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Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

This is a curious picture in that it's the one feature made during the "classic" Disney animated period (before/during/just after WW2) that might not be that appealing to children. I say 'might' since I can't say for certain for all kids; I think if I saw this when I was younger, it would be a delight, but then it's a movie made for people who may want to know all of THIS that Disney did was possible. It's a hybrid of documentary, ridiculous narrative with a man named Robert Benchley, and actual cartoons.It's actually a treat to watch for a number of reasons, the first being that it shows the process of a Disney animated movie, a short or feature or whatever. You get to see here the voice actors - as soon as Clarence Nash came on doing Donald Duck my face lit up - and then on to how all of the synchronized sound is out together for the audio effects (hint: there are a LOT of them), and then down to things that most of us take for granted like how paints are made and how the camera works (the multi-plane one that was in heavy use at the time). There's also some character demonstrations and even a clip for the sync-sound portion where we see a portion of Dumbo with the Casey Jr train, only it's much longer and may be its own short which is very charming on its own.The whole narrative thrust of the movie is so slight that I'm sure the director and whoever was behind this movie barely paid attention to it, where Benchley has an idea to give to Disney for The Reluctant Dragon, gets on to the Disney lot and tries to find good ol' Walt and then gets distracted by every single department. Any time the movie stops to give heed to Benchley it's unfunny and stops dead in its tracks. It might just be because I don't know about Benchley (was he popular at the time, probably, I see he has a list of acting credits), but it doesn't really matter and it kills the real momentum of the piece. I suppose the thought was if it was a straight documentary instead of this man as a 'travel guide' it would be more dry. I'm not sure it would've been since everything to do with how a cartoon gets made - including the storyboard segment on Baby Weens which is pure delight - is fascinating.Ironically by the time the movie gets to the full Reluctant Dragon cartoon (surprise/spoiler: Disney's one appearance is in the projection room about to screen the finished short, wop-wop), it's slightly a let-down. It's charming enough and has its moments, but it's too long at 20 minutes and as a short it starts to drag in the middle. I think if you're a kid coming to this today you should know the whole feature isn't a cartoon (oddly enough on the DVD release it just comes with the cartoon and a few other shorts so I guess that was forward thinking on Disney's part), but if you love the old process of animation, from drawing to paints to inking to character work (look at how they use that baby for inspiration!) it's a treat. I mean, where else will you get to see Donald Duck show us all how he walks!The notable thing about this short cartoon directed by Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman (who would go to direct many of the notable Disney movies of the 60's and 70's and was part of the "9 Old Men"), is that it features a few pieces of key animation from The Jungle Book several years before the film while *also* featuring some shots which are clearly taken from older Disney movies (I counted Dumbo and Peter Pan, though I'm sure there are bits from others I missed).It may be that I notice such things after a lifetime of seeing these things, but I think even if you're only somewhat familiar with the animation it will come up as 'hey, wait a minute, that's Dumbo and his mom, isn't it?' All the same it's a cute short - not much more, but the story, about a tiny elephant who is looked on as a pain in the butt for the other larger elephants and gets into mishaps with a tiger (only to later save them all by, again the Dumbo connection, fighting a mouse that they adults are all scared of), is a charming and substantive story of standing up for yourself against odds even if you're smaller or weaker or whatnot.It is slight, it is silly, and it feels like an early trial run for The Jungle Book long before Balloo and Bagheera and when Khan looked like a rag-doll version of a tiger. It's fine, it's just not anything highly memorable, aside from its cribbing of shots from other Disney movies (perhaps, no, surely, as a way of cutting corners costwise).

Humorist Robert Benchley is at home. His wife convinces him to sell the rights for his story 'The Reluctant Dragon' to Walt Disney. She drags him to the studio and leaves him there. He wanders around the studio and discovers the animation process along the way. Finally he meets Walt Disney himself.This starts as a black and white live action fictional drama. The fact that it's not animation made it less than successful originally. However it's fascinating to see where Disney began and what it looked like. It's a studio tour dressed up as a little story. This is terrific as a time capsule and a fun way to see how it was made. This is probably a good movie to show new hires at the time. After 25 minutes, the movie turns into technicolor with some animation. Goofy has a cartoon about how to ride a horse. The final section has the Reluctant Dragon cartoon. This movie has a bit of historical values but as a story, this is rather bland.

I am sure a lot of younger folks watching it will be disappointed. That's because the story of the "Reluctant Dragon" only makes up a tiny portion of this movie. So, if you expect to see a full-length cartoon, you are in for a big surprise.The film is a behind the scenes look at the Disney Studio, though I must confess that it's VERY heavily orchestrated to give a happy look to the workers--even though at the time a VERY divisive strike was taking place. To make this image of one big happy family, many of the animators and other workers at the studio are actually portrayed by actors! This is dishonest but interesting as you see a very young Alan Ladd pretending to be a Disney animator! In addition, you'll see the prolific character actor John Dehner along side Ladd--but you might not recognize Dehner, as he's VERY skinny here! However, I must confess that despite being a faux look, many of the techniques were real and it still was very satisfying to watch.This is all part of an over-arching story involving the witty Robert Benchley. His wife nags him to go talk to Walt Disney about making a cartoon out of his story, "The Reluctant Dragon". But, Benchley's heart isn't in it and he mostly just wanders about the studio--watching the workers doing their craft and interacting with them. In addition, you see a rough version of a cartoon about a genius baby and, at the end, the story of this dragon--which is downright adorable. In fact, the film is worth seeing just to see this great dragon tale--it's among the studio's best work, albeit short in length.The whole package is great--well worth seeing--especially if you are interested in the craft of animation. And, some of the scenes are shot in some of the most vivid color of the era. A nice film in every way--just not what the kiddies might be expecting!

This little classic spends just short of an hour touring the Disney Studios in the company of Robert Benchley, the humorist who acts like a big kid in a candy store (and is thus the perfect guide for something like this).We see how the cartoons are made, moving from the recording studio - where the real-life voices of Donald Duck and Clara Cluck sing an aria - through to clay models of the characters to be animated - the sound effects dept. (we see the full Casey Junior sequence, some of which ended up in 1941's 'Dumbo') - the scenario department (we see a whole cartoon - Baby Weems - in storyboard format) - the animation department (we see a cartoon feature on riding a horse, and see Donald Duck showing us how he walks) - and much more. There's also a neat segue from black and white to Technicolor.'The Reluctant Dragon' is a book which Benchley hopes to pitch to Disney, only to find the film has already been made; the last 20 minutes of this feature is the cartoon about the (rather camp) dragon, and a classic bit of Disney work. The whole movie is engrossing and a fantastic overview of the state-of-the-art work being done by the Disney Studios at the beginning of the 40s.