In the first part of my wish list for Disney cartoon shorts on Disney+, I had listed out all the rest of the cartoons shown on Disney+ in Japan, which included pretty much all of the shorts in the "Have a Laugh" lineup (except for the Goofy short Tennis Racquet, which I would also like to see).
The second part involves various other parts of the Disney shorts series that should be included. For instance, it would be nice to get various other black-and-white Mickey cartoons, of which there are only two available: Steamboat Willie (which is there for obvious reasons) and 1933's Ye Olden Days. The main problem with these cartoons is content seen as questionable today, such as ethnic/racial stereotypes, antisocial behaviors like smoking or chewing tobacco, or just plain crude behavior, which came under the heading of "barnyard humor". According to Leonard Maltin, who hosted the Walt Disney Treasures line, which featured these cartoons, they were a product of their times; they were acceptable in the 1930s, but not today.
Maybe a good idea would be to avoid those with special intros by Maltin on the DVDs and focus on those that don't have them, while also taking out a few that did get listed with "regular" shorts (The Mad Dog and Trader Mickey have racial stereotypes, but they were inexplicably included with "regular" shorts). The list is so long, however, that it may warrant its own page here, of what's acceptable and not acceptable. At the very least, it would be nice to get 1930's The Chain Gang and 1932's Mickey's Revue, the respective debuts of Pluto and Goofy. Speaking of...
The second criterion involves non-sports-themed Goofy cartoons. As it stands now, the only such cartoon is 1946's A Knight For a Day. Several of Goofy's roles as an everyman in the 1950s would be nice, for starters, including Fathers Are People (with a tobacco warning at the start), Man's Best Friend, Two Weeks Vacation, Father's Day Off, Father's Weekend, How To Dance, and How To Sleep. And then there are the "miscellaneous" shorts that don't fall into the "sports" or "everyman" shorts. For instance, it would be nice to include Goofy's premiere solo short, Goofy and Wilbur, as well as other shorts like Goofy's Glider, Baggage Buster, The Big Wash, Lion Down, and Home Made Home. Also, it would be nice to get in some cartoons with Goofy paired with Donald. I had previously mentioned Polar Trappers, one of the cartoons available in Japan, but not the U.S., but there should be others like Billposters and No Sail.
The third criterion is pre-1947 Pluto cartoons, back when the dog's theme went like this:
(Incidentally, it would be nice if they actually used the original title cards for all of these cartoons that actually had the correct years on them.)
And yes, The Legend of Coyote Rock would be one of the several cartoons that I would like to see.
As it stands now, most of Pluto's pre-1947 appearances are in other cartoons, mainly those with Mickey and/or Donald. In addition to Coyote Rock, it would also be nice to include Pluto's first solo appearance in Pluto's Quin-Puplets, as well as others like Bone Trouble, Pluto's Playmate, The Sleepwalker, Pluto At the Zoo, Springtime For Pluto, Canine Casanova, In Dutch, and Pluto's Housewarming, all of which feature that pre-1947 theme in the video above.
Finally, it would be good to get some other shorts in here as well. For example, a smattering of Silly Symphonies is shown, but not one of my most favorites, Music Land. In addition, some more "special" cartoons would be nice as well. Disney+ does have Ferdinand the Bull and Lambert the Sheepish Lion, but it would be nice to get some more in there, such as Ben and Me (which is kind of available already as part of "The Liberty Story", an episode of the Disneyland show, in black and white) and the cult classic, Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom. And of course, more Donald cartoons like Donald and Pluto, Modern Inventions (these two, I believe, were in the beta version of Disney+ in the Netherlands), The Eyes Have It, and Donald's Double Trouble.
The main challenge with these cartoons, again, is questionable content, so, in the case of Goofy, cartoons like Californy'er Bust (Indians), African Diary (gunplay and African stereotypes), and No Smoking (Goofy struggling to quit smoking) would probably not make the cut, nor would the war shorts, such as Pluto's The Army Mascot and Private Pluto and Goofy's How To Be a Sailor (which contains Japanese stereotypes). They would probably too big for the obligatory "outdated cultural standards" disclaimer. The cartoons I had mentioned have few, if any, such questionable content in there.
But anyway, that's my take on this. What are your thoughts? Maybe at a later time, I will post the whole list of black-and-white Mickey cartoons to see which ones can or cannot be shown on Disney+.
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