The Story of the Animated Drawing
Walt Disney discusses the history of animation, beginning with J. Stuart Blackton and his Humorous Phases of Funny Faces in 1906, and including Gertie the Dinosaur.
Casts & Crew
Walt Disney
Leopold Stokowski
Oliver Wallace
Émile Reynaud
Also Directed by Wilfred Jackson
With the grand opening of Disneyland just a matter of days away, Walt Disney brings us an update on the construction of the new magic kingdom. Winston Hibler narrates scenes depicting the construction on the attarctions and settings in the park as work speeds up to meet the deadline before opening day.
Lady, a golden cocker spaniel, meets up with a mongrel dog who calls himself the Tramp. He is obviously from the wrong side of town, but happenings at Lady's home make her decide to travel with him for a while.
Leaving the safety of their nursery behind, Wendy, Michael and John follow Peter Pan to a magical world where childhood lasts forever. But while in Neverland, the kids must face Captain Hook and foil his attempts to get rid of Peter for good.
Live-action segments show members of the Disney staff touring South America and recording their impressions in sketches. These segue into four animated sections: "Lake Titicaca" depicts tourist Donald Duck's troubles with a stubborn llama; and in "Aquarela do Brasil," Jose Carioca shows Donald the sights and sound of Rio de Janeiro.
José Carioca, showing Donald Duck around South America and introducing him to the samba
A spider gets lost inside the sphinx.
An old plate tells the tale of the Emperor of China, whose palace was disrupted by some children.
A narrator sings the opening stanzas of the classic poem while we see the house at rest. Santa lands on the roof, comes down the chimney, and opens his bag. The toys march out and decorate the tree, with the toy soldiers shooting balls from their cannon, a toy airplane stringing a garland like skywriting, and the toy firemen applying snow. A blimp delivers the star to the top. Meanwhile, Santa fills the stockings. His laughter awakens the children, who sneak out. The toys rush to their places, and Santa escapes up the chimney just in time.
Also Directed by William Beaudine
The Great McGonigle and his troupe of third-rate vaudevillians manage to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors and the sheriff.
A teenage girl from a traditional family goes on a date with a pilot and ends up having sex with him. After the pilot dies in a plane crash, the girl discovers she is pregnant with his child.
A comedy short featuring Mildred Davis
Dr. Frankenstein's Granddaughter Maria, and her brother assistant Rudolph, moved to the old west because the lightning storms there are more frequent and intense, which allows them to work on the experiments of their grandfather. But the experiments are failing and Rudolph's been secretly killing the corpses afterwards. Meanwhile, the Lopez family leaves the town because of the evil going on there
In order to learn the location of a fabled Aztec treasure, a professor kidnaps his colleague, the only man able to read the ancient Aztec script that is supposed to reveal the location of the treasure. Charlie Chan and his #1 and #2 sons journey to the jungles of Mexico to find the victim and bring the kidnapper and his gang to justice.
The East Side Kids try to fix up a house for newlyweds, but find the place next door "haunted" by mysterious men.
Evil Mr.Grimes keeps a rag-tag bunch orphans on his farm deep in a swamp in the US South. He forces them to work in his garden and treats them like slaves. They are watched over by the eldest, Molly. A gang in league with Mr. Grimes kidnaps Doris, the beautiful little daughter of a rich man, and hides her out on Grimes' farm, awaiting ransom. When the police close in, and Mr. Grimes threatens to throw Doris into the bottomless mire, Molly must lead her little flock out through the alligator-infested swamp.
Dracula travels to the American West, intent on making a beautiful ranch owner his next victim. Her fiance, outlaw Billy the Kid, finds out about it and rushes to save her.
One of the Bowery Boys gains superhuman strength, and he cashes in by becoming a pro wrestler.
After the superstardom and early death of Bruce Lee, 20th Century Fox decided to cobble together a couple of theatrical feature films from this property, of which this 1974 effort is the first. The bulk of the film consists of four episodes crudely spliced together. Scattered throughout are bizarrely irrelevant fight scenes from other episodes, which make the already disjointed plotting quite surreal. The television image was cropped to make a widescreen film, which means the tops of heads and hats are lopped off the frame with alarming regularity.