Otto Englander Movies

At the invitation of Walt Disney himself, erudite cartoon genius Professor Ludwig Von Drake takes over the hosting chores in this episode. Using clips from earlier Disney animated shorts for illustration purposes, Prof. Von Drake explains mankind's need to hunt, all the while conducting his own "hunt" for his missing glasses. Seen herein for the first time is Von Drake's loyal assistant and general factotum, Herman the Bootle Beetle. Although "The Hunting Instinct" was never rebroadcast on Walt Disney's Wondeful World of Color, the episode was later released theatrically overseas, and extensively excerpted in the 1982 Disney's Wonderful World installment "Man's Hunting Instinct." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Once again, Disneyland host Walt Disney turns the program over to the Slave of the Mirror (played by Hans Conried), a character first introduced in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This time, the Slave expounds upon his favorite topic, the combination of music and "magic" (specifically cartoon magic). What follows is a mosaic of musical sequences lifted from several past Disney cartoon features. Highlights include Beethoven's "Pastoral Symphony" from Fantasia (1940); "Bumble Boogie", orchestra leader Freddie Martin's interprestion of "Flight of the Bumble Bee", from Melody Time (1948); and, from the same film, "Once Upon a Wintertime", sung by Frances Langford. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

"To the South Pole for Science" is the last in a trio of Disneyland episodes commemorating Operation Deepfreeze, Antarctica's contribution to the International Geophysical Year of November, 1956 to February 1957. During this period, five naval bases are established, with the Disney camera crew living and working along with the United States' Navy Task Force 43, and dutifully recording all scientific findings made by the military personnel. Also shown are the many obstacles and challenges which faced the explorers, among them a huge ice shelf and a network of treacherous crevasses. In 1958, "To the South Pole for Science" was combined with the previous episodes "Antarctica--Past and Present" and "Antarctica--Operation Deepfreeze", and released theatrically as the documentary featurette Seven Cities of Antarctica. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lon McCallister is the Boy From Indiana in this pleasant horse-racing yarn. Lon Decker (McCallister) comes to the rescue of Texas Dandy, a champion quarter-mile racehorse who is being abused by his avaricious owner (George Cleveland). After various and sundry adventures--including a hair-raising episode with a wild bull--Decker rides Texas Dandy in a crucial, plot-solving Big Race. Lois Butler co-stars as the girl in Lon's life, while Billie Burke goes through her dithery repertoire as a high-society horse fancier. As can be expected, Boy From Indiana is at its best during the racetrack scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Fantasia, Walt Disney's animated masterpiece of the 1940s, grew from a short-subject cartoon picturization of the Paul Dukas musical piece The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Mickey Mouse was starred in this eight-minute effort, while the orchestra was under the direction of Leopold Stokowski. Disney and Stokowski eventually decided that the notion of marrying classical music with animation was too good to confine to a mere short subject; thus the notion was expanded into a two-hour feature, incorporating seven musical selections and a bridging narration by music critic Deems Taylor. The first piece, Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor", was used to underscore a series of abstract images. The next selection, Tschiakovsky's "Nutcracker Suite", is performed by dancing wood-sprites, mushrooms, flowers, goldfish, thistles, milkweeds and frost fairies. The Mickey Mouse version of "Sorcerer's Apprentice" is next, followed by Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring", which serves as leitmotif for the story of the creation of the world, replete with dinosaurs and volcanoes. After a brief jam session involving the live-action musicians comes Beethoven's "Pastorale Symphony", enacted against a Greek-mythology tapestry by centaurs, unicorns, cupids and a besotted Bacchus. Ponchielli's "Dance of the Hours" is performed by a Corps de Ballet consisting of hippos, ostriches and alligators. The program comes to a conclusion with a fearsome visualization of Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain", dominated by the black god Tchernobog (referred to in the pencil tests as "Yensid", which is guess-what spelled backwards); this study of the "sacred and profane" segues into a reverent rendition of Schubert's "Ave Maria". Originally, Debussy's "Clair de Lune" was part of the film, but was cut from the final release print; also cut, due to budgetary considerations, was Disney's intention of issuing an annual "update" of Fantasia with new musical highlights and animated sequences. A box-office disappointment upon its first release (due partly to Disney's notion of releasing the film in an early stereophonic-sound process which few theatres could accommodate), Fantasia eventually recouped its cost in its many reissues. For one of the return engagements, the film was retitled Fantasia Will Amaze-ya, while the 1963 reissue saw the film "squashed" to conform with the Cinemascope aspect ratio. Other re-releases pruned the picture from 120 to 88 minutes, and in 1983, Disney redistributed the film with newly orchestrated music and Tim Matheson replacing Deems Taylor as narrator. Once and for all, a restored Fantasia was made available to filmgoers in 1990. A sequel, Fantasia 2000, was released in theaters in 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It was called "Disney's Folly." Who on earth would want to sit still for 90 minutes to watch an animated cartoon? And why pick a well-worn Grimm's Fairy Tale that every schoolkid knows? But Walt Disney seemed to thrive on projects which a lesser man might have written off as "stupid" or "impossible". Investing three years, $1,500,000, and the combined talents of 570 artists into Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Disney produced a film that was not only acknowledged a classic from the outset, but also earned 8,500,000 depression-era dollars in gross rentals. Bypassing early temptations to transform the heroine Snow White into a plump Betty Boop type or a woebegone ZaSu Pitts lookalike, the Disney staffers wisely made radical differentiations between the "straight" and "funny" characters in the story. Thus, Snow White and Prince Charming moved and were drawn realistically, while the Seven Dwarfs were rendered in the rounded, caricatured manner of Disney's short-subject characters. In this way, the serious elements of the story could be propelled forward in a believable enough manner to grab the adult viewers, while the dwarfs provided enough comic and musical hijinks to keep the kids happy. It is a tribute to the genius of the Disney formula that the dramatic and comic elements were strong enough to please both demographic groups. Like any showman, Disney knew the value of genuine horror in maintaining audience interest: accordingly, the Wicked Queen, whose jealousy of Snow White's beauty motivates the story, is a thoroughly fearsome creature even before she transforms herself into an ancient crone. Best of all, Snow White clicks in the three areas in which Disney had always proven superiority over his rivals: Solid story values (any sequence that threatened to slow down the plotline was ruthlessly jettisoned, no matter how much time and money had been spent), vivid etched characterizations (it would have been easier to have all the Dwarfs walk, talk and act alike: thank heaven that Disney never opted for "easy"), and instantly memorable songs (Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, Paul J. Smith and the entire studio music department was Oscar-nominated for such standards-to-be as "Whistle While You Work" and "Some Day My Prince Will Come"). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi