Countdown to Christmas

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Introduction Menu Animation & Audio Game-Sledge Race Game-Christmas Around The World
Rating
Year Of Production	?
Running Time	94:31
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Various
Studio Distributor	Walt Disney Studios Home Ent.	Starring	Mickey Mouse Dinald Duck Goofy
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$28.95	Music	Various

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English for the Hearing Impaired	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    The DVD starts off with some modern, very-well produced, good quality and nicely themed intro animation, being a song showing the Christmas calendar and setting us up for the countdown to Christmas - all well so far. But then we head into our first cartoon, being the 1990 production of The Prince and The Pauper, which, while quite enjoyable, doesn't have anything to do with Christmas per se. After a short reprise of the slickly-produced Christmas theme, we launch straight into our second cartoon, and it's all downhill as we descend to an extremely dated cartoon about Goofy learning to ski. OK, it may feature snow and winter, but does this make it a Christmas cartoon? And what does either of these two cartoons have to do with the countdown to Christmas? And so you see the format of this DVD, just a series of old and older cartoons, purporting to be linked together by a Christmassy theme song.

    In more detail, the DVD's stated feature running time of 95 minutes is comprised of the following separate feature animations. I also highlight the year of each animation for you:

• The Prince and the Pauper (1990) - 27 minutes approx. Based on Mark Twain's classic, this cartoon is entertaining enough to keep the interest, although it does show just how dated the Mickey and Goofy humour is. It is a snapshot of characters and a style of humour from a by-gone period and it will be of only passing interest to children now.
• The Art of Skiing (1941) - 8 minutes approx. Yes, that's right, 1941, and boy, does it show. I didn't raise one chuckle over this one; the humour is just plain silly and dated, not even of value for its slapstick element.
• Alpine Climbers (1936) - 9 minutes approx. Does being set in the Alpines count as being Christmassy? Step back even further in our time machine to this cartoon, featuring Mickey and Donald climbing a mountain and enjoying some very old, very obvious slapstick moments. This one features virtually no dialogue and is set to some very old-fashioned music and sound effects.
• Donald's Snow Fight (1942) - 6 minutes approx. Donald having a snow fight with his nephews. Pretty boring and it goes nowhere.
• Wynken, Blynken and Nod (1938) - 7 minutes approx. Now this one freaked me out completely!  It features three baby cherubs, sailing through a bizarre, dialogue-less, surreal world. I'm not sure if they are meant to be in heaven or whether it's all just a dream, but they spend the cartoon sailing among the clouds and the stars in their clog-shaped sailing boat, fishing with candy!  I found this cartoon so strange it was spooky and rather like a bad trip, so goodness knows what effect this one would have on the kids!  Try and explain this one, Mums and Dads!
• Winter Storage (1948) - 5 minutes approx. Donald battling with the Chipmunks, in what must have been one of their very first appearances.
• The Small One (1978) - 26 minutes approx. This is the only cartoon that contain a direct Christmas reference, but even then it is indirect biblical reference and only comes in right at the very end of the story (presumably why this one is last in the running order on the DVD). It's the story of a boy and his best-friend Small One, the donkey, who must be sold because he is getting too old to work and the family can't afford to keep feeding him anymore. It is very schmaltzy, but nonetheless sad and I was starting to quite enjoy this one... that is until about 10 minutes in when they all start breaking into song and it degenerates into a rather trite musical. The story plods along and doesn't get anywhere at all, until just before the end when it is saved by an unexpected but conveniently satisfying biblical reference, so that all ends well.

Video

    Sharpness is quite good for the first and longest cartoon, The Prince and the Pauper, being a relatively new production. Sharpness is fine for the second largest segment, The Small One, but gets progressively less distinct for the older segments. Still, considering the age of this material, all film prints appear to have been relatively well preserved. There are no real noise issues, apart from some more noticeable grain in the older cartoons - Alpine Climbers being the worst. While The Prince and the Pauper definitely has the cleanest image, grain is still apparent if you care to pay closer inspection.

    Colour ranges from the strong, vibrant primary colours of The Prince and the Pauper, to the less obvious but still very nicely saturated colours of The Small One, to the progressively more washed-out and faded tones in the likes of The Art of Skiing and most notably Alpine Climbers.

    There are no MPEG artefacts, but film artefacts are present in the form of some persistent little film flecks on the older prints - the worst offender being Alpine Climbers. This is no surprise, however, and the film artefacts are for most part not substantial enough to be too annoying. Film-to-video artefacts are also present and include obvious telecine wobble in The Art of Skiing and Donald's Snow Fight, among others.

    The subtitles do their job.

    The disc is dual-layered but I did not note the layer change. I can only assume it might be intelligently placed in between the feature and the extras.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Dialogue quality is fine for all. I always have trouble understanding what Donald Duck is saying, but that's just me. Sync with the animation is also fine.

    There is some stirring musical score in The Prince and The Pauper, but otherwise the scoring is all pretty forgettable - particularly so for the songs in The Small One. As an aside, the scoring in the very old cartoons is interesting and dates these cartoons firmly in an age gone by.

    There is nominal subwoofer use, apart from helping out with the very rare bump and knock.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Sledge Race Game

Christmas Around The World Game

    This one is pretty cool and educational to boot. It is a matching game where you have to match the Christmas presents from different countries. As you make a match with the presents, a voiceover describes the significance of the custom of giving that particular present in that country. Interesting and well thought out, however it is a game that the kids will immediately tire of after having done it once or twice.

    Variable but acceptable video quality, mostly mono audio and a couple of mediocre extras adorn this release.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall