Not quite what I was expecting, but I still liked it. This was an episode of the TV series Walt Disney’s Disneyland, which aired on ABC in the 50’s. Walt himself was the host; in this installment, he talked about animation. The hope by me was that there’d be more talk about the process-sadly, that wasn’t the case.
I understand the thrill at the time of seeing two full cartoons (the Alice Through the Looking Glass riff Thru the Mirror and Donald’s Cousin Gus), scenes from Fantasia & Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and even a deleted scene from Snow White on television; now, I can view all those separately-probably even that deleted, unfinished scene-elsewhere, I would have preferred more discussion on the animation process and its history. Alas… before anyone retorts, I do realize now that another episode (The Story of the Animated Drawing) sounds from description what I wanted from The Plausible Impossible.
I can’t get too mad at this. Truth be told, I’d also have preferred the words “implausible” and “impossible” not be used constantly but the new animation involving Donald Duck in a live-action world was nice and this program brought up various memories. Furthermore, there was still interesting information present-I was amused by the mentions of cartoon physics.
While it’s bittersweet knowing that my late mother watched Walt Disney’s Disneyland every week as a kid, Donald’s Cousin Gus (where Gus the Goose constantly ate, and consumed all of Donald’s food) I had on VHS as a kid and in a sign that perhaps I’m a little weird, most of the short was remembered by me despite the last viewing occurring sometime between 30 and 35 years ago. Thru the Mirror was new to me and was quite enjoyable as an acid-trip of a journey.
There is one last detail that was puzzling to me. Walt was discussing dragons and how the Chinese believed them… because dinosaurs? You see, he proclaimed that “perhaps” humans and dinosaurs lived at the same time… er, what? Was Walt Disney a Creationist?!
