Walt Disney Legacy Collection – True Life Adventures, Vol. 3 (1955)

Long before Animal Planet existed, Walt Disney’s True-Life Adventures awakened viewers to the wonders of the natural world. Disney began the series in 1946 with Seal Island, and the six features and seven featurettes won eight Academy Awards. Listen to our interviewwith director emeritusRoy E. Disney. One winner was Bear Country (1953), which is included in Creatures of the Wild, along with The African Lion (1955), Jungle Cat (1959) and The Olympic Elk (1952). Each film traces the course of one year in the life of its subject. Lionesses hunt to feed their cubs (and their glorious but idle mates) on Serengeti Plains. A pair of jaguars in the Amazon and a mother bear in Yellowstone Park raise their cubs, teaching them to find food and avoid predators. Magnificent bull elk fight for mates in the high meadows of the Olympic Mountains. Except for the narration occasionally seeming a little forced or obvious, these documentaries wear their age lightly. The prints hav (more…)

Disney Animation Collection 3: Prince & The Pauper

The legendary tale of “The Prince And The Pauper” gets a magical Disney makeover in tis adventure-filled DISNEY ANIMATION COLLECTION DVD, part of a series of beloved classic short films! In a faraway kingdom, two boys who look exactly alike meet by chance and decide to switch places: a pauper named Mickey, who dreams about a life of luxury, and the Crown Prince, who wishes he could be as free as his subjects. Each boy faces extraordinary challenges in his new role, and together they must figure out how to save the kingdom from an evil Captain who wants the throne for himself!

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Disney Animation Collection 1: Mickey & Beanstalk

Embark on magical adventures in this DISNEY ANIMATION COLLECTION DVD, part of an exciting series of classic Disney short films! Your favorite Disney characters star in “Mickey And The Beanstalk,” the imaginative telling of a beloved storybook tale! Based on the timeless adventures of “Jack and the Beanstalk,” Mickey, Donald and Goofy climb a fantastic beanstalk up into the sky to a place where everything is huge — the food, the castle and the fearsome giant named Willy who guards a beautiful golden harp! Will Mickey and his friends outwit the giant and make it safely back home?

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Swiss Family Robinson (Vault Disney Collection) (1960)

The Disney touch is all over this grand, colorful version of the Johann Wyss adventure of a European family set off for the new world of New Guinea. The film opens on a ship jostled and torn by a raging storm while a family struggles to make it through alive. Tossed into a reef near a deserted tropical island, father John Mills takes charge and the family soon turns their island prison into a veritable paradise. Their multilevel tree house, built in record time, is complete with running water and a working pipe organ scavenged from the ship, while their grand yard is abloom in English roses. As a tale of hardship and pioneer pluck, the tale is pure fantasy, but as entertainment it’s energetic and appealing. The island is impossibly populated by ostriches, zebras, lions, and elephants, a private zoo that delights the youngest boy and offers plenty of comic relief. The two older brothers discover even wilder life when they rescue the prisoner of oriental pirates (led by har (more…)

Disney Animation Collection 2: Three Little Pigs

Experience a unique telling of one of your favorite storybook tales in this DISNEY ANIMATION COLLECTION DVD, part of an adventure-filled series of classic Disney short films! Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf? “Not I!” answer the first two brothers as they build their new homes — one made of hay and the other of sticks. But when the wolf huffs and puffs and blows down their houses, the brothers seek protection in the third pig’s house, very wisely made of bricks. Will the three little pigs finally be safe, once and for all?

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Disney Animation Collection 6: The Reluctant Dragon

This lighthearted story follows the adventures of a brave young boy who, emboldened by tales of brave knights, decides to pursue the horrible dragon that is terrifying the villagers. But what he discovers is a surprisingly friendly dragon that is more interested in reciting poetry and making music than devouring fair damsels. With the boy be able to stop the local hero before he challenges the draagon to a fiery battle?

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Disney Animation Collection 4: Tortoise & The Hare

Join the excitement as unlikely competitors Max Hare and Toby Tortoise challenge each other to a foot race. Max is so confident he will win, he takes time out to flirt with some cute bunnies, show off his skills in other sports and break for a nap. But when he hears the crowd roar for Toby, who has slowly and steadily kept to the course, Max must make a last minute dash for victory. Will hte ever persistent Toby beat him across the finish line?

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Disney Animation Collection 5: Wind in the Willows

Join the adventures along the riverbanks as one of the most enchanting storybooks of all time comes to life with classic Disney animation. Mr. J. Thaddeus Toad has got himself into a bit of trouble from buying fancy new cars and dealing with some weasely weasels. Now his beloved home, Toad Manor is at risk of being lost. It will take the help of his dear friends Ratty, Moley, and Angus MacBadger and a promise to change his ways for Mr. Toad to set things right.

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Pinocchio (Disney Gold Classic Collection) (1940)

This Disney masterpiece from 1940 will hold up forever precisely because it doesn’t restrain or temper the most elementalemotions and themes germane to its story. Based on the Collodi tale about a wooden puppet who wants to become a real boy, Pinocchio is among the most magical, mythical, and frightening films to come from the studio in its long history. A number of scenes make permanent impressions on young minds (just ask Steven Spielberg, who quoted the film more than once in Close Encounters of the Third Kind), and the songs (”When You Wish upon a Star”) can’t be beat. –Tom Keogh

Disney’s second full length movie after Snow White. Delightful, hand-drawn images.

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Pete’s Dragon (Disney Gold Classic Collection) (1977)

Disney loved to mix live action with animation (Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks), but this 1977 effort falls on its face. The turn-of-the-century story concerns an orphaned boy whose only friend is a cartoon monster. While the latter is entertainingly rendered, the rest of the film strains to be enchanting and the cast overreaches in a big way. Not for anybody over the age of ten. –Tom Keogh

Pete, a young orphan, runs away to a Maine fishing town with his best friend–a lovable, sometimes invisible dragon named Elliott! When they are taken in by a kind lighthouse keeper, Nora (Helen Reddy), and her father (Mickey Rooney), Elliott’s prank playing lands them in big trouble. Then, when crooked salesmen try to capture Elliott for their own gain, Pete must attempt a daring rescue.

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