Disney+ wish list: More classic shorts (part one)

This is a two-parter...

Overall, I would say that Disney+ has been a relative success in terms of content.

Truly, it is worthy of the Disney Channel's original slogan: "Everything you've ever imagined. And more":

In a previous post, I had talked about the desire for more anthology episodes on the service. While they have included more of such episodes, including "Man In Space", "The Story of the Animated Drawing", "The Liberty Story", "Mars and Beyond", and even several two-part episodes merged into a single movie, such as "Sammy the Way-Out Seal" and "The Boy Who Talked To Badgers", they still haven't put up the stuff I truly would like, such as "An Adventure In Color/Mathmagicland". But I digress.

Another thing about Disney that I really enjoy are the old cartoon shorts, starring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the rest. They have been around since the service's launch, with a small handful available at first, but adding on more and more as time went on. However, here again, it would be nice if we could get more, lots more.

There are five things I would like to see:

Pretty much all cartoons released on the "Have a Laugh" line, which ran on the Disney Channel from 2009 to 2012 (and which comprise much of the content on Disney+anyway)

Several pre-1947 Pluto cartoons

Several non-sports-themed Goofy cartoons (the only there is A Knight For a Day)

A lot more black-and-white Mickey cartoons, of which there are only two: Steamboat Willie (for obvious reasons) and 1933's Ye Olden Days

Various miscellaneous shorts, like the Silly Symphony Music Land

I think one reason why they haven't released more cartoons is possibly because some of them have questionable content on them that would never fly today, such as racial or ethic stereotypes, smoking, or just crude behavior. Obviously, those would not be acceptable for inclusion, so half the black-and-white Mickey shorts would be out.

But what about the rest of the criteria? In this first section (like I said, this is a two-part post), I would like to talk about the first of the four things: the remainder of old cartoons from the "Have a Laugh" line, which are included on the Japanese Disney+, but not the U.S. I think one reason why more cartoons from the "Have a Laugh" line haven't been released, such as those involving hunting animals (such as Moose Hunters, Polar Trappers and The Whalers) may be because people, at least in the U.S. have been sensitive to the plight of animals, or they involve, in any way, shape or form, guns and gunplay.

As I have said, some of these cartoons were released on the Japanese Disney+ (based on some of the images above), but not on the American one. Here's the full list of cartoons on their Disney+ that should be on ours (in chronological order):

Mickey's Polo Team (1936)

Moose Hunters (1937)

Polar Trappers (1938)

Good Scouts (1938)

The Whalers (1938)

Mickey's Parrot (1938)

How To Play Golf (1944)

How To Hook Up Your Home Theater (2007)

Incidentally, it's rather amusing to see Goofy's name and not Mickey's displayed on the Whalers title, though to be fair, Goofy was kind of the scene-stealer in these "trio" cartoons.

So, that's the first of the criteria they can start with in terms of adding more cartoons to the streaming service: the rest of those on the "Have a Laugh" line. And while we're at it, they should release the rest of the cartoons in the Shorts Film Collection as well, which as far as I know is available only on Netflix for some reason. As far as I know, they are also available on the French Disney+ (or at least they will be soon if they haven't already).

That ends the first part. Click here for part two.