Early Disney cartoons on BluRay

Post by **Christopher Jacobs** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 2:21 pm

Of course SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS (1937) was just released on a lovely hi-definition BluRay disc this Tuesday, but there's more! Some of the disc reviews mention one or more of the Silly Symphonies included on the bonus BluRay disc. There are, in all, actually eight classic Disney short cartoons from 1928-1937, more than an hour's worth, hidden away among the bonus feature about Disney's Hyperion Studios. Unfortunately they're not all accessible on one simple menu and cannot be played with a "play all" option, but it's still nice to have really good copies of them.

They're not all quite as sharp throughout as the SNOW WHITE transfer, and oddly, like the feature itself, everything is in a 60p format rather than the expected 24p frame rate most BluRays use for film transfers. I'm guessing at least some of the shorts may have been simply upscaled from standard-definition transfers. Still, it's a treasure-trove of the key cartoons plus a few others, and all look very good to excellent.

Titles included are:
STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928) --uncut this time, for a change!!
THE SKELETON DANCE (1929)
FLOWERS AND TREES (1932)
BABES IN THE WOODS (1932) a Hansel & Gretel story
PLAYFUL PLUTO (1934)
GODDESS OF SPRING (1934)
MUSIC LAND (1935)
THE OLD MILL (1937)

The latter two are almost worth the price of the entire 3-disc set by themselves, because between this Tuesday and this Saturday you can get the whole 3-disc set (the third disc is a regular DVD of the feature with some bonus features) for only $10 with a $10-off coupon downloadable through Disney's website (combined with Walmart's $20 sale price) or through Amazon with their own electronic coupon!

Definitely a must-own for any collector.

--Christopher Jacobs
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