Walt Disney Treasures - Zorro: The Complete First & Second Season

Created by Johnston McCulley, the character of Zorro, the swashbuckling swordsman of Spanish colonial California, first appeared in All-Story Weekly in 1919. Douglas Fairbanks starred in the first film adaptation The Mark of Zorro (1920), which was such a huge hit it compelled McCulley to write over 60 Zorro stories. Zorro appeared in other films and comics, and according to Leonard Maltin who introduces this collection, was an influence on the Lone Ranger and Batman. Walt Disney was the first to bring the Zorro franchise to television.

Wave IX in the "Walt Disney Treasures" series presents the two seasons of Zorro, which starred Guy Williams as Don Diego de la Vega whose secret identity is Zorro. Each season was made up of 39 episodes and aired from 1957 to 1959 on ABC to good ratings until a financial dispute between Disney and the network brought the series to a halt.

Diego returns to Spanish California circa 1820 at the request of his father to help deal with the oppressive territory commander Captain Enrique Sanchez Monasterio. However, Diego hides his skills at fighting and with a rapier and pretends to be a bookworm in an effort to hide his secret identity. The only one who knows is his trusted assistant Bernando, a mute man who also pretends to be deaf in order to spy for Diego. After Monasterio is finally defeated, Zorro has to deal with other foils like Magistrado Galindo and the mysterious leader of a group who only identifies himself as the Eagle.

During the second season, Diego competes for the hand of the fair Ana Maria Verdugo against his friend Ricardo del Amo, but she only has eyes for Zorro. This season also features guest stars like Cesar Romero playing Diego’s uncle and Disney alumni Mouseketeer Annette Funicello and Jeff York as his character from The Saga of Andy Burnett.

Each complete season is presented over a six-disc set in its own black collectible tin accompanied by a sharp-looking Zorro pin, an authenticity certificate indicating its number out of the 30,000 created in the limited series, and a lithograph though those appear to be oversized post cards. The black-and-white footage looks very sharp.

The extras from the first-season set include a two-part Zorro adventure that aired in 1960 on Walt Disney Presents, and as host, Walt provides intro and outros. There’s also the first introduction of Williams as Zorro from an excerpt of "The Fourth Anniversary Show" of WDP and a new feature “The Life and Legend of Zorro” (12 min) that tracks the history of Zorro and then focuses on the Disney series.

The extras on the second-season set include two Zorro adventures that aired in 1961 on WDP. Ricardo Montalban co-stars in “Auld Acquaintance.” “Behind the Mask” (8 min) is a feature on Guy Williams and “A Trip to the Archives” (11 min) presents Leonard Maltin and Williams’ son on the Disney Burbank lot.

Zorro is a very charming series and holds up well for its age. Reflective of its time with its simple “good guys vs. bad guys” motif, Zorro remains very engaging over five decades later due to Williams’ charisma, the humor derived from characters like the bumbling Sergeant Demetrio López García, and plenty of action, particularly sword-fighting. No doubt fans who grew up with the series will want to relive it, but there’s no reason the series shouldn’t make new fans.

The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Walt Disney Treasures presents a formerly lost treasure in The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Oswald debuted on screen in 1927 and became the first animated star for Disney and his partner, animator Ub Iwerks. When Disney went to renegotiate a more beneficial distribution deal, producer Charles B. Mintz told him he had to take a budget cut instead. Mintz tired to pressure Disney by secretly signing most of his animators to new deals, and since the character belonged to Universal, Mintz let Disney know the studio could make Oswald shorts without him.

Disney refused to be bullied, so when his contract was up, he, along with Iwerks, who remained loyal to him, struck out to try his hand as an independent. Together, the first new cartoon the two men created featured Mickey Mouse. Other animators at Universal, including Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody Woodpecker, continued to create Oswald cartoons until 1943.

In 2006, the ABC network, which was then owned by the Walt Disney Company, had lost the broadcast rights to the NFL. The rights were picked up NBC/Universal. Sportcaster Al Michaels, who was under contract to another Disney property, the sports cable channel ESPN, was interested in following the NFL to NBC, so The Disney Co. facilitated a trade of assets, which included a transfer of ownership of the character and the 26 Oswald cartoons produced by Disney.

Oswald is reminiscent of Otto Messmer’s Felix the Cat. He has a series of wild, surreal adventures that can turn in any direction for a gag. When Oswald tries to fly in “The Ocean Hop,” he ties a regular balloon to the back end of a dachshund and for the front he uses a word balloon and attaches it with a question mark. In “Oh What A Knight,” he steps away from a swordfight, allowing his shadow to continue the battle, while he sneaks off to get a kiss from the princess.

Iwerks and the other animators made great use of perspective and points-of-view to create visually interesting cartoons. In “Trolley Troubles,” the trolley has to constantly change shape as it travels across the varying widths of track. The viewer is placed at the front of the trolley as it heads into a darkened tunnel and everything goes black and then white as the lighted exterior quickly expands in the frame.

Unfortunately, only 13 of the 26 cartoons have so far been found in a worldwide search and they are in various stages of degradation. New scores have been created and performed by Robert Israel. Six of the cartoons have commentary tracks: two by animator Mark Kausler, two by historian Jerry Beck and then they each share duties with Leonard Maltin. Some of the cartoons were recut at a later date by Lantz and are only available in this form. “Bright Lights” in particular is obviously out of order, which begs the question what Lantz’ reasoning was behind these new cuts because they are terrible choices.

The two-disc set contains some fabulous material of particular interest to the Disney aficionados and early animation fans. Disney and Iwerks got their break with the Alice Comedies, a series of cartoons about a real girl who has adventures in a cartoon world, a reverse of the popular Max Fleischer series, Out of the Inkwell featuring Koko the Clown. Three Annie shorts are included as are two Mickey Mouse cartoons, “Plane Crazy,” his screen debut, and “Steamboat Willie,” the first with sound, and the first Silly Symphony, “Skeleton Dance.” The latter three cartoons were all completely drawn by Iwerks.

Iwerks is the subject of the 1999 feature-length documentary The Hand Behind The Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story. It’s a very good biography that sheds light on Iwerks’ contributions and his relationship with Disney. They began working together in Kansas City, Missouri, and Iwerks was an integral part of the success of Disney and his studio. They began to clash and Iwerks left to form his own studio in 1930. He was not able to match his achievements with Disney and eventually returned ten years later, but not as an animator. Instead, Iwerks was a technical innovator in special visual effects for projects like Mary Poppins, 101 Dalmatians, and non-Disney films like Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit probably won’t go over well with kids today as the animation is dated, but it is a fantastic set of great historical significance for those interested in Disney and cinema.