Mickey And Friends: 10 Classic Shorts Volume Two Blu-Ray Review – Digging Deeper Into The Vault

Celebrate 100 magical years of Disney with this collectible compilation of animated shorts! Join Mickey and his friends in these 10 hilarious, madcap adventures which have entertained generations of children and adults alike. Highlights include The Band Concert, where Maestro Mickey and his friends face wild challenges while performing outdoors. Then see what happens when Goofy is in the driver’s seat pulling Mickey’s Trailer. In Pluto’s Sweater, Pluto gets hot under the collar when Minnie knits him a warm turtleneck, and in Pluto and the Gopher, Pluto stops to smell the flowers, but finds himself outwitted by a mischievous rodent. And there’s no stopping Donald’s nephews from coming between their uncle and the lovely Daisy Duck when Mr. Duck Steps Out.  Five more charming, funny stories complete this legacy collection that’s sure to delight.

• The Band Concert

• Pluto’s Sweater

• Mickey’s Trailer

• Pluto and the Gopher

• Mr. Duck Steps Out

• Lonesome Ghosts

• Boat Builders

• Tugboat Mickey

• Winter Storage

• Pluto’s Party

For thoughts on Mickey and Friends: 10 Classic Shorts – Volume Two, please check out our discussion on The Video Attic:

[youtube https://youtu.be/Nj7nOR-2yJ8?t=854]

Video Quality

Disney delivers another top notch presentation on Blu-Ray for this sophomore volume of carefully restored shorts. As with the debut volume, some shorts seem to have had their film grain a little bit too polished for our tastes, but you can still spot a nice amount of that original film grain that captures the subtle details of the animation. These shorts look the best they ever have on a home entertainment platform. If you happen to have any of the shorts on this disc from their days on the Walt Disney Treasures sets released on DVD, you will instantly realize the sheer jump in quality. The DVD versions had lackluster colors with noticeable print damage throughout, but this new Blu-Ray collection provides a presentation that captures the raw vibrancy and beauty of the material. While we would prefer less DNR, animation fans will be pleased to own these shorts in such amazing quality. 

Audio Quality

The audio of the Blu-Ray disc maintains the slightly disappointing decision to go with a Dolby Digital 2.0 lossy track instead of a lossless DTS-HD 2.0 Master Audio track. While it gets the job done, knowing that the audio experience could be buoyed a bit by the simple decision not to throttle back the quality is a bummer. The audio still comes through nice and clear with no obvious deficiencies. You can tell these audio tracks have been restored at some point, especially when you know what certain older releases sounded like. These tracks are a winner when it comes to the clarity of the dialogue, sound effects and music throughout. Everything comes together in perfect harmony to give you the best listening experience the format can supply. This disc also includes optional English (SDH), French and Spanish subtitles. 

Special Features

There are no special features provided on this disc. 

Final Thoughts

Mickey and Friends: 10 Classic Shorts – Volume Two is another welcome installment of very funny and charming shorts that represent some of the best in classic Disney animation. The runtime may not be as robust as we might want due to the wealth of material they have in the vaults, this is another great step towards preserving their rich legacy on physical media. The only thing we ask is for Disney to give an option to view these shorts without the new intros. Disney has released a Blu-Ray featuring a good video presentation and a slightly underwhelming  audio presentation. This release lacks any special features, which would be a nice addition on future volumes. We hope these volumes keep coming at a steady rate with some of the potential improvements implemented. Recommended

Mickey and Friends: 10 Classic Shorts – Volume Two is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD. 

Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.

Disclaimer: Disney has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.