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3 new Walt Disney Treasures DVD collections slated for release

February 21st, 2008 by Scott Marks

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Destino (2003)

The Disney Vault is once again ajar. Walt Disney Home Entertainment announced the new lineup for their highly coveted Walt Disney Treasures collection. The year’s releases include Chronological Donald, Vol. 4, Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow and Destino.

The latest Donald Duck anthology will showcase the tail end of the irascible Mr. Duck’s career. The 31 cartoons in the set were produced between 1951 and 1961 and include all of Don’s CinemaScope shorts presented in their original widescreen aspect ratio for the first time on video.

Later period Donald, particularly when teamed with chipmunks or nephews, is not exactly the duck that laid the golden egg. A complete list of titles has yet to be issued, but for sentimental reasons, I sure hope they include Donald in Mathmagic Land and Donald and the Wheel. My first and only viewing of these shorts was at the Roosevelt Theater in downtown Chicago. I was six at the time and am still curious to understand why my parents made be don a sport coat and tie to see a couple of cartoons.

Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow first aired as three separate episodes on Disney’s weekly TV show under the title The Scarecrow of Romney Marsh, was later edited for theatrical releases in England and the U.S. This DVD set includes all three of the original TV episodes plus the theatrical version of the film that was released in England. Never had any interest in Dr. Syn. With the exception of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, live-action Disney, particularly the stuff produced for TV, is anathema.

There’s gold to be mined in the Destino set. It all began in 1946 as a collaboration between Uncle Walt and famed surrealist painter Salvador Dali and was originally intended as a newfashioned experimental work to be included in a compilation film. Disney and Dali met in 1945 at a dinner party hosted by Jack Warner. At the time, Dali was working on the dream sequence from Alfred Hitchcock’s Spellbound. The two artists expressed mutual admiration and it wasn’t long before they came up with the project.

Fifteen seconds of footage was produced before the short was abandoned due to financial constraints. Walt’s nephew Roy E. Disney rediscovered the project while making Fantasia/2000 and this meeting of legends finally saw the light of day in 2003.

It’s a stunning 7 minute short, easily the best work of animation the studio has attached its name to this decade. Destino played the festival circuit and was eventually picked up by Landmark Theaters and shown as a short subject before The Triplets of Belleville. Their press release described the film as “set to a Spanish song, devoid of dialogue and without a linear story line. It follows a dark-eyed ballerina on a journey among strange objects through a desert landscape in a dreamlike atmosphere. It is a love story as only Dali could envision it, complete with images of ballerinas, baseball players, melting clocks, tuxedo-clad eyeballs, ants that turn into bicyclists, and two giant heads carried on the backs of the Fates (represented as giant turtles.)”

How does a 7 minute cartoon justify a 2 DVD tin? Also included is an all-new feature-length documentary that examines the surprising partnership between Dali and Disney plus two new featurettes; “The Disney That Almost Was,” an examination of the studio’s unfinished projects; and “Encounters with Walt,” which addresses the surprisingly diverse group of celebrities and artists who were attracted to Walt Disney’s early work.

All three collections are due to hit store shelves on November 11.

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UN CHIEN ANDALOU / Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali (1929)

November 13th, 2007 by Scott Marks

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UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1929)

Written and Directed by Luis Bunuel & Salvador Dali

Starring: Pierre Batcheff, Simone Mareuil, Salvador Dali as “The Seminarist” and Luis Bunuel as “Man With Razor”

Running Time: 18 min.

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1

Rating: ★★★★★

Luis Bunuel bookended his career with a straight razor slicing open an eyeball and civilization as we know it blowing up.

If ever a director ripped at our retinas and forced us to confront images that cause most normal folk to cringe and look the other way, it was Bunuel.

Un Chien Andalou was born when Bunuel told Salvador Dali of a dream he had in which a cloud sliced across the moon. Dali, too, had been having strange imaginings of late. His consisted of ants crawling from inside a hand.

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There was one rule when it came to writing the screenplay: The only thing the succession of images would have in common is the fact that they have nothing in common. Its purpose: to document desire and shock.

Un Chien Andalou caused a furor when it opened. Bunuel anticipated adversity and attended the premiere with pockets filled with rocks in case he had to ward off livid patrons.

After countless viewings, the film actually begins to make sense. Rely on recurring patterns and the film’s razor sharp (sorry) sense of humor to chart your path. Bunuel was a very funny man and not enough is written about his ability to convulse an audience with his pitch-black sense of humor. Perhaps the absurdity doesn’t register on an initial viewing and people are too creeped out to pay a return visit in search of laughter.

Fittingly enough, the only clinker in an otherwise spotless and splendid filmography is Bunuel’s version of Wuthering Heights which contains not so much as a smile.

UN CHIEN ANDALOU images

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