Don DaGradi
The inimitable VW Beetle is losing all his races and destined for the scrap heap until mechanic Hank takes him over and gives him a new lease of life. Soon, Herbie is winning again, to the fury of his previous owner, who builds a menacing black bug to challenge Herbie to the ultimate race.
Three children evacuated from London during World War II are forced to stay with an eccentric spinster (Eglantine Price). The children's initial fears disappear when they find out she is in fact a trainee witch.
Herbie is a car - but no ordinary car. The story follows the Volkswagen Beetle with a mind of its own from the showroom to the race track, with various close escapes in between. Three further Herbie movies were to follow.
Peter Ustinov stars as the eponymous wraith, who returns to Earth to aid his descendant, elderly Elsa Lanchester (Stowecroft). The villains want to kick Lanchester and her friends out of their group home so that they can build a crooked casino. Good guy Steve Walker (Jones) gets caught in the middle of the squabble after evoking Blackbeard's ghost.
Lt. Robin Crusoe is a navy pilot who bails out of his plane after engine trouble. He reaches a deserted island paradise where he builds a house and begins to adjust to life. He is in for trouble however when a local girl is banished to the island by her father, who then comes after Crusoe.
A magical nanny employs music and adventure to help two neglected children become closer to their father.
Two identical twin sisters, separated at birth by their parents' divorce, are reunited years later at a summer camp, where they scheme to bring their parents back together. The girls, one of whom has been living with their mother and the other with their father, switch places after camp and go to work on their plan, the first objective being to scare off a gold-digger pursuing their father.
A beautiful princess born in a faraway kingdom is destined by a terrible curse to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep that can only be awakened by true love's first kiss. Determined to protect her, her parents ask three fairies to raise her in hiding. But the evil Maleficent is just as determined to seal the princess's fate.
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.
Casey Jones is one of the best engineers there is and it is his duty to get his cargo to its destination on time via train. He sets off but is set back by a number of unfortunate circumstances such as a rain storm, a cow on the tracks, a mad bomber, and finally, when his train starts falling apart. Worst of all, he is on a collision course with another train coming in the opposite direction. After a terrific crash, the man at the train station assumes the worst when Casey doesn't show up but, to his delight, Casey finally makes it to his destination a total wreck but on time (almost).
A crowd gathers at the skating rink to watch the big championship hockey game of the Pelicans versus the Aardvarks. Although referee "Clean Game" Kinney does his best to supervise, the hockey game really gets out of hand eventually. Two star players, Bertino and Ferguson, are so anxious, they never get let out of the penalty box, referee Kinney is never able to drop the puck without being physically hurt somehow, and the spectators themselves are so worked into the game, they take out their aggression on the ice while the players relax in the bleachers.
Donald has an unpleasant evening when a mysterious book salesman comes to his door then disappears leaving Donald with a collection of whodunnit novels. He reads one and gets so fully involved in it that it appears that the characters are actually coming out of the book and into his living room getting him involved in the murder caper. Finally the author of the book, J. Harold King, steps forth and claims Donald innocent. The characters return to the novel from whence they came leaving Donald wondering if it was really just his "imagination"
For Donald's birthday he receives a box with three gifts inside. The gifts, a movie projector, a pop-up book, and a pinata, each take Donald on wild adventures through Mexico and South America.
A marching band of Germans, Italians, and Japanese march through the streets of swastika-motif Nutziland, serenading "Der Fuehrer's Face." Donald Duck, not living in the region by choice, struggles to make do with disgusting Nazi food rations and then with his day of toil at a Nazi artillery factory. After a nervous breakdown, Donald awakens to find that his experience was in fact a nightmare.
Goofy demonstrates yet another pasttime, fishing. This humorous little film was one of a large number of pseudo-educational cartoons produced by Disney between 1940 and 1953 to feature Goofy at his most bumbling and inarticulate. A few tidbits of actual knowledge may be gleaned amid the laughs, however, as the narration discusses when to fish, fishing fever, where to fish, the trout, how to approach the stream, fly fishing, casting the lure and lake fishing. John McLeish narrates in his best documentarian manner.
