The voice of Donald!
Ernie the Cab Driver!
Someone should cast the guy on the left as a ruthless killer.
The Reluctant Dragon (Alfred L. Werker & Hamilton Luske, 1941)
I enjoyed this film more as part of the complete
Walt Disney Treasures: Behind the Scenes at the Walt Disney Studio DVD release (check your public library!) than as a stand-alone movie. Paired with three episodes of the
Disneyland television show that cover similar behind-the-scenes terrain,
The Reluctant Dragon gains significant worth as part of a larger portrait of the studio's image and self-promotion — an image that's convincingly grounded in a love of storytelling and of animation (if not always grounded in facts).
The Reluctant Dragon itself is amiable enough — as amiable as star Robert Benchley — but ultimately just a bit too slight. The live-action scenes work as a nice studio tour before such things existed, with plenty of cool bits. I especially loved seeing the
Bambi cel, the many colors of the paints, and the figurines of
Peter Pan characters who were still a decade away from finding life on the big screen. It's all overly cutesy but forgivably so, more or less. It's actually more the animated sequences that bring the film down a little. The Donald and Casey Jr. moments are harmless enough, but the Goofy short is a bit of a chore and the title short felt rather disposable to me (despite the appeal of the dragon's being so comfortable with his sexuality).
Baby Weems, on the other hand, is the best part of the film, with the happy-accident idea of telling the story using just storyboards (with minimal animation) elevating the short close to greatness. It's an ingenious conceit, well executed.
Grade: C+
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