[email protected] Not a great adaption for Disney, but certainly characteristic of the shorts released in the 50's. It's interesting to consider that this tale was part of American folklore long before it was put into print. Like most folklore,it's full of exaggerated fictional accounts of events. One can image loggers sitting around a campfire, or in a cabin, each trying to embellish and exaggerate the story to make it more interesting then the last time it was told. Certainly a colorful Tall Tale. All part of our collective heritage, and what fun!

Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "Paul Bunyan" is a Disney cartoon from 1958, so this one will have its 60th anniversary already next year. At 17 minutes, it is considerably longer than most cartoon short films from that or maybe I should say bigger because the title character is truly a tree of a man. Eventually, he is perhaps the most known lumberjack mankind has ever seen or maybe just the United States have ever seen as there is a lot of patriotism, maybe even heroism, attached to this little movie. It was nominated for an Oscar too, but lost to Warner Bros' Bugs Bunny entry that year. Back to this one here, if you take a look at the bodies of work from the director, the writer and some of the voice cast members, you will find that they worked on some real classic films. Paul Bunyan may not be among the latter, but their expertise helped in turning this into a pretty good film as well. The introduction to the character was nice for example when we see him as a baby, but the contest man vs. machine at the end was well done too. A happy ending, but they also weren't scared of including disappointments. At under 20 minutes, it is fine that all the other human characters in here are really irrelevant. It's all about Paul, who by the way was voiced in a recent animated movie by John Goodman. The size sure fits. I recommend "Paul Bunyan", a fairly good watch and finally also a thumbs-up for the "bulldog" pet who was quite a scene stealer in this one.

MartinHafer This Disney short was created during the studio's creative free-fall in the 1950s. While the 1930s and 40s found the studio on top, by the mid-1950s, their shorts were dull, poorly animated and often overtly educational (yuck!). I am sure kids and adults alike longed for the old Mickey and Donald cartoons! Typical of the 50s, the animation style is VERY minimalistic--with exceptionally simple backgrounds and far fewer detail to the characters. This style was popularized by UPA Studio and Disney realized that making these cheap cartoons was profitable--though lacking artistry and sophistication--a trend that was to continue for the next several decades.Despite crappy animation, the story itself isn't bad. It lacks a sense of humor (that's bad) but the song is very catchy and the story quite clever. It's certainly not among the best stuff Disney ever produced, though it's a good bit better than a typical film of the era.By the way, listen for the voices of Thurl Ravenscroft (Tony the Tiger and many other cartoon characters) and Parley Baer (a TV regular and voice of Ernie from the Keebler commercials).

Robert Reynolds This longish short was nominated for an Oscar. Decent enough and a fairly good adaptation of the tall tale, but fairly routine Disney and with nothing especially memorable or exceptional about it in any area. Worth watching, this runs infrequently as filler on the Disney Channel during "Vault Disney in the wee hours of the morning.