Treasures: THE CHRONOLOGICAL DONALD Discussion

[Luke]

<img src="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/images/donaldcov.jpg">

This thread will be the thread for discussing the <b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... ovemz">The Chronological Donald Volume 1</a></b> set.

I enjoyed this set, but probably less than the others. Extras were pretty slight, so it was really just the shorts. Unlike the Mickey one, these are all from a compact time and therefore they don't stray too much from an established formula. Still, it's a formula that works and I'm sure fans of Donald love this one.

As always, more detailed version: <a href="http://www.ultimatedisney.com/donald.html">my review</a>.

My 10 favorite shorts from this set (in chronological order):
The Wise Little Hen
Donald's Nephews
Donald's Golf Game
Donald's Lucky Day
The Hockey Champ (the PERFECT compliment to The Mighty Ducks)
Donald's Cousin Gus
The Autograph Hound
Officer Duck
Window Cleaners
Timber

[MickeyMouseboy]

I like the set but my favorite short is not in this volume! i will have to wait till volume 2! it's a fun and awesome set none the less.

[Edge]

i love donald duck but personally i think the shorts from during the war to the end of the production line are the best. Animation from Disney in the 1940's and 50's has to be amongst the best EVER.

[jebsdad]

As with the other Treasures sets, I already had the contents of this set for years, but wanted the nicer DVD picture and sound.

I thought the Disney Restoration folks did an excellent job cleaning up these early shorts. The only short I felt they could have paid more attention to was Donald's Lucky Day. Since it was a "nighttime" cartoon, the artifacts (dirt, scratches, etc.) really showed up in the background and really distracted me while I was watching it. That was disappointing since I have never seen a nice, restored copy of this cartoon and was hoping it would be on this set in much nicer condition.

I especially enjoyed seeing The Volunteer Worker in nicer condition than the copy I had. I also am glad to now have a complete, uncensored copy of Donald's Penguin. I had never found one in color, although I did have an uncensored black and white copy.

I was also surprised to see the short scene with the Steppin Fetchit black character in The Autograph Hound. Until reading previews on the contents of the cartoons, I had not realized that the copies I had seen and had thought were complete were actually censored copies.

I give this set a grade of "A", but I am most looking forward to the next set, which should contain many of my favorite Donald cartoons.

[Mayhem]

The Duck. The Chipmunks. Volume 2 (or 3 depending on how they split it, there are a LOT of Duck cartoons in the late 40s) will be required buying for me really.

[Ludwig Von Drake]

I thought that the Voulenteer Worker was very good, though I am surprised that there was no Maltin introduction about it.

[MickeyMousePal]

1934: The Wise Little Hen Excellent
1936: Donald and Pluto Excellent
1937: Don Donald Great
Modern Inventions OK
Donald's Ostrich Great
1938: Self Control OK
Donald's Better Self OK
Donald's Nephews Great
Polar Trappers Great
Good Scouts Great
The Fox Hunt OK
Donald's Golf Game OK
1939: Donald's Lucky Day OK
Hockey Champ Excellent
Donald's Cousin Gus Great
Beach Picnic OK
Sea Scouts OK
Donald's Penguin Great
The Autograph Hound Great
Officer Duck OK
1940: The Riveter OK
Donald's Dog Laundry OK
Billposters Great
Mr. Duck Steps Out OK
Put-Put Troubles Great
Donald's Vacation OK
Window Cleaners OK
Fire Chief Great
1941: Timber Great
Golden Eggs OK
A Good Time for a Dime OK
Early to Bed Great
Truant Officer Donald OK
Old MacDonald Duck Excellent
Donald's Camera Excellent
Chef Donald Great


This was another great DVD set.
I'm glad I also own this one.
I really like Donald Duck I hope a Volume 2 comes out soon.
In Wave 5 or something.

[Son of the Morning]

This is the first wave 3 release that I've bought, and really, as a huge Donald Duck fan, I've been looking forward to it since I heard about it ages ago.

I didn't have much time to go through it (since I got it late last night, and I'm at school now), but so far, I'm not disappointed in the least bit.

[bmadigan]

It's too bad they apparently lost the original title cards.
As I understand it, "Donald and Pluto", "Don Donald", and "Modern Inventions" were all released as Mickey Mouse cartoons, since the donal series hadn't started yet.
Here, only "Donald and Pluto" retained the Mickey Mouse opening.

[AwallaceUNC]

Well I have finally finished watching my first Treasures set in its entirety- The Chronological Donald. I'll finish Tomorrowland soon- I've been doing a little of each of them here and there. It took me long enough, right?

I loved it! The presentation and content are both incredible. I love these shorts! They never got old- I could watch one after another. They tended to be formulaic, but it's a great formula! The bonus materials were only so-so, but that's not really what I was looking for with this set. When it comes to Treasures, the entire thing is sort of like a set of bonus features. I did think the art galleries were very cool, especially the theatrical gallery.

It's impossible to dislike Leonard Maltin. Still, many of his warnings/apologies seemed to me to be very unneeded and intrusive, if not insulting. They also occasionally spoiled punch lines. I think a case can be made for one or two of them, but that's all. Of course, his historical commentary was very much welcomed, and I wish they'd include more of those sort of things and less of the pandering. But if it gets it released, then I can swallow it. (I'll also admit that I would sometimes be about to pause a short before it started to take a break, but then Leonard would come on and I'd be intrigued as to what is going to be "offensive" and decided to go ahead and watch it).

Donald Duck is the man. I can't wait 'till the 2nd volume.

-Aaron

[Walt Forever]

It's too bad they apparently lost the original title cards.
As I understand it, "Donald and Pluto", "Don Donald", and "Modern Inventions" were all released as Mickey Mouse cartoons, since the donal series hadn't started yet.
Here, only "Donald and Pluto" retained the Mickey Mouse opening.

good information, thanks!!! Watching the DD TT Vol. 1 I was very confused seeing Donald title cards on "Don Donald" and "Modern Inventions"; because lots of film historians count them as "Mickeys" (most important: Dave Smith from the Archives does in "Disney from A-Z")

That would explain the whole thing. Do you have a source for the information? Concerning all of the TT: Are there more cartoons with (historically) "wrong" title cards?

[bmadigan]

That would explain the whole thing. Do you have a source for the information? Concerning all of the TT: Are there more cartoons with (historically) "wrong" title cards?

Check out the http://www.bcdb.com/

[Walt Forever]

As most of you know there are some troubles in classifying some cartoons into the character´s series e.g. "Modern Inventions" is "officially" a Mickey Mouse Cartoon but on the TT "The Chronological Donald" it has Donald Duck title cards. Naturally that would be a reason for saying that it´s a Donald Duck cartoon, but as I learned some title cards got lost. So I wrote an email to Leonard Maltin some time ago asking him about the "title problem". For those of you who are interested, here´s his answer:


Hi...

I appreciate your letter, and your kind words about our DVD series.

In truth, I share your concern and confusion about which cartoons belong to which series. When I last inquired about this, on some titles that I wasn't sure about, I was told that they were released as Mickey Mouse cartoons in the 1930s but then reissued as either Donald or Pluto cartoons later on. The challenge for us was to see if we could find original main titles, which we tried very hard to do--not always with success.

At this point I can only bow to Dave Smith* and trust his view as the definitive source, even though we may have contradicted him in some of our DVD programs.

I wish I could be clearer on this issue myself!

with all good wishes,

Leonard Maltin


*(Dave Smith in his Book "Disney from A-Z". I was referring to it in my email)

[Jayden]

I'm happy to say I managed to find 1 last copy of this at my local store and currently have it on hold. The tin is a little beat up, but one can't be picky this late in the game. I'll just be happy to own it because Donald is absolutely hillarious. I'm really looking forward to seeing this DVD for the first time. Sunday (that's when I pick it up) can't come soon enough!

P.S. Props to the guys at CD Warehouse (where I'm buying this) who were willing to hold this for me for a month so that I could get the money to pay for it. Seeing as it was the last copy in Ottawa, I'm really grateful!

[FantasiaMan]

The Donald set is my favorite of all my Treasures sets, but my favorite cartoon, Clock Watcher, will probably be on Volume #2.

[toonstuff]

I'm a big fan of most of the Donald shorts, so this disc was great for me. I think Donald's Cousin Gus has some of the best sight gags Disney's done.

[Mouseketodd]

I can't remember the name of this Donald Duck short:

He works at/runs a service station and eyes the billboard displaying a car. The nephews cut the picture down, use it to diguise their own vehicle, and trick him. Of course he finds out and gets mad. Then, Donald unknowlingly wins this brand of car in a radio promotion; the boys pick it up and attempt to surprise him with his dream car! Donald thinks its another phony and destoys the car -- only to hear the radio announcer congratulate him as he watches the "balloon tires" float off into space.

It's been a while since I've seen this and look forward to having it on CDD Vol 2 or 3!

[Lucylover1986]

My favorite Donald cartoon of all time is one that will most likely be on Vol. 2 where Donald works as a gift wrapper and attempts to wrap all these items. It's really funny.

On Vol. 1 my faovrite episode is the one where Donald tried to make waffles and put cement in by accident.

[Voiceroy]

I've been planning to buy this set, but I'd like to know if any of the bonus features include archive pics or video of Clarence Nash (Donald's original voice), or even an interview with current-Donald voice Tony Anselmo since he became good friends with Nash over time.

[MK Sharp]

I can't remember the name of this Donald Duck short:

He works at/runs a service station and eyes the billboard displaying a car. The nephews cut the picture down, use it to diguise their own vehicle, and trick him. Of course he finds out and gets mad. Then, Donald unknowlingly wins this brand of car in a radio promotion; the boys pick it up and attempt to surprise him with his dream car! Donald thinks its another phony and destoys the car -- only to hear the radio announcer congratulate him as he watches the "balloon tires" float off into space.

It's been a while since I've seen this and look forward to having it on CDD Vol 2 or 3!

It's Lucky Number from 1951, so it'll probably be on Vol 3.