Toon Talk: Old Yeller Vault Disney 2-Disc DVD - Jun 13, 2002

Toon Talk: Old Yeller Vault Disney 2-Disc DVD
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Old Yeller Production Archive:

Galleries: Six main galleries featuring Production Stills (including a lot of the top dog himself), Publishing (the color comic strip adaptation), Biographies (all the cast members except York, but including Chuck Connors, whose Burn Sanderson was one of his first film roles), Advertising (3 sub-galleries of Lobby Cards, Posters (“Walt Disney’s Most Dramatic Motion Picture!”) and Merchandising (records, sheet music and a coloring book)), Documents (3 more galleries: Fan Letters (from young fans, including this missive: “I highly recommend (the book) to all fifth graders.”), Invitations (vintage press announcements) and Press Book (for the original release)) and Screenplay Excerpt (the “Life Lessons” scene between Travis and his father at the end of the film; you can toggle back and forth between the actual script and the final scene from the movie. The script alone comes off harsh; one can see how the acting and direction smoothly blunted these edges.).

Production Gallery: Musical montage of film stills and production shots, accompanied by a toe tappin’ bluegrass version of the “Old Yeller” song.

News Segment: Old Yeller Memorial: This emotional feature, courtesy of the Texas County Reporter, covers the dedication ceremony of the Old Yeller memorial at the Mason, Texas Library. In honor of its native son, the little Texas town commissioned a beautiful bronze statue of Yeller and Travis to pay tribute to author Fred Gipson. If the scene at the end of the movie gets to you, wait until you see this … have tissues ready.

Trailers and TV Spots: Actually only one of each, for the film’s original release and its debut on the Disney Sunday Movie, respectively.

The Best Doggone Dog in the World: The full black and white Disneyland episode (co-hosted by Walt’s own Lady; his was a poodle, not a cocker spaniel) produced at the time of the film. The program only contains one segment on Old Yeller, hosted by Dorothy McGuire, who discusses her role in depth and narrates scenes from the movie; the rest of the show is, as Walt announces, “a tribute to dogs everywhere”. Preceding the Yeller section are segments on dogs from around the globe, from Portugal to Scandinavia, house pets to seeing-eye dogs; following it is a feature on the history of Border Collies titled Arizona Sheepdogs.

Audio Archives: Six Radio Spots (all touting the film’s double-feature with The Incredible Journey), two Sound Studios (toggle between four separate soundtracks for the ‘Travis Meets Yeller’ and ‘Bear Attack!’ scenes), a Foley Demonstration (current voice-of-Mickey Wayne Allwine recreating how some of the sound effects for the film were done) and the Story Album (includes the “Old Yeller” theme song, with dialogue from the film’s original soundtrack and narrated by Fess Parker. A slide show of images from the film plays while listening.).

Disney Studio Album - 1957: A glimpse back in time to the happenings at the Disney Studios in 1957, covering television (Jiminy Cricket in I’m No Fool and other educational shorts), feature films (Johnny Tremain, Old Yeller, Perri), projects in production (Sleeping Beauty, Zorro), Disneyland (the Shirley Temple visit, the Monsanto House of the Future) and non-fiction films (The Alaskan Sled Dog, Blue Men of Morocco).

Toon Talk Rating: A-