World Famous Comics: Walt Disney Legacy Collection - True Life Adventures, Vol. 1: Wonders Of The World
Walt Disney Legacy Collection - True Life Adventures, Vol. 1: Wonders Of The World
Starring: Winston Hibler Directed By: James Algar, Ben Sharpsteen Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: Unrated Binding: DVD Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: Walt Disney Video Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: December 05, 2006 Running Time: 169 minutes Theatrical Release Date: December 16, 1959
Description: Experience the wonder of Walt Disney's groundbreaking nature series for the first time on DVD! These acclaimed stories, fully restored to their orginal beauty, offer previously unseen looks inot the magical world of our animal friends. Enjoy a collection of Disney's award-winning TRUE-LIFE ADVENTURES, including "White Wilderness," "Water Birds," "Mysteries of the Deep," and many more. It's a marvelous compilation of animal-packed adventures that your whole family will adore!
Amazon.com: "Nature writes the screenplays," Walt Disney says of the pioneering nature documentaries that comprise this series, True Life Adventures.
Listen to our interview with director emeritus Roy E. Disney.
First released in the early '50s to the public's delight, these nature documentaries were unique in their lively, fictional narrative approach to the subjects' lives, which were recreated with anthropomorphic humor and zest. Even today, and maybe more so, hearing that beavers in Beaver Valley are "always stubborn, always persistent," or that the crayfish shovel mud like "miniature bulldozers" is heartening, reminding one that Disney is The Magical Kingdom. Even more heartening is it that these scientific films, made with the latest cameras and technology, were filmic landmarks, and contain footage that David Attenborough's film crews would only dream of getting; in Mysteries of the Deep, a dolphin gives birth and there are views of coral reef that may not even exist anymore. White Wilderness takes one through the Arctic tundra, a "world of frozen chaos," showing majestic animals alongside the lemming, with their strange, suicidal tendency to jump off cliffs. This DVD has an entire second disc of extras, including Volume One's, highlight: The Crisler Story, a behind-the-scenes look at the Crislers, a couple whose arduous trips to Alaska to film migrating caribou included building their own hut, growing veggies, and living amongst wolves and grizzlies. Also in the extras are interviews with other directors, like Beaver Valley's Elma Milotte and Lloyd Beebe of White Wilderness, to shed light upon these long lost classics. For those who love both scientifically enlightening nature films and fairy tales, True Life Adventures are perfectly balanced to please as much one's sense of fun as one's love of information. --Trinie Dalton
They teach kids to love nature I've read the criticisms of these sets, and agree that many scenes are probably staged, some to the detriment of the animals. However, the True Life adventures are well done and loved by children and adults. They are not preachy and they do not tell us of the evils of man. They simply encourage a love of nature and the wonderful world God has given us. Kids will hear about the way mankind has misused nature from other sources and because of the love of nature they developed, in part, from this series, perhaps they will be motivated to do something about it. I wish the execs at Disney would create more just like these.
movies/restoration excellent , but... packaging SUCKS big time! Disney did a marvelous job on restoring these nature classics, I get transported back to my childhood everytime I watch them. They are far more interesting than todays so called wild life shows, as they concentrate on the wild life and not some self centered celebrity host (no offence to the memory of the late great Steve Irwin). Now to the "but..." part. Does anyone else but me find that Disney did a LOUSY job on the packaging? Cheap cardboard and plastic containers, that cannot be displayed properly on a bookshelf with the other Disney Treasures! What was wrong with the original clamshell cases? I was thoroughly p.o'd with the packaging, however the movies are excellent. 5 out of 5, Packaging 1 out of 5!!!!
Disney Adventure DVD Could you rate it a 10 or 100. Who couldn't love Disney's True Adventures. Yes, there is even a whole channel for animal adventures now, but they were the first--and they were the best. They are pack in a great package; durable and imaginative. The added interviews and backstage scenes are great. I can remember seeing them on their program (in black and white) when I was in first grade. They are wonderful. It was a treat to learn about the couple who filmed them too. Spending years and years filming things they thought was funny or interesting. Then bringing them back and someone putting them together into a story that is loved forever. I have all four of them. And we watch them over and over.
Amazing Photography. Unfortunate choice for narration. The photography and artwork in these films is magnificent -- they capture nature in all of their technicolor glory, unlike many newer documentaries.
Unfortunately, Winston Hibler and his higher-ups at Disney never miss a chance to point out the obvious, they never allow the drama of nature to unfold...naturally. Slide-whistles, piccoloes, and any other instruments cue exactly which emotion a viewer should feel at any given moment. It's a great way to get kids to keep watching, but it also robs the footage and the animals themselves of their true nature. For me, a 33 year old man, it's frustrating.
Disney could have gone a different route and chosen a less "cutesy" narrator and it would have worked out much better. As is, kids will be spoon-fed the Disney version of nature's mysteries.
Walt Disney Legacy Collection - True Life Adventures, Vol. 1 Outstanding, brings back great memories from childhood and my kids love it.
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