Walt Disney's It's a Small World of Fun, Vol. 2 (DVD)

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The Walt Disney studios long ago perfected a marketing strategy to ensure that people continue buying their same product from year to year. While other studios these days reissue their movies in special editions, unrated versions, and directors' cuts, Disney keeps the formula simple: Release a movie for a limited time, either in theaters or on video, and then keep it off the market until a new generation of youngsters grows old enough to appreciate it and then reissue it. The idea has worked successfully for over seventy-five years, and I don't see the studio stopping anytime soon.

So it is with "Walt Disney's It's a Small World of Fun, Vol. 2," a collection of six short Disney animations, at least two of them classics. The keep case further describes the disc as "Animated adventures in exciting lands," the gimmick here that ties the various films together being their settings in different countries of the world. Adults without kids may scoff at the marketing scheme, but, whatever, it works, and the films are fun, the collection brief enough (fifty-six minutes total) not to tax the attention spans of younger children.

"Pedro":
The first feature selection on the menu is "Pedro," which Disney released in 1943 and which longtime Disney animator and director Hamilton Luske directed. It's an odd choice to begin the program because it is without question the least entertaining cartoon of the bunch. The setting is Argentina, for reasons wholly beyond me, and it concerns a family of airplanes--a mother, a father, and a son, Pedro--who deliver the mail. The dad usually carries the mail between Chile and Argentina, but at the time of the story he has a cold, so he entrusts the mail delivery to little Pedro, who has never done the job before. It's a rather juvenile tale, without much interest for this adult, about eight minutes of humdrum flight. 4/10

"The Olympic Champ":
Next, there is "The Olympic Champ" from 1942, directed by Jack Kinney. This is a seven-minute Goofy cartoon set in ancient Greece and modern times as a narrator explains to us the history and nature of the Olympic Games. Goofy illustrates the narrator's points in typically goofy manner as an Olympic torch bearer, a runner, a hurdler, a pole vaulter, a hammer thrower, etc. There are some funny gags along the way, and it's among Goofy's best outings. 5/10

"Peter and the Wolf":
"Peter and the Wolf" is one of those classics I mentioned earlier. Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Disney released the movie in 1946, basing the story on the Russian fairy tale set to music by Sergei Prokofiev. Sterling Holloway, whom moviegoers loved for his kindly, gravelly voice, narrates the fifteen-minute tale. As you know, Prokofiev represented each character in the story with a different musical instrument, the composer making the musical score an easy and entertaining way for young people to learn more about a symphony orchestra. Most of the plot you already know, so let me just say it comes across with a minimum of cuteness and a maximum of beauty and invention. The artwork is excellent, the music is fun, and pace is appropriate to the story. 8/10

"Brave Little Tailor":
Following the classic "Peter and the Wolf" comes the equally classic "Brave Little Tailor," and together these two short subjects are worth the price of the whole disc. Disney released "The Brave Little Tailor" in 1938 and asked Burt Gillett, another of the studio's stalwart filmmakers, to direct. This cartoon is about nine minutes long and set in medieval England. It concerns Mickey (voiced by Uncle Walt) as a tailor bothered by flies. He manages to swat and kill seven giant flies at one time and brags about it. The land is being terrorized by a particularly bothersome giant, and, naturally, people misinterpret Mickey's talk about killing seven giants as his being an expert giant killer. So, the King sets him the task of killing the pesky giant, with a promise to grant him the hand of his daughter, Princess Minnie, if he succeeds. Using the tools of his trade, the resourceful little tailor succeeds splendidly. Not only is the story fun, the animation is lovely, some of Disney's best. 7/10