Compared to the sleek lines of our cruiser, our neighbor was out of its league.

My over-riding sense of the Disney cruise ship was not of Mickey and pals, but of a beautiful art deco gem with touches of Tinkerbell magic. This is no cartoon caper — the Disney is in the detail.

The ship pays tribute to the golden age of cruising in the 1930s, with its black and white bow, splashes of red and classic funnels. And the sophistication outside is mirrored inside.

From the classy cabins to chic bars, you could be forgiven for thinking Mickey has jumped ship. But the standard of entertainment, dining and, of course, the kids’ clubs quickly remind you the mouse is definitely in the house.

For me, there’s no better way to see the best of Europe’s cities than on a cruise ship.

Flounder’s Reef Nursery takes babes from three months to three years, although it costs extra — around £5 an hour.

From three upwards, the clubs are included in the price of your cruise. The Oceaneer’s Club for three to seven-year-olds is all Peter Pan and pirates with play areas, slides and rope bridges.

Organized fun includes meet-and-greets with favorite Disney characters and cookie cooking. For eight to 12-year-olds, the Oceaneer Lab is a riot of science and space fun. And for hard-to-please teens, The Stack has street cred.

Hidden inside one of the ship’s funnels is a Friends-style chill-out zone with sofas, soda bar, internet access, plasma TVs and MP3 players.

The fun continues at Mickey’s Pool, with splash zones and slides for little ones. Goofy’s Pool is for all the family and includes a giant screen to watch movies while you splash around, plus two hot tubs.

Talking of food and drink, the Disney Magic doesn’t disappoint with its food offerings. Soft drinks and ice creams from self-service pumps are FREE all day for kids.

There are two quick snack counters on the pool deck serving burgers, hot dogs and sarnies plus the Parrot Cay buffet restaurant for hot dishes and a great range of salads and desserts.

But our favorite was the Animator’s Palate where the entire art-themed diner turns from black and white to color as you eat.

Unlike some cruises, there is no dickie-bow dressing up if you don’t fancy it.

And there is other good news for adults. Quiet Cove pool, with a swim-up bar, is a kids-free zone, while the spa and beauty salon were superb.

There’s also a host of bars and an adults-only restaurant, Palo, serving Italian fine dining at night and champagne brunches and high tea by day for a small charge. Other adult-only activities include wine-tastings and talks on ports.

Her Prince Has Come. Critics, Too

New York Times - “The Princess and the Frog” does not open nationwide until December, but the buzz is already breathless: For the first time in Walt Disney animation history, the fairest of them all is black.

Princess Tiana, a hand-drawn throwback to classic Disney characters like Cinderella and Snow White, has a dazzling green gown, a classy upsweep hairdo and a diamond tiara. Like her predecessors, she is a strong-willed songbird (courtesy of the Tony-winning actress Anika Noni Rose) who finds her muscle-bound boyfriend against all odds.

“Finally, here is something that all little girls, especially young black girls, can embrace,” Cori Murray, an entertainment director at Essence magazine, recently told CNN.

To the dismay of Disney executives — along with the African-American bloggers and others who side with the company — the film is also attracting chatter of an uglier nature. Is “The Princess and the Frog,” set in New Orleans in the 1920s, about to vaporize stereotypes or promote them?

The film, directed by Ron Clements and John Musker, two of the men behind “The Little Mermaid,” unfolds against a raucous backdrop of voodoo and jazz. Tiana, a waitress and budding chef who dreams of owning a restaurant, is persuaded to kiss a frog who is really a prince.

The spell backfires and — poof! — she is also an amphibian. Accompanied by a Cajun firefly and a folksy alligator, the couple search for a cure.

After viewing some photographs of merchandise tied to the movie, which is still unfinished, Black Voices, a Web site on AOL dedicated to African-American culture, faulted the prince’s relatively light skin color. Prince Naveen hails from the fictional land of Maldonia and is voiced by a Brazilian actor; Disney says that he is not white.

“Disney obviously doesn’t think a black man is worthy of the title of prince,” Angela Bronner Helm wrote March 19 on the site. “His hair and features are decidedly non-black. This has left many in the community shaking their head in befuddlement and even rage.”

Others see insensitivity in the locale.

“Disney should be ashamed,” William Blackburn, a former columnist at The Charlotte Observer, told London’s Daily Telegraph. “This princess story is set in New Orleans, the setting of one of the most devastating tragedies to beset a black community.”

ALSO under scrutiny is Ray the firefly, performed by Jim Cummings (the voice of Winnie the Pooh and Yosemite Sam). Some people think Ray sounds too much like the stereotype of an uneducated Southerner in an early trailer.

Of course, armchair critics have also been complaining about the princess. Disney originally called her Maddy (short for Madeleine). Too much like Mammy and thus racist. A rumor surfaced on the Internet that an early script called for her to be a chambermaid to a white woman, a historically correct profession. Too much like slavery.

And wait: We finally get a black princess and she spends the majority of her time on screen as a frog?

“Because of Disney’s history of stereotyping,” said Michael D. Baran, a cognitive psychologist and anthropologist who teaches at Harvard and specializes in how children learn about race, “people are really excited to see how Disney will handle her language, her culture, her physical attributes.”

Mr. Baran is reserving judgment and encourages others to do the same. But he added that the issue warrants scrutiny because of Disney’s outsize impact on children.

“People think that kids don’t catch subtle messages about race and gender in movies, but it’s quite the opposite,” he said.

Donna Farmer, a Los Angeles Web designer who is African-American and has two children, applauded Disney’s efforts to add diversity.

“I don’t know how important having a black princess is to little girls — my daughter loves Ariel and I see nothing wrong with that — but I think it’s important to moms,” she said.

“Who knows if Disney will get it right,” she added. “They haven’t always in the past, but the idea that Disney is not bending over backward to be sensitive is laughable. It wants to sell a whole lot of Tiana dolls and some Tiana paper plates and make people line up to see Tiana at Disney World.”

Few people outside the company have seen footage of the movie. Among them are consultants like Oprah Winfrey, whom Disney asked for input on the racial aspects of the film and was cast as Tiana’s mother. (Movie theater owners and members of the N.A.A.C.P. have also been shown scenes, and the reactions, according to a Disney spokeswoman, were “extremely positive.”)

Rather, fueling the debate are photos of related merchandise taken from a toy industry event, a one-minute teaser trailer and Disney’s enormous cultural impact.

The company wants to vanquish once and for all the whispers of racism that linger from stumbles in the past. Yes, “Dumbo” traded in black stereotypes in 1941 with its band of uneducated, pimp-hat-wearing crows. All the animals in “The Jungle Book” from 1967 speak in proper British accents except for the jive-talking monkeys who desperately want to become “real people.”

More recently, “Aladdin” ran into trouble in 1993. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee labeled certain song lyrics defamatory (“Where they cut off your ear/If they don’t like your face/It’s barbaric, but, hey, it’s home”).

The company responds that criticism of such well-worn examples — particularly of films from the ’60s and earlier — applies a 21st-century morality to movies made in sharply different times. The United States barely had a Civil Rights Act in 1967, much less a black president.

Disney executives think people should stop jumping to conclusions about “The Princess and the Frog.”

A producer of the film, Peter Del Vecho, said: “We feel a great responsibility to get this right. Every artistic decision is being carefully thought out.”

Ms. Rose, familiar to movie audiences for her role in “Dreamgirls,” has also defended Disney.

“There is no reason to get up in arms,” she told reporters at a recent Los Angeles Urban League dinner. “If there was something that I thought was disrespectful to me or to my heritage, I would certainly not be a part of it.”

Ms. Winfrey declined to comment. A spokesman for the N.A.A.C.P. said the organization had no immediate comment.

Disney often gets criticized no matter how carefully it strives to put together its television shows, theme-park attractions and movies. For years, Disney has been lambasted by some parents for not having a black princess. Now, some of those same voices are taking aim at the company without seeing the finished product. (Officially, the princesses are Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel of “The Little Mermaid,” Belle of “Beauty and the Beast” and Jasmine of “Aladdin” — all white except for Jasmine, who is Arabian. The leads from “Mulan” and “Pocahontas” are sometimes sold with the Princess merchandising line.)

Mr. Del Vecho said the idea for a black princess came about organically. The producers wanted to create a fairy tale set in the United States and centered on New Orleans, with its colorful past and deep musical history.

“As we spent time in New Orleans, we realized how truly it is a melting pot, which is how the idea of strongly multicultural characters came about,” Mr. Del Vecho said.

He described Tiana as “a resourceful and talented person” and the rare fairy tale heroine “who is not saved by a prince.” Once the decision was made to make the lead black, he added, “We wanted her to bear the traits of African-American women and be truly beautiful.”

Getting “The Princess and the Frog” right is of enormous importance to Disney. The company needs hits, as evidenced by a recently announced 97 percent drop in quarterly profit. The Disney Princess merchandising line is a $4 billion annual business and the company has plans for Tiana to be everywhere. Get ready for Tiana dresses, elaborate dolls and Halloween costumes.

The movie also marks a return by Disney to traditional hand-drawn animation. A failure could be the final nail in the coffin of an art form pioneered by Walt Disney himself.

In the last 20 years, Disney has made huge strides in depicting race. In 1997, the company’s television division presented a live-action version of “Cinderella” with a black actress, the singer Brandy, playing the lead. In 1998, “Mulan” was celebrated as a rare animated feature that depicted Chinese characters with realistic-looking slanted eyes; most animated films (even those from Japan) had Westernized versions of Asian people until that time.

THE debate surrounding “The Princess and the Frog” illustrates how difficult it is to deal with race in animation, experts say. Cartoons by their nature trade in caricatures.

Mainstream producers have largely avoided characters of color for fear of offending minority groups, although black producers have been creating cartoons featuring stereotyped characters since the days of “Fat Albert.”

Disney can take some comfort in a backlash to the backlash.

“This is one of those situations where I am ashamed of the black community,” Levi Roberts said in a YouTube video. “Are we being racist ourselves by saying this movie shouldn’t have a white prince?”

Perhaps the final word — for now — should come from somebody who is African-American and a former Disney animator.

Lawyer wants charges against 'Bounty Hunter' star

AP - A public defender is demanding that TV bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman be charged with felonies for claiming that a man fired a gun at him and his crew while they were filming in Colorado Springs last month.

Attorney William Schoewe (show-ee) alleges Chapman and others made up the claim to boost publicity for the A&E Television reality show "Dog The Bounty Hunter." Prosecutors dropped charges against a suspect, saying the evidence was insufficient.

Schoewe filed a motion Friday asking a judge to force prosecutors to charge Chapman, bail bondsman Bobby Brown and others with attempting to influence a public servant, conspiracy to attempt to influence a public servant, both felonies, and false reporting, a misdemeanor.

Chapman's publicist, Mona Wood, said he was in Canada for public appearances Friday and was unavailable to comment.

"They swear they saw it," Wood said of the alleged gunfire.

Brown said Friday: "It was what it was. There was nothing illegal."

Prosecutor Martha McKinney said she doesn't believe there's enough evidence to file charges against Chapman, Brown or the others.

The incident was one of three surrounding Chapman while he filmed episodes for the show in Colorado Springs this spring.

On April 20, Chapman apprehended a suspect inside police headquarters as the suspect was trying to turn himself in, and on May 19 a car that Chapman and his crew were following rolled over, but no injuries were reported. Police say they found no criminal wrongdoing in either of those incidents.

In the reported shooting, Chapman and others said Hoang Nguyen (hwong win) fired a gun at them while they were trying to apprehend him on April 21.

Nguyen, 35, was arrested on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder, felony menacing and possession of a weapon by a previous offender. Prosecutors dropped the case because of weak evidence and conflicting statements.

Chapman and Brown were pursuing Nguyen for allegedly missing a Feb. 9 court date on a domestic violence charge and skipping out on the $12,000 bond Brown had paid on his behalf.

Schoewe said that out of 50 to 60 witnesses interviewed by police, only one member of Chapman's crew reported seeing a gun. One other witness said there was a "pop," presumably a gunshot, before Chapman and others responded with pepper spray pellets, Schoewe said.

Nguyen fled but was apprehended later by Chapman and his crew.

Brown had claimed the incident was caught on tape but Schoewe said none of it was turned over to investigators.

It was unclear whether El Paso County District Judge J. Patrick Kelly had seen Schoewe's request or when he might rule.

Motions to compel prosecutors to file charges are rare, especially from public defenders.

"We decided to pursue this in the interest of justice," said Schoewe, who as a public defender is paid by taxpayers to defend, not prosecute. "We thought this was outrageous conduct."

In the police station incident, Chapman apprehended Cheazere (shez-ah-ray) Whiteley, who faces felony charges of burglary, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and weapons possession by a previous offender.

Police surveillance video shows a man who appears to be Chapman pushing another man out of the way to get to Whiteley, who had walked into police headquarters and was standing at the counter in the lobby.

"My brother was just turning himself in and he (Chapman) just wants to cause a scene for his TV show," said Jeanne Whiteley, Cheazere Whiteley's sister. "I used to watch his show but I don't any more, now that one of my family members has been on it. It sounds very unprofessional."

Police Lt. David Whitlock said a uniformed officer in the lobby recognized Chapman and stood by as Whiteley was apprehended.

"Was it in good taste? Was it within the boundaries of common sense and acting appropriately?" Whitlock said. "Really, I think those measurements need to be made by the community at large. We're bound by the rules of law."

Bounty hunters, or bail enforcement agents, are hired by bail bondsmen to apprehend people who have skipped bail. Bounty hunters use law enforcement tactics, though they don't follow the same professional restrictions that govern police agencies.

"Most of the people I know kind of grit their teeth whenever (Chapman's) name is mentioned because of his tactics," said Lance Clem, spokesman for the Colorado Department of Public Safety. "Local agencies have developed clear policies as a result of experiences they've had."

Wood said Chapman has captured almost 7,000 fugitives over a 25-year career that started in Denver. His show is filmed mainly in Hawaii and along Colorado's Front Range on the eastern edge of the Rockies, which includes Denver and Colorado Springs.

"We've had our share of controversies but nothing with the capture of fugitives," Wood said.

Whiteley was being held Friday at the El Paso County jail without bail. His mother, Evelyn Gomez, said her son missed his court dates because of a lack of transportation and because he believed many of the charges had been taken care of years ago.

Gomez said her son was in contact with Brown and had told him he was turning himself in at the police station on Gomez's advice.

"I refused to let him be another black man that they beat up in front of the camera," Gomez said. "But a person isn't safe in the lobby of a police department? What kind of system is that?"

Amazingly enough, their secret seems to be as straightforward as the projects are complex: they simply refuse to underestimate their audience.

Where most animated films pander to children and wink at adults, the Pixar geniuses assume we're all equals, and equally deserving of the best they can create.

While their latest achievement can't quite one-up "WALL-E," it offers soaring highs that are bound to enchant viewers of any age.

From title to trailers, "Up" appears to be light as air. But there's an unapologetically dark streak to this story, which begins when two young adventurers meet in the 1930s.

In an exquisite montage, we watch Carl and Ellie grow up, fall in love, and settle down. But their fairytale romance includes some very real heartbreaks, and unfulfilled dreams.

Saddest of all is the day Carl (voiced by Ed Asner) is left a widower. To honor his beloved, he decides to visit South America, as they'd always planned.

Carl travels by air, and like the rest of the beautifully-rendered 3-D images, his takeoff is worth your ticket price alone. Affixing thousands of multihued balloons to his house, he lifts off and enters the sky, only to discover a stowaway: Russell (Jordan Nagai), a neglected 8-year-old who could use a father figure.

Being a cranky loner, Carl has no use for company. Russell, however, isn't the kind of kid to take a hint. Once in South America, they're beset by a pack of furious dogs hunting a rare, ostrich-like bird.

The dogs belong to Charles Muntz (Christopher Plummer), an explorer obsessively determined to capture the bird. As soon as you see this adorable creature, you'll understand why Russell refuses to let that happen.

Filmmakers Pete Docter and Bob Peterson find a near-ideal balance between sweetness and sentimentality (though parents should definitely take that PG rating to heart).

Every detail, from the hairs on Carl's chin to the lovely, lingering score, has been tended to by a Pixar perfectionist.

If there's any oversight, it's that girls will find themselves curiously underrepresented in yet another of Pixar's grand adventures.

Boston Herald - Bill Burke is an addict. But it’s not a monkey on his back.

It’s a mouse. As in Mickey.

The southern New Hampshire native has spent the past 11 years mainlining the magic at Disney World in Florida. The result: “Mousejunkies! Tips, Tales and Tricks for a Disney World Fix” (Travelers’ Tales, $16.95), a guide to tweaking out at the happiest place on earth.

“When I first went, it just blew my mind,” said Burke, whose initial venture there was in 1981 with his grandmother and a collection of cousins, brothers and sisters. He returned in 1998 on a whim with his wife.

“We couldn’t decide between Paris and Ireland, so I thought, hey, Epcot has both,” he said.

The first hit that led to years of dependence came in the form of a kind cast member.

“That first trip we used a travel agent, because the Internet really wasn’t a good resource,” said Burke, a columnist for Parenting NH and a former managing editor for Herald Interactive. “She steered us off-property and, when we got there, it was nothing like we expected. No shuttle, the air conditioning was broken and a fly flew by as we entered the hotel room.”

When Burke’s wife began to tear up, he called a Disney property, where the guest services cast member greeted him not only with open arms, but a clean room with lots of AC.

From then on, Burke spent his days jonesing for just a little more Tomorrowland, Downtown Disney and Ohana coladas.

“Something special happens on every trip,” he said. “Disney is the only place where literally all your expectations are exceeded - from customer service to food to efficiency.”

What makes Burke’s guide different is that it is not an overscheduled to-do list.

“I’ve seen too many people flying through the Magic Kingdom gates and running up the hill, missing everything along the way,” he said.

Instead, he tells readers how to discover the joy.

“Doing Disney like a Mousejunkie is more of a philosophy,” he writes. “Identify what you really want to do, figure out a plan to make sure that you do it, and everything else is gravy.”

Armada of the Damned is an entirely new experience within the Pirates of the Caribbean universe. The game takes place before the events of the blockbuster films. Players will take on the role of a pirate and embark on epic land and sea adventures. Numerous moral and character choices will need to be made that affect their character and the original story within the world. Players will explore a massive open world while fighting enemies, mystical creatures and Mother Nature, both to gain experience and stay alive. Supernatural elements familiar to the Pirates of the Caribbean world will also affect their character’s story and influence their choices.

“Armada of the Damned is a dynamic action role-playing game that captures all of the franchise’s excitement, unpredictability and action while delving into narrative elements never before explored within this unique universe,” said Dan Tudge, vice president and general manager, Propaganda Games. “Our team’s collective experience with industry-leading RPGs and action titles provides a strong foundation for us to create and build a compelling action role-playing title.”

Armada of the Damned is scheduled to be released in Fall 2010 for next-generation consoles and Windows PC.

Armada of the Damned is an extension of the globally successful Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, which began more than 40 years ago as a theme park attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif. The franchise continues to excite park goers with millions of visitors experiencing the four current theme park attractions at Disney parks around the world. The three blockbuster films grossed more than $2.6 billion worldwide in theaters and have continued to be successful on home video. Disney Interactive Studios has shipped more than 6 million units worldwide of self-published multiplatform Pirates of the Caribbean video games, which were inspired by the “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” films.

About Disney Interactive Studios

For the first time ever, Disney is turning to fans to create an official portrait of one of its biggest stars. Finalists in the Donald Duck 75th Anniversary Portrait Contest will have their work unveiled and displayed at the inaugural D23 Expo, which will be held September 10-13 at the Anaheim Convention Center, adjacent to Disneyland.

The contest is hosted by D23: The Official Community for Disney Fans, and is open to all D23 Members who are 18 or older. Full-length oil, acrylic or watercolor canvas portraits of Donald Duck, no larger than 24" W x 36" H, are eligible. Artists must first submit an original sketch, in any medium or size, of the planned artwork. The submission form, as well as full contest rules and additional details, can be found at the official D23 website, www.disney.com/D23. All finalists selected to have their works displayed will be eligible for two complimentary, four-day admission passes to the D23 Expo.

The creator of the winning portrait will receive an authentic "Duckster" - an award that Walt Disney personally commissioned in 1960 and which has been presented fewer than two dozen times to people who made significant contributions to the Walt Disney Studios. The last time a "Duckster" was awarded was nearly 20 years ago, and only a few of these rare, bronze statuettes of Donald Duck remain in the Walt Disney Archives. Among the past recipients of the "Duckster" are Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck, and famed Donald illustrator Carl Barks.

"What do you give a duck that has everything on his 75th birthday? You let the ones who love him most offer this most sincere form of flattery, of course," said Steven Clark, head of D23. "Disney fans are some of the most passionate and creative people anywhere, and we can't wait to see their fun and imaginative depictions of our feisty, yet lovable, leading duck!"

Since his first appearance in 1934's Silly Symphony The Wise Little Hen, Donald Duck has been one of Walt Disney's most popular creations, starring in more cartoons than Mickey Mouse himself. Donald's a 21st-century icon, as well, starring in not one but two theme-park attractions: Mickey's PhilharMagic at the Magic Kingdom and the Gran Fiesta Tour starring The Three Caballeros at Epcot. He's been honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, his webbed feet have been immortalized in front of the famed Grauman's Chinese Theater, and he's even a videogame star, having been featured prominently in Kingdom Hearts and its popular sequel.

Donald has appeared in more than 170 cartoons, movies and TV shows, and a celebrity of his magnitude has fans around the world. Whether they know him as Anders And (Danish), Donal Bebek (Indonesian), Paperino (Italian) or any other language, fans who are also members of D23 are invited to submit portraits that capture Donald's unique, multi-faceted personality as part of the Donald Duck 75th Anniversary Portrait Contest.

Sketches of proposed portraits, which should be fun interpretations of our favorite duck and his complex personality, must be physically mailed or shipped to The Walt Disney Archives no later than Monday, June 15 (e-mail submissions cannot be accepted). Sketches will be reviewed and judged by a panel of Disney creative executives. Artists whose work has been accepted will be notified by Disney, and must complete and deliver their finished canvas portrait (in oil, acrylic or watercolor) no later than August 15, 2009.

The winning portrait will be announced during a special event at the D23 Expo on Saturday, September 12. The Donald Duck 75th Anniversary Portrait Contest is open to members in good standing of D23.

The truth wasn't quite as glamorous, as seattlepi.com photographer Josh Trujillo found out this morning.

Macefield became a hero of sorts in fall 2007, when news spread that the elderly woman had refused a $1 million offer on her home from developers planning to turn her block into a five-story complex. Construction went on anyway, making her house a kind of local landmark. Macefield died last June. She was 86.

Update: Just spoke with Lindsay Randall, a publicist with THA, the company handling the local promotion.

Turns out the display had many more balloons when it was first set up at 9 a.m. Then the wind blew, pushing the balloons into the surrounding walls, where they began to pop.

"We blew up, I want to say, 175 balloons, and about 75 of them popped," Randall said.

Don't bother driving by to see for yourself; so many balloons popped throughout the rest of the morning that the company already took the whole thing down.

"It started to lose the aesthetic we were going for, so we didn't want people taking pictures," Randall said.

If a faded color in a movie is in question, for example, the team sends animators to the archives to look at the original drawings, painted glass plates or other source material for evidence on how the old-timers wanted it. So recent DVDs of restored features -- such as the 70th Anniversary Platinum Edition of Pinocchio -- return vitality, clarity and freshness to the films.

But, sadly, the restoration team was not employed on the current Classic Short Films series (part of the Walt Disney Animation Collection). That makes the six single-disc volumes issued so far a mixed blessing. Perhaps it is even a buyer-beware or buyer-take-care situation.

Yet there are treasures here stretching from the 1930s to 1990. The content is enticing, especially to those of us who grew up watching the Disney shorts on television as kids (and all are presented in the original fullscreen ratio of 1.33:1, so don't stretch and distort them by playing in widescreen). But there are quality control issues which the studio should have addressed.

The first three volumes came out on April 7: Volume 1: Mickey and the Beanstock; Volume 2: Three Little Pigs; Volume 3: The Prince and the Pauper.

The next three volumes came out on May 12: Volume 4: The Tortoise and the Hare; Volume 5: Wind in the Willows; Volume 6: The Reluctant Dragon.

In every case, the title cartoon is just one of several shorts on each DVD. Look on the back of each handsome box for full listings. Supposedly, there is some kind of loose theme that connects them but that notion is arcane and not really fixed. For example, on Volume 6, the "long" shorts Goliath II, Ferdinand the Bull and Johnny Appleseed join The Reluctant Dragon, the title cartoon.

In the case of Volume 4, the title short -- The Tortoise and the Hare -- is the least significant cartoon in the collection. Babes in the Woods, The Goddess of Spring and Paul Bunyan all surpass it in quality and distinction. That might just be nitpicking, however.

Meanwhile, the real problems are found in the quality of the transfers. With no restorations, you see scratches, hairs and dirt on the screen. The Tortoise and the Hare, for example, looks faded, scratched and hairy right from the Start Line, where the two critters get ready for their famous race. In the case of Wind and the Willows, the print is just horrible.

The sound is presented as Dolby Digital Surround Sound. That may be technically correct but it is misleading. The sound in some of the older cartoons is muffled. One Internet technie suggests switching your system to mono to bring out the fullest sound, although it is still not great. Fake stereo does not work without restoration, just as the picture quality depends on it, too.

So this Classic Short Films series frustrates. At the same time, I love many of these shorts, a few of which have never been on DVD before.