Chronological Donald, The, Volume Three: 1947-1950: Walt Disney Treasures

Following those, we find "Lion Around," "Crazy Over Daisy," "Trailer Horn," "Hook, Lion and Sinker," and "Out on a Limb" from 1950. Here, there are several encounters between Donald and nephews and a pesky mountain lion. As always, the background art can be more captivating than the action.

Things conclude with two more selections from in "From the Vault," again with Maltin's dire warning that these cartoons were made in another era and might contain material offensive to today's parents and children. These cartoons are "Donald's Happy Birthday" (1949) and "Bee at the Beach" (1950). They are not among the stronger entries in the field for artwork or story, but they reflect the frenetic behavior of its hero to a proper degree.

Video:
As always, the Disney studios present the cartoons in as pristine a form as possible, without the studio having restored them frame-by-frame. Considering the age of these films, there is surprisingly little variation in the picture quality. The Disney brass have always been famous for keeping their products in the best-possible condition, originally reissuing them in theaters, then on tape, and now on disc. As expected, the colors show up brightly, solidly, vividly, with only a few specks and flecks as signs of age, and only a touch of grain here and there, which is probably inherent to the master prints. Of course, given the wide variety of cartoons on the disc, it's understandable that some of them would looks slightly better or slightly more worn than others.

Audio:
The audio comes in Dolby Digital 2.0 mono, and like the soundtracks on the first two volumes, it probably comes across as well as or better now than it did when people first heard it in theaters over half a century ago. After all, the Disney engineers have scrubbed the audio tracks of background noise, and most of us are listening on modern home-theater sound systems (unless you're among those people who are still listening to DVDs through your TV set's feeble, built-in speakers; but certainly no respectable DVDTOWN reader would be doing such a thing.)

Extras:
There are bonus items on both discs. In addition to the several introductions by film critic and historian Leonard Maltin, you get two, newly made featurettes: "The Many Faces of Donald Duck" and "Sculpting Donald." The first is a fourteen-minute affair hosted by an archival Uncle Walt and narrated by more-recent Leonard Maltin. It's an excellent little summary of Donald's history with the studio. The second featurette is nine minutes long and shows us how Disney artists sculpt some of the Disney characters as miniature, three-dimensional models. In addition, there is "Donald Duck on The Mickey Mouse Club," a series of ten Easter eggs scattered around on the two discs; and, lastly, a collection of still frame galleries, providing pictures and sketches, many in rough, preliminary stages, from the cartoons on the discs.

English is the only spoken language the discs offer, and there are English captions for the hearing impaired. The discs come housed in a double keep case, further enclosed in an attractive metal box. An informational booklet insert, a postcard of poster art, and a certificate of authenticity complete the package.

Parting Thoughts:
Although I've never thought the Donald Duck short subjects quite equalled the Warner Bros. products for sheer lunacy, you can chalk that up to personal taste. Eventually, Donald became the most popular character in Disney's stable of animated characters, and for good reason, his barely subdued brand of anarchy and temper a surefire hit, especially among children. Surely, if you like the Duck, this two-disc, third volume is everything you could hope for and more.

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