With all due respect to the nuns who taught me in grade school to never start a sentence with the word “I,” I am breaking their cardinal rule here…twice. I know where I will be this Sunday evening. I will be glued to the TV watching the next installment of the Disney Vault on Turner Classic Movies.
The partnership is part of a deal struck by TCM and the Walt Disney Company last year to not only showcase vintage programming from the Mouse House on its cable network but to work with Disney Imagineers to breathe new life into the iconic Great Movie Ride at Disney Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando. And while details of that revamping are still under wraps, TCM and Disney have been moving forward with television programming from the vast archives of the Walt Disney Studios.
The first such installment from the Disney Vault aired in December and featured the first episode of “The Wonderful World of Disney,” presenting a documentary on Walt Disney Animation in the 1930’s and 40’s as well as showcasing a number of rarely seen animated shorts.
That has left Disney enthusiasts of all kinds wanting more and more we will get on Sunday, March 15th with the second installment of “Treasures from the Disney Vault.” Programming begins at 8:00PM ET with the 1959 movie “Darby O’Gill and the Little People,” starring Sean Connery, years before he stepped into the role of Bond, yes James Bond.
“Darby O’Gill” will be followed by “I Captured the King of the Leprechauns,” along with the 1932 animated short “Babes in the Woods,” and a 1955 episode of “The Wonderful World of Disney” where Uncle Walt takes the audience on a guide tour of animation history introducing us to “Gertie the Dinosaur,” “The Skeleton Dance,” and the “Nutcracker Suite” segment from the 1940 film “Fantasia.”
As the clock strikes twelve midnight fans can stay tuned for the 1944 live action-animated feature “The Three Caballeros” directed by Norman Ferguson. Starring Donald Duck and fine-feathered friends Panchito Pistoles and Jose Carioca, the trio takes a wild magic carpet ride south of the border through Latin American culture with stops in South America and Mexico. In the wee small hours of the morning on March 16th, there will be a showing of the documentary “Walt and El Grupo,” directed by Theodore Thomas, the son of legendary Disney animator Frank Thomas. The film details the South American goodwill tour Walt Disney and his creative team took in 1941. The 1966 movie “The Fighting Prince of Donegul” caps the slate of Vault Disney programming.
The second installment of “Treasurers from the Disney Vault” will be hosted by film historian Leonard Maltin.