Drewster58

I can't add to the two superb previous comments about this short film.

I just watched it again, and yes, tears spilled from my eyes, tears of complete overwhelming appreciation for this moral fable, this poem to the positive in people, and to love.

I teach preschool age children with severe special needs, and seeing this the first time had me by the heart, weeping profound tears of gratitude. It helped me realize that a large part of what I do, and have always loved to do for my kids and their family's is to simply appreciate the greatness it takes to go through their lives, made difficult from having unexpected horrors happen to their little children. To put that into words sincerely spoken is very touching and does indeed change people for the best.

I just forwarded the Flixxy link to another very large group of friends who also work in special education.

Every superlative applies to the wonderful magic of this film.

The Brave Engineer: My wife and I rented this video as part of a compilation of Disney "Americana" cartoons, including "Johnny Appleseed" and others. We were pleasantly surprised to find my Dad receive animator credits at the end. So many of the old Disney cartoons they show on T.V. now just list "brought to you my the talents of many...etc" or something like that. My Dad is 92 now (12/31/03), but still very much alive and kickin'. He worked at Disney Studios in Burbank from the animating of "Snow White" to about the finish of the animated "Jungle book, about 1971 I think. He went into production in some kind of middle-management position and didn't do enough footage to get animator credits sometime after this cartoon.

Bootle Beetle:

My Dad used to show this cartoon to us,(along with every Disney cartoon short, feature, and live film ever made over the years) on our old 16 mm projector. The neighborhood kids in Burbank, and the friends who would come up to "The Cabin" in Pinon Hills, all loved the 1,2,& 3 reel films he'd always bring home on Friday's from "The Studio" (Disney Studios in Burbank). This one he actually worked on about 10 years before I was born. But he worked at Disney Studios from the animation of "Snow White" to about the completion of the 1st animated version of Jungle Book, so his career spanned about 1937 to 1971. He's still alive and kicking at age 92 (as of 12/31/03), living in Pinon Hills near my wife and I.

I fondly remember this cartoon as one of my favorite "Donald's."

Make Mine Music:

What a great collection of stories! I watched it fairly recently with my Dad and some other family at his house in Pinon Hills. I still cry at the "Johnny Fedora" and "Willie The Whale" stories. I grew up watching these and so many Disney cartoons and movies on our old 16 millimeter projector. We still have it, but it needs a bulb. My nephew Kurt brought this cartoon up on DVD. It was great to see my Dad's "name up in lights," so to speak, at least for animation credits. He loved seeing it again, altho' his eyes aren't so good now at age 92. But he is still hanging in there.