In my quest to watch all of Disney's films chronologically, I have to say that this was the first I actually kind of liked. It starts out in black and white with a woman reading a children's story, and she says that it would make a great Disney picture. The woman and the man then travel to the Disney Studio, where he takes a tour around the place while trying to meet Walt Disney. When the tour happens, it then switches to colour. It's good because it gives you a sort of idealized sense of what it took to make animation back in those days. And the way that animation is explained is quite clever. There's one scene where Donald Duck comes to life and explains how he is moving, which caused me to chuckle. There's another scene where a classically trained opera singer is about to sing and duck noises come out of her throat. So that's also fun. The film is a bit marred by its history. There are a few racist caricatures inside the film, and it was released during a time when animators who worked for Walt Disney were on strike. There's probably no better depiction of the process of producing animation from its time. So I highly, not reluctantly, recommend it.
Review of The Reluctant Dragon
