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DVD Review HTF REVIEW: Disney Treasures - On The Front Lines, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (1 Viewer)

Casey Trowbridg

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Apr 22, 2003
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A wonderful review, and this is the set I am most looking forward to getting and that's coming from a huge fan of Donald Duck. I love animation and I love history so I can't wait.
 

DaViD Boulet

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Feb 24, 1999
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Donald seems to be one of the primary characters used in many of these War-themed shorts. It didn't occur to me at the time but looking back on it, it's true.
 

Ernest Rister

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Oct 26, 2001
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Many reasons:

Donald has a temper, and therefore, he expressed the fighting spirit of the American people (as in Commando Duck, and the other Donald "private" shorts). Also, Mickey Mouse would never need convincing to pay his taxes on time (The New Spirit, Spirit of 43). Lastly, Donald was the most popular character by that time, and the struggling Disney studios were simply following the marketplace. That's why Donald also shows up so prominently for both Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, also created for the Coordinator of Inetr-Amercian Affairs (if you want to complete a "war films" set on DVD, Amigos and Caballeros are still available on DVD, although a shot in Amigos has been altered).
 

Chris*W

Stunt Coordinator
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Apr 14, 2004
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63
Great review, David. This set is my favorite out of Wave 3. The cartoons in the "From the Vaults" section look superb, and Leonard Maltin does a great job (as usual) putting these cartoons in their proper context. I've watched about 20 minutes of Victory Through Air Power, and what I've seen looks fantastic. The picture quality on this set is beautiful - Disney must have kept the elements in very good condition.
 

Erik*D

Auditioning
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May 3, 2004
Messages
7
Mine arrived yesterday from Amazon, I was really surprised at the Vault section, having only seen clips from Der Fuehrer's Face , I thought it looked very clean. Education For Death was pretty shocking. Tonight I hope to finish Disc 1 and get started on Disc 2.

-Erik
 

DaViD Boulet

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Feb 24, 1999
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Agreed. That one really had me gasping for air.

It's amazing that Disney had the guts to put this stuff out on DVD. Bravo to them and the folks working there who made this come together.
 

Chris Stainton

Second Unit
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Jan 16, 2004
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285
Der Fuehrer's Face and Education For Death were the only two I watched from it last night. Education was such an intense experience, I decided to go for something lighter and watched some of the Tomorrowland set.

Bravo to Disney for this set. These are historic films that I am very glad to have in my collection.
 

Keith Paynter

Screenwriter
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Mar 16, 1999
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After absorbing the bulk of the 2-disc set last night, I have to agree that the content is amazing. The animation of Victory Through Air Power is on par with the best of the Fleischer's realistically drawn Superman cartoons, and thoroughly fleshes out what was seen briefly in the closing half of The New Spirit (and its footage reused in The Spirit Of '43). It's unfortunate that hand-drawn animation realism of this calibre was never reached again.

I have seen countless 16mm and VHS dubs of Der Feuhrer's Face, Reason & Emotion, Education For Death andThe Spirit Of '43, and it is amazing how much better the vault materials are. Even the NFB content survives well, in spite of its sub-par on-model animating, and use of the Disney music stems.

Thank goodness the acceptance of DVD as a viable form of series collection has allowed this material to be made available to collectors and the general public. I hope Warner HV is paying attention to sales of this material and considers allowing discerning buyers to make their wartime output (as unflattering as some of it may be) available in such context as well.
 

Aaryn Chan

Supporting Actor
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Jul 5, 2002
Messages
511
Where are the marked numbers? I can't find them.

I just got a question, is Tomorrow Land a cartoon set?
 

Paul_Scott

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Jul 19, 2002
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looks to me like about 3/4 or more of TL is animation with the remainder being live-action footage.
but it's all good :)

Does Victory Thru AirPower feature any of the Disney characters like DD or MM or Goofy, etc?

about how much of OTFL features the typical Disney characters?
 

Aaryn Chan

Supporting Actor
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Jul 5, 2002
Messages
511
So which set of the Treasures contains cartoons? I've bought:

Mickey Color 1-2
Mickey Black & White
Donald
Goofy
Silly Simph
On The Front Lines

thinking only those have cartoons. So Tomorrow Land has cartoon too. Danm.
 

RafaelB

Second Unit
Joined
May 10, 2001
Messages
447
Behind the Scenes at Walt Disney Studios also has animated shorts (Reluctant Dragon and a Goofy short I don't recall the name).

Rafael.
 

Brad-blemansk

Auditioning
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May 19, 2004
Messages
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It also has a very cool segment called Baby Weens that is animated, somewhat:wink:

This is actually one of my favorite sets just because I generally love behind the scenes stuff. Check it out if you get a chance.
 

PaulP

Senior HTF Member
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Oct 22, 2001
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The Reluctant Dragon on the Behind the Scenes set is a feature, actually.



Most of the shorts on On the Front Lines feature Disney characters, mostly Donald.
 

DavidBL

Stunt Coordinator
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Apr 19, 2002
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204


Quite a bit, actually, mostly Donald, plus a smattering of Pluto and Goofy, Minnie Mouse, and even the Seven Dwarfs!

I haven't calculated it out but definitely more than 50% of the shorts have "high profile" Disney characters.

edit: Paul beat me by one minute. Well, now you have it from two sources. :)
 

Steven Wesley

Second Unit
Joined
Jan 30, 2002
Messages
291
Real Name
Steve
Question regarding some of the educational shorts on Disc 1.... they ones that deal with the "Department of Inter-American Affairs" or whatnot... who was the original target audience for these? They seem to be aimed at rural farmers in Central America. Lots of talk about healthy eating and building a good latrine. I'm curious as to their relation to the war effort.
 

Ernest Rister

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Oct 26, 2001
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4,148
"They seem to be aimed at rural farmers in Central America. Lots of talk about healthy eating and building a good latrine. I'm curious as to their relation to the war effort."

Hitler was making overtures to Central and South America, and an envoy suggested the Mexican Government join the Axis to "reclaim lost territories" in North America. The Goodwill / Good Neighbor policy was an effort to foster positive relations between the three Americas and combat Axis influence.

Besides the educational shorts seen on Front Lines, Disney produced two latin-American themed animated features - Saludos Amigos and the bold Three Caballeros. These were also part of the CIAA program, though Walt rejected the CIAA subsidy on both.
 

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