along with Tomorrowland. I can't wait to check it out!!

MQ

i finished all of the cartoons on disc one now and my favorites from disc one are:

Education for Death
Der Fuehrer's Face
Private Pluto (i laughed so hard in the end when chip and dale were riding on the gun barrel cannon)
The New Spirit
Fall Out/Fall In (the lighting in the beginning with the sunrise was mad cool)


i enjoyed all of the cartoons, but these particularly stood out as high quality animation

I'm watching this set as I speak! So far i've enjoyed it and I'm glad i own a part of history! I'm glad Disney released these!

I think this attention to detail and this sense of creativity is EXACTLY what needs to be shown to the current powers that be at the house of mouse.

I have to admit i think this may be the best wave yet and quite frankly this particular set might be the best of the best.

Well, after over 4 hours watching this dvd set, I have to admit that although I'd seen many of them, I am amazed by Disney, since they have respected the actual work from the past, finally. I mean: no cersorship, at least apparent (I'd still love to see 3 little pigs w/ the jewish caricature, which means, the uncut version).
The entertainment shorts are very very funny. I love DONALD GETS DRAFTED. It's witty and silly. Very good. I also loved VANISHING PRIVATE.
I was amazed by DER FEUHER'S FACE, EDUCATION FOR DEATH, REASON AND EMOTION and CHICKEN LITTLE. I'd seen the first 3 ones before, not Chicken Little. Beware: spoiler in the next line. I was shocked: the nazi Fox, and the poultry living in such a concentration camp, with that ending. So different. I agree w/ what L. Maltin says at the beggining: maybe this is not meant for children.
The good neighborhood policy shorts and the canadian ones are also outstanding. Very very very good. Beyond entertaining, with a different purpose, indeed.
The second cd is also really good. I'd seen VTAP before, on VHS to do my dissertation on Disney Propaganda, and I have to admit that the quality of it on DVD is outstanding. I specially loved the bonus features and that footage w/ Major Seversky and WD himself, filming at night. A great historic document.
I'm "afraid" this is becoming my favorite Treasures set. I still have to watch the Donald vol. 1 and the Mickey in color shorts. Although I couldn't resist it and watched Runaway Brain, which I loved.
I'll post about that some other time.
Cheers

I really don’t see the big deal regarding Chicken Little. In fact I remember seeing it on TV when I was a child (around 20 years ago). There is really nothing “bad” about it. A child will just see a fox trying to get dinner.

Class316 wrote:I really don’t see the big deal regarding Chicken Little. In fact I remember seeing it on TV when I was a child (around 20 years ago). There is really nothing “bad” about it. A child will just see a fox trying to get dinner.

I agree. In fact, the funny thing is, after I watched that short, I remember watching it a bit as a kid, too. I think we lost the tape somewhere along the way, though, 'cause I haven't seen it in a long time.
Anyhoo, I never thought anything bad of it. The fox's manipulation is a mature theme - it just flew over my head as a kid. It would much less be equated to WWII metaphors if you weren't old enough to know the history anyway. And btw, the narrator of the short was wrong - the classic story of Chicken Licken always did end with the fox eating the characters. "Grim ending," my foot.

I was wondering if anyone found a patriotic short with all of the characters, besides the Canadian one.

I was wondering why in Der Feur's Face a Church is burned and stoned instead of a synagoge.

Channel 4 TV here in the UK showed both "Victory Through AirPower" and "Der Fuerher's Face" at Xmas 92 for... some reason. But I recorded both of them on video and still have them. Obviously this DVD supercedes them now, but still... the number of people amazed I have had copies of them for this long keeps going up

I'd seen about half the shorts on the DVDs before, either from TV (we must be liberal here in the UK to have allowed the showing of Chicken Little, Reason&Emotion and The Spirit of 43 on TV) or various bootlegs passed about. The main one I was looking forward that I hadn't seen was of course "Education for Death" (though I had seen plenty of still from it) and it didn't disappoint. Powerful stuff indeed. Ballsy of Disney to let most of these go through without cutting, I guess Martin's influence must be a factor here.

Actually, I probably saw a lot of the propaganda shorts on it too. The only ones I hadn't seen as a child were the ones with outright Nazi imagery. Many of the Army ones were familiar to me. In a lot of causes I knew what would happen next.

Some of the ones I hadn’t seen were the educational shorts. And of course Der Fuhrer’s face, Education for Death, and Spirit of 43 I saw via Internet downloads.

I was surprised to find how striking and impressive the 'Victory Through Air Power' feature was as I had not previously seen it. It's definitely the highlight of the set for me. Beautifully animated, elegant, amusing and effectively absorbing - particularly for a dated educational publicity film of 5+ decades! I'm actually surprised that Disney would have shelved this film for so many years when so much of the content, specifically the first 30+ minutes which delves into the history of aviation (which I found most entertaining and relevant), seems so fitting for reissue or broadcast considering the illustrative and informative nature of the material. Especially for a company known to dig into their film library to cut, splice and reinvent numerous short subjects and compilation packages...

Part of Victory... have been shown in the Disney shows on TV.
Man in flight = History of the aviation