Anger Management Issues in Toon Town

FOUR DISNEY DISCS Just in time for the Christmas rush (but not in time for me to digest them sufficiently), Buena Vista's Walt Disney arm, with its array of white DVD keep cases, released a whole bunch of Walt Disney Treasures, its series of classics contained in tin cans. This season brought anthologies of cartoons and a whole MICKEY MOUSE CLUB serial.

You think it's easy to watch a whole bunch of cartoons in a short amount of time? Not on your life. For one thing, they are short. So if your mind wanders or you get distracted by a 'phone call or an email, the next thing you know the cartoon is over and you have to rewind and endure the durée of it all over again.

Also, cartoons tend to have a shrill sound that most of us remember from Saturday morning. These old Disney's aren't as bad as the mechanically surreal and beeping sounds of modern Saturday morning shows and anime, but still they can jangle nerves after four-plus hours.

Also, you really have to like cartoons, or at least old cartoons, especially the look of the old Disneys, because the content tends to be middlebrow, anodyne, conservative, and pedantic. It's all about life lessons. I'm not the biggest cartoon fan in the world to begin with, and never have been. But cartoons do have one virtue, which allows me to submit to their peculiarly cheerful form torture on behalf of loyal MoviePoopShoot readers: they are short.

Watching 31 Donald Duck cartoons in a row is not as onerous as watching a bunch of Road Runner cartoons, which essentially run together in one endless chain of Canis latrans frustration, interrupted only by the commercial exigencies of the seven minute time limit. In WALT DISNEY TREASURES: THE CHRONOLOGICAL DONALD, VOLUME TWO, 1942 - 1946 (Disney DVD, two discs, $32.99, full frame, DD Surround, French language track, released on Tuesday, December 6, 2005) we chart the development of the Donald character through probably the height of his career, the war years, a "controversial" set of 'toons because of the animators' parodies of European and Asian enemies at the time.

Introduced in 1934, Donald Duck is commonly viewed Freudianly as the unrestrained id force to Mickey Mouse's happy super ego. But there is a less archaic or at least more practical way of looking at Donald Duck. He's the then-modern version of the kinds of characters and situations found in old silent comedy shorts, which cartoons more or less supplanted with both the coming of sound and the dominance of the feature length film. Donald is the Buster Keaton 2.0, a common man eternally thwarted by mechanical objects (that Donald's conception reveals a primary misunderstanding of Keaton's persona is too complicated to get into here). Donald is Disney's bid to entertain the adult males in the audience, his gesture at an Everyman figure to whom overworked urban family men can identify, especially in his relationship to tools and merchandise, a comic interpretation of middle class American's dealing with the explosion of household goods and material at the height of the post-Industrial age.

At root there is no consistency to the Donald Duck character. What I mean is that he has no standard job or secure identity. A cartoon begins and Donald is revealed as a bell-hop, a lighthouse keeper, a park ranger. How did he get these jobs? How could he possibly qualify for such important positions given his physical incompetence (or at least the conspiracy of objects against him)? Donald, we are given to understand, is a nomad, a drift, a post-depression memory of a hobo, finding whatever job he can in the vastness of America. (Donald is a much more consistent figure in the comic books by Carl Barks, who is given a touching and wonderful tribute in one of the supplements on disc two of this set.)

With the integration of Donald into the war effort, there is much more consistency to both his character and career and a rational direction for his rage. Up until now, he had been something of an ur-Jerry Lewis, childish and explosive, if also unisexual (Daisy doesn't appear too often here). With the focus of the war, Donald becomes an Everyman shorn of his selfish rage and now apart of the war machine, existing to figure in parables about the threat of Nazism, as in " Der Fuehrer's Face," a Rod Serling style tale of Donald dreaming that he is trapped in Nazi Germany.

Before the war, the attitude toward him by his creators (vocalist Clarence Nash and usually director Jack King) was odd. In cartoons such as " Donald's Garden," our duck's hard work at supplying food stuffs for the world is thwarted and destroyed by a chipmunk or mole who consumes it all. The cartoon is more inclined to celebrate the anarchic spirit of the chipmunk than our Donald. This is a curious attitude that you run into frequently with these cartoons and its very puzzling, and unexpected from the didactic, status quo obsessed Disney.

For the record, the cartoons on the disc are: "Der Fuehrer's Face," January 1, 1943, "Donald Duck and the Gorilla," March 31, 1944, "Donald's Snow Fight," April 10, 1942, "Commando Duck," June 2, 1944, "Donald Gets Drafted," May 1, 1942, "The Vanishing Private," September 25, 1942, "Bellboy Donald," December 18, 1942, "The Clock Watcher," January 26, 1945, "Donald's Gold Mine," July 24, 1942, "The Plastics Inventor," September 1, 1944, "Sky Trooper," November 6, 1942, "The Village Smithy," January 16, 1942, "Trombone Trouble," February 18, 1944, "Donald's Double Trouble," June 28, 1946, "Donald's Crime," June 29, 1945, "Duck Pimples," August 10, 1945, "Donald's Off Day," December 8, 1944, "The Old Army Game," November 5, 1943, "Donald's Tire Trouble," January 29, 1943 (probably the single most definitive Duck cartoon on this set, in which Donald exists outside the confines of space and time and resides solely in a sphere in which mechanical objects have a life of their own), "Fall Out-Fall in," April 23, 1943, "Home Defense," November 26, 1943, "Cured Duck," October 26, 1945, "No Sail," September 7, 1945, "Old Sequoia," December 21, 1945, "Donald's Garden," June 12, 1942, "Contrary Condor," April 21, 1944, "The Eyes Have It," March 30, 1945, "Dumb Bell of the Yukon," August 30, 1946, "Frank Duck Brings 'em Back Alive," November 1, 1946, "Wet Paint," August 9, 1946, "The Flying Jalopy," March 12, 1943, and "Lighthouse Keeping," September 20, 1946.

Supplements include "A Day In The Life Of Donald Duck," a segment from Disney's early DISNEYLAND prime time show, with Donald integrated into live action adventures with Nash and Jimmy, from the Mickey Mouse Club, "Drawing And Talking 'Duck' With Tony Anselmo," the aforementioned "The Art And Animation Of Carl Barks," a "Timeline: The War Years, 1941 to 1945, which gives a corporate history of the Disney studios at the time, an "Animation Art Gallery," and a "Publicity And Merchandise Gallery."

The whole shebang is introduced, guided, and endorsed by Leonard Maltin, and this introduces controversial issues of its own. Cartoon fan Al Lutz over at his website Mice Age.com, has raised serious questions about Maltin's role in these Disney Treasures tins, which began, it turns out, at Maltin's instigation. Though on the one hand one must be grateful to Maltin for insuring that Disney DVD is being thorough in its chronological cartoon issuings, Lutz argues that Disney and Maltin have "dropped the ball" on CHRONOLOGICAL DONALD and other discs under review here. He asserts that the new tins "were assembled for the most part using older, pre-DVD-era video sources," and attempts to show this through the "marked difference" in "the Donald set which repeats a few remastered shorts from a previous 'On The Front Lines' wartime collection and showcases them on a disc along with poor quality non-remastered material." Essentially, Mr. Lutz charges Maltin with minimizing his role as the series founder while allowing his endorsement to mask serious flaws of digital transfer and mild censorship that Mr. Lutz assumes that Maltin could prevent. I'm sure that at his site Mr. Lutz will keep us updated on further aspects of this case.

Leonard Maltin is also on hand to introduce and celebrate the first of the big serials that Disney broadcast on the MICKEY MOUSE CLUB, THE ADVENTURES OF SPIN AND MARTY: THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB (Disney DVD, 1955, two discs, $32.99, full frame, DD Surround, Tuesday, December 6, 2005). I'd never seen any of SPIN AND MARTY before. In the popular imagination it looms as large as the great Hardy Boys serial THE MYSTERY OF THE APPLEGATE TREASURE. In the lived experience it is a conventional tale of a city kid going to a dude ranch and learning key sociological lessons about courage and identity. Disney would go over much the same type of material a few years later in the first part of THE PARENT TRAP. In its life lesson approach to narrative it is not unlike most of the cartoons that Disney made.

The social Darwinism of the show is wearying after three hours-plus of little pseudo males pumping up their chests and reveling in the world of toughness and winning and fighting and horses and power. The plot concerns the arrival of young Martin Markham (David Stollery) to the Triple R ranch, run by an ex-Navel underling to Markham's deceased father. The presence of his own butler (J. Pat O'Malley) and Marty's patrician airs make him the subject of unreasoned hate. He is also a book reader, and thus even more anathema to the boys. Spin Evans (Tim Considine) is the natural hitlerjungen leader of these boys (God, the number of kids like him I've encountered!), and of course the plot consists of Spin teaching Marty the manly arts. I find the friendly rivalry and shared goals of the Hardy Boys much more congenial, as well as intellectually ambitious in a way that Spin and his followers abjure.

Still, it's cool to have the whole series in one spot, if only because it augurs the release of the two Hardy Boys serials some time in the next two or three years. Supplements include "Tim's screen test" (Considine was originally up for the Marty role), "Return to the triple R," with the now-adult boys, a "Behind-the-scenes still frame gallery," a "Merchandise and publicity" gallery, a "Memorial gallery," "Back In The Saddle With Harry Carey, Jr.," who played foreman Bill Burnett, and the episode of THE MICKEY MOUSE CLUB, #25, on November 4, 1955, that introduced THE ADVENTURES OF SPIN AND MARTY.

Probably the best of the batch of the new group of Disney Treasures (that I saw, anyway) is WALT DISNEY TREASURES: DISNEY RARITIES, CELEBRATED SHORTS, 1920S - 1960S (Disney DVD, 1923 - 1962, two discs, $32.99, full frame, Tuesday, December 6, 2005).

I can't believe that I didn't know this before but Disney got his real start with animated movies that include live action material featuring a girl named Alice, played at first by Virginia Davis. It financed his move from Kansas City to Hollywood. They are in black and white but betray a remarkable sophistication, if derived essentially from LITTLE NEMO IN SLUMBERLAND. Subsequent films appear to have divided themselves between straightforward comedic cartoons and uplifting or moralizing shorts. Among the best here are the short subjects on aspects of music and how it works.

For the record the shorts are: "Alice's Wonderland," with Virginia Davis, Walt Disney, Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, Ub Iwerks, directed by Walt Disney; "Alice's Wild West Show," with Virginia Davis, Leon Holmes, Spec O'Donnell, directed by Disney, March 1, 1924; "Alice's Egg Plant," with Anne Shirley, directed by Disney, April 3, 1925; "Alice Gets in Dutch," with Virginia Davis, David F. Hollander, Leon Holmes, Spec O'Donnell, Marjorie Sewell, directed by Disney, November 1, 1924; "Alice in the Jungle," with Virginia Davis, directed by Disney, December 15, 1925; "Alice the Whaler," with Lois Hardwick, directed by Disney, July 25, 1927; "Alice's Mysterious Mystery," with Margie Gay, directed by Disney, February 15, 1926; "Chicken Little" with Florence Gill, Clarence Nash, directed by Clyde Geronimi, December 17, 1943; "Ferdinand the Bull," with Don Wilson, Milt Kahl, directed by Dick Rickard, November 25, 1938; "Melody," directed by Ward Kimball, Charles A. Nichols, May 28, 1953; "A Symposium on Popular Songs," with Paul Frees, Gloria Wood, Billy Storm, Skip Farrell, Ray Bauduc, directed by Bill Justice, December 19, 1962; "Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom," with Bill Thompson, Thurl Ravenscroft, directed by Ward Kimball, Charles A. Nichols, November 10, 1953; "Ben and Me," with Sterling Holloway, Charles Ruggles, Hans Conried, Bill Thompson, directed by Hamilton Luske, November 11, 1953; "Lambert the Sheepish Lion," with Sterling Holloway, directed by Jack Hannah, February 8, 1952; "Noah's Ark," with Jerome Courtland, Paul Frees, James MacDonald, Thurl Ravenscroft, directed by Bill Justice, November 10, 1959; "Goliath II," with Sterling Holloway, directed by Wolfgang Reitherman, January 21, 1960; "Pigs Is Pigs," with Gary Owens, Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Thompson, directed by Jack Kinney, May 21, 1954; "The Truth About Mother Goose," with Page Cavanaugh, Page Cavanaugh Trio, John Dehner, directed by Bill Justice, Wolfgang Reitherman, August 28, 1957; "Paul Bunyan" with Thurl Ravenscroft, directed by Les Clark, August 1, 1958; "In the Bag," with Bill Thompson, directed by Jack Hannah, July 27, 1956; "A Cowboy Needs a Horse," directed by Bill Justice, November 6, 1956; "The Saga of Windwagon Smith," with Rex Allen, directed by Charles A. Nichols, March 16, 1961; "The Little House," directed by Wilfred Jackson, August 8, 1952; "The Brave Engineer," with Jerry Colonna, directed by Jack Kinney, March 3, 1950; "Morris the Midget Moose," directed by Charles A. Nichols, November 24, 1950; "Hooked Bear," with James MacDonald, Bill Thompson, directed by Jack Hannah, April 27, 1956; "The Pelican and the Snipe," directed by Hamilton Luske, January 7, 1944; "Jack and Old Mac," directed by Bill Justice, July 18, 1956; "The Story of Anyburg U.S.A.," with Hans Conried, Thurl Ravenscroft, Bill Thompson directed by Clyde Geronimi, June 19, 1957; "Football Now and Then," directed by Jack Kinney, October 2, 1953; and "Social Lion," directed by Jack Kinney, October 15, 1954.

Extras include a commentary by composer Richard Sherman on Symposium on Popular Songs, "Alice's Cartoon World," an interview between Maltin discusses Alice shorts star Virginia Davis, "From Kansas City to Hollywood," a corporate timeline," the TV commercial "A Feather in His Collar," and a still frame gallery.

In addition to these and a few other tin sets, BV also released WALT DISNEY'S TIMELESS TALES, VOLUME THREE (Disney DVD, 1934 - 1953, one disc, $19.95, full frame, DD Surround, French language track, Tuesday, January 3, 2006), a one-shot disc that gathers together some random short subjects from the same era. All of them have appeared on other discs. .

CASEY AT THE BAT has appeared on disc as a segment in MAKE MINE MUSIC. LITTLE HIAWATHA, from 1937, is also on the POCAHONTAS II DVD). THE WISE LITTLE HEN, Donald Duck's first appearance, in 1934, appears on THE CHRONOLOGICAL DONALD DUCK Volume 1. THE GOLDEN TOUCH (1935) is from the SILLY SYMPHONIES DVD tin. MORRIS THE MIDGET MOOSE (1950) and BEN AND ME (1953) appear simultaneously on the DISNEY RARITIES tin).

Again, all the shorts are little lessons in public conduct. The baseball batter is vain. King Midas is greedy. Good deeds are heralded, and MORRIS is a JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL type story about being different yet working together.

The disc has no extras.

D. K. Holm's 2006 Diary (Otherwise Known as a Blog)

Saturday, 31 December, 2005

Friday, January 6, 2006 : After a routine day at work I am lured out for an hour to the local bar by WT, in town for a few weeks from Los Angeles, his new domicile. WT regales me with tales of his life as an extra, stand in, and general set handyman, most of the stories sadly not repeatable here. Most amusing was his experience auditioning for a role on a Hallmark Channel mystery show, which sounded like the first scene in KISS KISS BANG BANG, and with him getting the part, too, just like Robert Downey. Though containing only three lines, he was that episode's villain and appears all though the ep. Most interesting to me was a particularly sad tale concerning a set visitation by members of a movie website that ended in the visitors being asked to leave, not because they did anything wrong, but because they were webheads. The story pointed out to me the fact that at this point writing for a website or for movie chatboards is still not the way to get into the movie business.

Saturday, January 7, 2006 My home town is known for a number of things: eccentric mayors, lethal beer, and street urchins who espy each other on the street corner and run toward each other loudly calling each other's name as a prelude to a theatrical hug, even though they've just seen each other some 15 minutes earlier. Another facet is loud people on the bus. A wide swath of Portlanders are apparently uninhibited about discussing the most intimate details of their life out loud in front of strangers in the closed confined space of a bus. And they don't even have to sit next to each other. They are happy to shout at each other across the length of the vehicle.

This morning I was treated to the tale of one Rich, who just got back from New York City. He was being queried by a heavyset woman who was delighted beyond all reason to see him. She pummeled him with questions, but rarely waited for the answers, probably because the banality of the questions was to be matched by their banal answers. It turns out that the buildings in Manhattan are really tall, the pizza is better there than here, Battery Park has lone lines to go see the Statue of Liberty, and downtown Portland seemed uninhabited in comparison to Manhattan. She kept interrupting him, until he got onto a story about his girlfriend, with whom he went to New York, was a bitch the whole time, and he proclaimed that he was breaking up with her as soon as he gets a better job and a little money. Unfortunately, I didn't hear the end of all this, as my stop was reached.

As I'm walking to work, for some reason I start pondering Stanley Kubrick and his approach to career management. I came up with the Stanley Kubrick Rules for Cult Status. They would include: 1) be super serious but at the same time sardonically witty; 2) make at least one primo science fiction film (if you do, the geeks will be your slave forever, regardless of what subjects you take on afterwards); 3) have a fetish for warriors; 4) be at the cutting edge of all new technology (it makes me sad to think that Kubrick missed out on the WWW, Tivo, podcasting, bittorrent, et cetera); 5) and most important, favor independence even at the expense of productivity.

And incidentally, if you are interested in KILL BILL, you might find my new book, KILL BILL: AN UNOFFICIAL CASEBOOK useful. It is now available in fine bookstores everywhere, or from Amazon.

Not only that, I've got a new book out on an aspect of film noir I call film soleil, titled simply FILM SOLEIL. It is sure to alter film criticism as we know it to its very core. Order it now!

And if you are interested in what I sound like, I can be heard on KBOO radio (90.7 FM) the second and the fourth Wednesday of the month, at 9 AM in the morning (Pacific Standard Time) on Ed Goldberg's show MOVIE TALK along with Dawn Taylor. It's available via streaming audio (in 20 Kbps Stereo). The next broadcast is Wednesday, January 11, at 9 AM, with the critics' ten best lists.

COMING SOON:A package of Hitchcock movies and TV shows, FLIGHTPLAN and REDEYE, DEAD AND BREAKFAST, REMINGTON STEEL and other TV mystery shows, many STAR TREKS, the third annual DVD Tray of Horror, and more!

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