As any serious animated DVD collector will tell you, the Disney Treasure Tins are a sought after commodity. There's no better way to get a rarer collection of classic cartoons in one place. While there is a certain expensive nature to tracking down all of the limited edition tins, Disney has recently split up some of the cartoons available and distributed them in cheaper and shorter releases. The newest of which is the Timeless Tales series and it features many classics for a very affordable price without excessive double dipping.

What we have here is a collection of Silly Symphonies and various other Disney productions dating as far back as 1934. In total there are six cartoons featured here with a running time of just over an hour, so it's not like the price of admission is buying you a slew of content. Of course, the quality and nostalgic value of the animated shorts is more than enough to make up for that. In many ways some, not all, of what's here truly stands out as something that I'd call timeless.

We all know that Disney prides itself on offering a product that is marketable to families. Going back and watching many of these classics like Casey At The Bat and Little Hiawatha proves that. Sure the cute animals, silly music, and light narratives are more designed towards kids, but given the elderly nature of these productions chances are very good that parents saw many of these at some point in their lives.

The most predominant cartoon featured on volume three of the series easily has to be Casey At The Bat. Originally released in 1946, this short was the animated retelling of Ernest Thayer's poem about a baseball player who was so confident in his abilities that he struck out. The narrative is faithful to the original material but when set to the humorous (and absurd) animation it really comes to life. It's rather amusing to see the way that Casey behaves while at the plate and it's a testament to baseball back in the late 1800s when Thayer originally wrote the poem.

Little Hiawatha from 1937 is an adorable tale about a young Indian out on the big hunt. He goes out all alone with his bow and arrow to make the big score and be the pride of his tribe, but finds himself constantly having to pull up his pants. Hiawatha also finds himself biting off more than he can chew when he runs into a mama bear that is protecting her young. Fortunately he makes some friends along the way who lend a helping paw.

Another story with a moral at the end is Morris the Midget Moose. You see, Morris happens to be vertically challenged and considered a laughing stock among his kind. When the most fearsome of all moose arrives, everybody lines up to butt heads with him, even our star. He doesn't quite have what it takes to do it on his own so he eventually befriends a larger moose with smaller antlers. I've always enjoyed this one in particular and think it's probably the cutest cartoon that you'll find on this set.

Midas and his Golden Touch also make an appearance in an oldie from 1935. The tale is just about the same as has been told from Greek mythology with a couple of adjustments to "modernize" it. As classic as the Midas story is it's probably the grimmest out of all of these tales considering the realization that he'll starve to death because of his golden curse. The Wise Little Hen on the contrary is a much more family friendly story with a message about helping friends out when they ask you to.

While most of these cartoons clock in at around ten minutes or so each, Ben and Me takes the cake with over twenty minutes of play time. Back in 1953 this retelling of Robert Lawson's 1939 children book was actually nominated for an Academy Award. This adaptation may not be the most historically accurate but it's a charming way to tell the tale of Ben Franklin to young ones. Proposing that a tiny mouse made Franklin the man that history remembered him as was a cute way to handle it.

There may only be six features on this disc but they are each classics in their own right. Granted some of them may be better than others, but chances are good that there is enough here to keep kids watching. Older viewers (like myself) may be drawn to the release for the nostalgic value that many of these cartoons hold. These prove to be just as fun for the whole family in this day and age as they did when they were originally released.

With production dates that run the gamut for the better part of twenty years between 1934 and 1953 the quality obviously varies greatly. There are many scenes where some grain and speckle appear, but to be frank they are nothing compared to what they should have been considering how old the material is. Disney really did a great job re-mastering the original prints for this transfer and the image quality is fantastic. Colors are usually vibrant and there is very little flaw to complain about. The work done for this release is head and shoulders above the treatment that even some more recent Disney cartoons have received.

Disney's Timeless Tales Volume 3 is presented with some crisp and clean audio quality. The English and French soundtracks may only be available with Dolby Digital audio, but this is about as great as these shows have ever sounded. I didn't encounter any distortion or dropout at any time and there is a fair degree of directionality for the audio that is being offered. You can't expect a miracle to be worked over for something that was made 70 years ago, but just like the video quality, I was greatly impressed. The disc also comes with optional English subtitles for the hearing impaired.

There are no bonus features on this release. It's unfortunate because due to the classic nature of this content, someone out there could have pulled together a short commentary or interview feature.

Disney's Timeless Tales is proving to be a nice little series with a lot of nostalgic value at a reasonable price margin. Granted there's not a lot of content on this volume but what is here is solid gold. Disney could have definitely squeezed some more cartoons onto the disc instead of milking it. The video and audio is amazing considering how old this stuff is, but that's not really enough to excuse the overall lack of material. Recommended

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