GREAT Film - BAD Transfer
"The Wind in the Willows" is a terrific piece of animation -- one of the best of the Disney Studio from the 1940s. Originally released as the front half of the 1949 theatrical feature "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad," I always felt that Wind in the Willows could have easily stood as a full feature length film on it's own. It has a gentle comforting style of humor not unlike the '60s' Winnie the Pooh featurettes, but then climaxes in a thrilling train chase and the mayhem-in-the-manor fight with the weasels, one of the masterpieces of action staging. If you ever wondered where those weasel characters in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" were originally from, they are from this great film. This new DVD contains the "featurette" version, with it's own opening title sequence as re-released theatrically, and as seen on the Wonderful World of Disney TV series.
However, this DVD edition suffers from a VERY bad transfer. "Wind in the Willows" is extremely dark, making even the...
For those nostalgic for these classic animated shorts and don't own any previous Disney animated shorts on DVD, check it out!
As a child, I can easily remember my prized possession was a Walt Disney book that my father purchased for me and it featured the chronology of the early classic Walt Disney animated shorts. Some of these shorts were shown on the Disney Channel when I was younger but suffice to say, with all the new animation, a lot of these classics have probably been forgotten or have been released on VHS video.
Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment are now releasing a few of these shorts on DVD for the first time (some have appeared on past Disney DVD releases). With the first three volumes released, the fourth, fifth and sixth volumes will be released on May 12, 2009.
A lot of these short films were created in the 1920-1940's and typically featured characters that were not reoccurring (with the exception of the tortoise and the hare which appeared in a second short). Some were released under the "Silly Symphony" moniker of animated shorts released between 1929-1939 which...
Great content, horrible print
While the other five shorts in this collection are in decent condition with fairly bright color and delineation, the state of the centerpiece cartoon "Wind in the Willows" is unbelievably poor. Without exaggeration, it looks like a print you might find on a public domain bargain bin collection. I could have handled a fair amount of speckling and such (which this cartoon also has in abundance) but the picture itself is so fuzzy and murky it's almost impossible to make out details in any of the darker scenes even with the contrast turned all the way up. The sound quality is pretty substandard as well. Is this really the best print Disney has in its archives? I know that none of these shorts are restored but the other five look infinitely better and they are all from the 1930s while "Wind in the Willows" is from 1949. I haven't seen any of the previous DVD collections that included it so I don't know if this is the same print they've been using all along but Disney should really be...
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