Your Host Walt Disney - Got mine today and....

[Mac Daddy]

HOLY COW! The footage of Disneyland on this DVD is absolutely amazing. Included on the first disc is "Kodak Presents Disneyland '59" which features the Submarine fleet dedication ceremony, footage of a half built Matterhorn, and the cutting of the ribbon of the monorail. It begins with Art Linkletter with Walt and features the Neslon family (Ozzie and Harriet) doing a spiel for Kodak from Tom Sawyer's Island, a parade featuring groups and floats representing several different countries, Meredith Wilson conducting 76 trombones and the band, and more. (I just got it in the mail from Amazon about 30 minutes ago.) Has anyone else picked this up yet? VERY cool footage!

[PLAZAINN1]

I know I am getting mine for Christmas from my wife. I know there is one segment that is already on the Disneyland USA dvd, it's the Disneyland 10th Anniversary segment. Can't wait to get mine though.

I DID buy the Mickey Mouse Club - Hardy Boys series. Can't wait to see it when I get home from work.

[Neverlandtink]

I can't wait to get mine, but I'm pretty mad that they have the Disneyland Tencennial again, after featuring it on the Disneyland USA DVD. Double dipping!

[SpokkerJones]

So are there any edits or what?

[Mac Daddy]

Still watching it. Very ironic to watch the christening of the original submarine fleet when they are about to be relaunched as the Nemo subs.

[Wendygirl]

I bought mine today at Target. Good price, 24.99 same as Best Buy. Looking forward to the memories this will bring me.

[Mac Daddy]

I was kind of bummed to see the 10th anniversary show on here rather than something we haven't seen before. But maybe they're targeting a larger audience than they did with Disneyland USA. And there are a good number of people around who've never seen the 10th anniversary show as they only made a limited number of copies of Disneyland USA.

In any case, it's well worth the bucks if only for the '59 footage, as well as "Back Stage Party", "Where Do Stories Come From", and bonus material. I eat this stuff up as it brings back great memories of Wonderful World of Disney as a kid. '59 was a bit before my time, but how fun to see Walt with Art again and to see the park that young. I don't think the Bobsleds were up and running yet as they had no footage of that. Only a snazzy song and dance number to celebrate the first climbing of the Matterhorn.

And the commercials are almost as entertaining as the show! Ed Sullivan, Ozzie and Harriet, Art Linkletter....good stuff.

[Goin2DL]

I have been dropping hints all over the place. So, hopefully I will be getting this for christmas.

[filmfreak11]

I hasn't sure about Your Host, but I really wanted Silly Symphonies & Pluto (I think that's what it was). Not interested in Mickey Mouse Club. But I heard more and more about Your Host and I kinda want. Of course, I never get anything for my birthday and x-mas, so I'm gonna have to get em myself.

[disneytim]

Your Host, Walt Disney

I loved Your Host, Walt Disney, but I watched it with an odd combination of nostalgia and detachment. I've learned a lot about Walt since seeing The Wonderful World of Color as a kid, so although watching these early episodes (and hearing Dick Wesson's great voice over the opening credits) gives me a tingle from fond memories, I can't help but study Walt as the master showman and pitchman--Disney not as the "Uncle Walt" we grew up with, but as a product part and parcel with his movies, TV shows and theme parks. Watch the great interview with his daughter Diane on the DVD. Even she (consciously or not) refers to her father as "Walt," separating the televised public persona from the man she knew as Dad.

There are plenty of gems on the DVD. "Kodak Presents Disneyland '59" is by far the best. Thought to be lost in the years since its TV debut, it was cobbled together from original kinescopes and film footage buried in the Disney archives for presentation on the DVD. The christening of the Submarine fleet, the launching of the first Monorail (with then Vice President Richard Nixon), and the opening of the Matterhorn are all seminal moments in Disneyland history and a joy to watch. It's also a pleasure to see Art Linkletter return as co-host after the rocky Disneyland grand opening broadcast in 1955. Much had been learned about doing live television in those four years and Linkletter (despite a few minor continuity glitches) pulled it off like a pro.

The one segment I could do without is the "Backstage Party" episode, a cloying and gratuitous promotion of Disney's 1961 pic Babes in Toyland. Featuring much of the cast (Ray Bolger, Annette Funicello, Tommy Sands, Ed Wynn and others), it supposedly takes place at a wrap party for the movie with Walt holding court. It's so staged and the actor's performances so forced, however, it's positively painful to watch.

Still, nostalgia eventually wins out when watching this DVD. Seeing Walt Disney gush over his theme park when it was still new with so much yet to come will put a lump in any Disney geek's throat.

Don't forget, Your Host, Walt Disney is one of four new "Disney Treasures" 2-DVD sets released today. The rest include More Silly Symphonies (worth it for the shorts "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood" and "Three Orphan Kittens" alone--plus some great commentary tracks), The Hardy Boys (Tommy Kirk and Tim Considine as the original Joe and Frank on The Mickey Mouse Club), and The Complete Pluto, Volume Two.

Great stuff.

[barfownz]

I just bought mine today and i'm not opening it until Christmas

[Neverlandtink]

Costco has it for $20.99! Along with the True Life Adventures for the same price.

[barfownz]

I bought my at Sams Club for $22.99

[Alchimedes]

Mine is in the mail still waiting for them all. Look forward to watching them. Love the reviews, looks like a great assortment so far.

[Coheteboy]

Amazon emailed me on Saturday that they shipped all of my treasures so I SHOULD get them tomorrow! I can't wait. I'm still going through my pirates 2 dvd too so arrgggh! Too much stuff to watch! I need to like... cancel my netflix for a month.