Disney's new "Legacy Collection" promises anthologies of ephemera akin to the limited-edition "Treasures" sets, and it kicks off with four double-disc collections of True-Life Adventures, ranging from 1948 to 1960, and subdivided into not-quite-intuitive categories like "Creatures Of The Wild" and "Lands Of Exploration." As always, it's a gift to students of American popular culture to have access to films that were ubiquitous for decades before disappearing into the Disney vaults. And as with the Disney Treasures, the Legacy Collection is more valuable as archival reference then as sit-down-with-the-kids-and-while-away-a-weekend entertainment. Some of the individual films are stunning, like White Wilderness, a Canadian travelogue legendary in anti-Disney circles as the one where cameramen pushed a bunch of lemmings off a cliff. (Though it should be just as famous for the close-up images of white whales, caribou, and crashing ice floes.) But after a while, no matter how great the photography, it's hard to distinguish one cute tumbling baby animal from another.
The major exception is Perri, a squirrel's tale based on a novel by Bambi author Felix Salten. Here, the narrative was in place before shooting began, which makes the footage of hawks and weasels chasing squirrels all the more amazing, because they had to be staged. The film goes deep into woodland habitats, and breaks for almost-abstract sequences of snowballs rolling down hills and a half-animated nighttime fantasy. Perri also features the sickly sweet song "Together Time," a paean to mating season so coy that it justifies every complaint ever directed toward True-Life Adventures. Such is the dichotomy of Disney.
Key features: Bonus segments of vintage TV specials promoting the TLA feature films, and heartfelt tributes to Disney craftsmen like Hibler, who worked on these films as labors of love between animation projects.
