Treasues from the Disney Vault

A few weeks back, I mentioned that TCM had signed an agreement with Disney that would result in TCM doing some branding on a Disney movie-themed attraction, in exchange for TCM getting the rights to show some stuff from Disney several times a year. The first of those nights of Disney programming is tonight.

I personally think the beginning of the evening is the more interesting part. The night is going to start off at 8:00 PM with a trio of one-reel comedies, including one with Chip and Dale, the Disney chipmunks who featured in about a dozen shorts in the 1940s and 1950s.

At 8:30 PM, there's an episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color from early in the show's run looking at the construction of Disneyland, when that amusement park was considered a big deal. Of course, a decade and a half later, the construction of Disney World in Florida would put Disneyland to shame.

At 9:30 PM, TCM is showing The Reluctant Dragon, something I'd never heard of becaue Disney has apparently been keeping stuff like this in the vault not knowing how to monetize it. Robert Benchley visits the Disney studio where he learns about the animation process. (Animated TV shows don't go out live because that would put a terrible strain on the animators' wrists.)

The Davy Crockett TV show turned out to be popular enough that a couple of episodes were stitched together into a movie; that you can catch at 11:00 PM. The nature documentary The Vanishing Plain follows at 12:45 AM, and last but not least, you have the opportunity to catch James MacArthur, before he was on Hawaii Five-O, climb the Matterhorn in Third Man on the Mountain at 2:00 AM.