February 12, 2005

Walt Disney Treasures Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond

Walt Disney Treasures - Tomorrowland: Disney in Space and Beyond, a 2 DVD set, is a huge treat on multiple levels. Ward Kimball's animation in the 1950s space episodes is stunning, and I have been taking screengrabs* of the cartoons to save in my swipe file. (Click thumbnails for enlargement.)

The scientific explanations of spaceflight by rocket luminaries like Werner von Braun are well presented, and they make use of little rocket models that are so neat I would consider killing someone to get my hands on them.

I highly recommend the other Walt Disney Treasure series DVDs, too. They're 2 DVD sets in metal cases and they represent the cream of Disney animation and television. Most of them have over three hours worth of material on them, and I think they're a bargain. I have Silly Symphonies, Black and White Mickey Mouse, Color Mickey, and several others. My 7-year-old and I watch them over and over again. The only one I don't really recommend is the Goofy set, because they skipped the really early black and white stuff (from the Clarabelle Cow and Horace Horsecollar era) and included a lot of the weak "no-ears" Goofy cartoons. I can't deal with a Goofy speaking in a clipped British accent. It's even worse than when Snoopy became bipedal.)

*Mac OS X doesn't let you take screen grabs when you are running the DVD Player. I'm not going to waste keystrokes comment on the idiocy of this other than to say you can screen grab to your heart's content if you play DVDs using the open source VLC media player.

UPDATE: David wrote about this DVD for BB last year! Link

UPDATE 2:". . . they make use of little rocket models that are so neat I would consider killing someone to get my hands on them."

Stefan sez: "No need for that young man!" (you can buy the model kits here and here)

"I built the 'Lunar Lander' and have started pre-painting the 'Space Taxi.' The 1940s space men listed here were the subject of an essay by William Gibson. I gave him a couple from my set at a signing."

UPDATE 3: A reader sez: "I find DVD Capture to be useful with Apple's DVD player."

Link