Chronological Donald, Volume Three (1947-1950)
Ratings (out of five)
- Movie: 4
- Audio: 2
- Video: 2
- Goodies: 4
- Interface: 3
- Value: 4
Product details
- Suggested retail price: 32.99
- Run time: 263 minutes
- Aspect ratio: full frame 1.33.1
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Chronological Donald, Volume Three
The third volume of the Donald collection joins this year’s Disney Treasures release, covering a short four year period from 1947 through 1950. This collection is a must have, not just for Donald fans.
In these shorts, Donald encounters some of his most famous adversaries, including the Ants and Bootle Beetle. More importantly, Chip and Dale gain their names and tangle with Donald for the first time in the Chip An’ Dale short. (They had previously appeared in two Pluto shorts, but had not been named at that point).
I am sorry to say that Disney continues to bury some of the shorts under the From the Vault label. This label gets tacked onto shorts that have some element of political incorrectness in today’s world. And it seems the offenses justifying this treatment get sillier with each Treasures wave. But, given this is the company that regularly airbrushes cigarettes from photos of Walt Disney, I don’t know that I should be too surprised.
Disk 1
- 1947 – Straight Shooters, Sleepy Time Donald, Donald’s Dilemma, Crazy With The Heat, Bootle Beetle , Wide Open Spaces, Chip An’ Dale
- 1948 – Drip Dippy Donald, Daddy Duck, Donald’s Dream Voice, The Trial Of Donald Duck, Inferior Decorator, Soup’s On
From the Vault:
- 1947 – Clown Of The Jungle
- 1948 – Three For Breakfast, Tea For Two Hundred
Disk 2
- 1949 – Sea Salts, Winter Storage, Honey Harvester, All In A Nutshell, The Greener Yard, Slide, Donald, Slide, Toy Tinkers
- 1950 – Lion Around, Crazy Over Daisy, Trailer Horn, Hook, Lion And Sinker, Out On A Limb
From the Vault:
- 1949 – Donald’s Happy Birthday
- 1950 – Bee At The Beach
The Goodies
The interviews with Tony Anselmo (the current voice of Donald), and with Disney sculptor Ruben Procopio were interesting, but nothing groundbreaking. The real goody in this collection is the Easter Egg hunt.
In the original Mickey Mouse Club series, the end of the opening title sequence featured Donald striking a gong. But it never quite worked out for him—with something invariably going wrong. There were 10 versions of that closing in a somewhat random rotation when the series aired. All 10 of the title sequences have been added to this set, and can only be viewed by finding the hidden links scattered across the two disks. The links have been helpfully numbered when you find them, to help make sure you know which ones you have found.
The Video, Audio, and Interface
The interface is very flat with negligible interactivity. The exception this time is the Easter Egg hunt. The video is acceptable, with the colors much more vibrant than I expected after the problems in Volume 2. It is still 60 year old grainy, with visible scratches at times. But overall, it still looked good—even upconverted to my HD television. The audio is likewise acceptable, but little more. But let’s be honest—we aren’t buying the Treasures collection for anamorphic widescreen special effects with 7.1 surround sound.
The Final Evaluation
A great collection in its own right, the addition of the Mickey Mouse club openings makes this an especially worthwhile addition to your collection.
