Disney Animation Collection Vol. 6 The Reluctant Dragon (2009)
Country: USA
Sudio: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Time: 62 min
Size: 3,60 GB
Audio:Portuguese
English
Arabic
Greek
Hungarian
Polish
Romanian
Turkish
Sub: Arabic
English
Greek
Hungarian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Turkish
CHAPTERS:
01. The Reluctant Dragon (1941)
02. Ferdinand the Bull (1938)
03. Goliath II (1960)
04. Johnny Appleseed (1948)
The roughly hour-long animated compilation disc is nothing new for Disney home video. Long-time collectors will recall Classic Cartoon Favorites, Walt Disney's Funny Factory, and Timeless Tales... all DVD lines that bear little distinction from the Animation Collection aside from a menu scheme and a cardboard slipcover. A very small handful of animated shorts, a minimum of supplementary material, and a low price tag make these great for a one-night babysitting gig but pretty ineffective for anyone who wants any sizable portion of the studio's rich cartoon catalog at their fingertips. That latter group is lucky to have an alternative in the deluxe, collector-friendly Walt Disney Treasures series. Incidentally, The Reluctant Dragon also appeared on a Treasures DVD, where the short was presented as part of the complete film -- but more on that later.
If the simple and cheap format suits you, then Volume 6 does just what you want it to: string together a small dose of entertainment that is emblematic of Walt Disney's grand heritage. The four short subjects here are thoroughly enjoyable and often amusing. That's particularly true of the title feature, which is silly enough to be both hilarious and endearing without overdoing the humor that it clearly embraces as its strongest sense.
Dragon and the subsequent two shorts are clearly assembled together because of their shared theme: creatures acting contrary to their nature. Ferdinand is a bull who doesn't fight, Goliath II is an elephant of diminutive stature, and the title character is a dragon who refuses to terrorize villagers. The fourth cartoon, Johnny Appleseed, might be said to chronicle a farmer who doesn't do what most farmers do, an apple-seeing rebel. That's a stretch, but the theme doesn't matter much here because while you might want to watch an hour's worth of Christmas shorts, fairy tales, or Mickey and Minnie's most romantic moments, I doubt you'll ever be seized by the sudden urge to see various animals not living up to stereotypes.
And now, a closer look at the included cartoons:
"The Reluctant Dragon" (1941) (20:38)
Based on the 1898 story by Kenneth Grahame, this is a short laden with delightful, chuckle-inducing throwaways. It tells the plight of a dragon who faces off against an elderly knight sent to slay him, neither wishing to fight the other, and the boy who mediates that dilemma in order to ensure the fight-hungry townspeople's satisfaction. Absurd propriety keeping each of the characters from their calling, the conflict gives rise to a most amusing comedy of errors. The animated segment of the largely live-action film by the same name is presented here in isolation, sans any real-life footage.
"Ferdinand the Bull" (1938) (7:58)
Ferdinand is a bull more romantic than raging, preferring to take in a big whiff of any nearby flower rather than to fight. His violent reaction to a bee sting fools opportunistic bullfighters, though, and Ferdinand soon finds himself in the ring. Based on a short story written two years earlier, Ferdinand won the animated short subject Oscar. It's easy to see why.
"Goliath II" (1960) (15:07)
Picked on because he's so much smaller than the rest of his elephant herd, Goliath II makes every effort to fit in and win the respect of his father, to no avail. When the big elephants are frightened by an aggressive mouse, though, Goliath II is there to make sure the rodent agitator has to pick on someone his own size. This precursor to The Jungle Book bears a remarkable resemblance to the then-future feature film, at one point even previewing a few of the notes later heard in the score leading up to "Colonel Hathi's March". It's also fair to say that narrator Sterling Holloway sounds eerily Pooh-ish here as well.
"Johnny Appleseed" (1948) (28:41)
Originally released as one of several animated segments comprising the 1948 feature Melody Time and later repackaged as part of the 2001 direct-to-video feature, Disney's American Legends, Johnny Appleseed tells one of folklore's best-known tall tales. One could argue that Disney's take on the partially-true legend is the definitive portrayal of Johnny's epic apple journey. (Apart from Martin Short's riotous turn in Shelley Duvall's 1985 "Tall Tales & Legends" episode.) Like Dragon, Johnny runs longer than your average Disney cartoon and is all the better for it. (The longer runtime of these two shorts accounts for there being a smaller total number of cartoons on the disc than one finds on most of these DVDs.)
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