Customer Reviews

Walt Disney's Classic Storybook (Disney Storybook Collections)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book is one of Amazon's biggest bargains. It's a collection of 18 classic Disney short stories, illustrated with restored artwork from 1950s and '60s Little Golden Books and printed on quality gloss paper -- which has silver gilded edges like that of a fine photo album. You'd think it would cost about four times as much.

Its stories come from nine Disney movies and nine Disney cartoons. The movie narratives are:
* "Sleeping Beauty"
* "Lady" (from "Lady and the Tramp"
* "Mary Poppins"
* "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs"
* "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party" (from "Alice in Wonderland")
* "Pinocchio"
* "Dumbo of the Circus" (the story of "Dumbo")
* "101 Dalmatians"
* "Peter Pan"

The cartoon tales are:
* "Pedro" (one of the animated shorts in the 1942 film "Saludos Amigos")
* "Once Upon A Wintertime" (a short from 1948's "Melody Time")
* "Three Little Pigs" (a 1933 Silly Symphonies cartoon)
* "The Grasshopper and the Ants" (a 1934 Silly Symphony)
* "Johnny Appleseed" (a "Melody Time" animated featurette)
* "The Tortoise and the Hare" (a 1935 Silly Symphony)
* "Scamp" (the story of Lady and the Tramp's son, the basis of 2001's "Scamp's Adventure")
* "Bootle Beetle's Adventure" (from "Bootle Beetle," a 1947 Donald Duck cartoon)
* "The Old Mill" (a 1937 Silly Symphony)

Each story is 10 to 20 pages, with less words (and larger type) than its original Little Golden Book, but at least one illustration per page. The style of art varies. "The Grasshopper and the Ants" uses muted watercolors. "Three Little Pigs" has some sepia-toned pencil sketches. "Alice in Wonderland" and "Once Upon a Wintertime" feature artist Mary Blair's vibrant use of white. And "Mary Poppins" literally pops off the page, with a vivid rainbow of colors straight from the 1960s.

If you buy this book, you'll keep it forever.

The tales are decently written even though some details are missing (no mention of Pinocchio's growing nose when he tells lies!).
The vintage pictures are really lovely, remind me of an old fairy tale book.
It is definetely one of my daughter's (3 & 1/2 years old) favorite.
Good deal for the money!

I bought this book for my daughter's 5th birthday so we could have a good bedtime book. The stories are classic in the sense that they have some of the original characters and some of the original themes, but they are slightly condensed. For example, we read the story "101 Dalmations" one night, and the story ended happily but prematurely. My wife and I looked at each other quizzically because we knew there was much more to the story, but my daughter enjoyed it. It appears some of the stories are edited to fit in the short format, which is fine if that is what you expect. When I read the other reviews and the description, I expected full length stories. This book is very good and we thoroughly enjoy the stories, but if you want complete stories that are "Classic Disney" you won't get them here. Prepare for a slightly condensed version of classic stories. Overall, still a great product.

This is a nice addition to your nursery or reading room. The book contains many of the classic Disney tales wonderfully adapted for easy reading.

The book is well bound and of good quality. What I really like
is that it matches the other Disney books in size and style and so looks nice on the shelf.

Each story is accompanied by wonderful illustrations, and the stories have been beautifully shortened to make for perfect reading length to keep your youngsters attention.

Over all this is a great book, and will make a wonderful addition to your nursery.

It's a shame this volume was discontinued--there are some good stories here and it is an excellent value. The illustrations are very nice. The writing is OK, but nothing special. It tends to be rather bland--somewhat more than a condensed description of what happened in a cartoon--but it does the job. The stories themselves are obviously appealing to kids, and our little boy liked most but not all of these stories. He particularly enjoyed some that you might not expect, like "Bootle Beetle's Adventure" and "The Old Mill." You can see video versions of these on YouTube, by the way.

This is great for bedtime reading, as lots of stories and you can read a few everynight, over and over again.

I was pleased with this book. Not only are the stories classic, the colorful pictures will attract a young child's attention. The only disappointment was the quality of paper used. It isn't terrible, but I would like to have seen this classic printed on top-quality paper. Still, since a child will be handling the book, the paper may not remain top-quality for long!

This was a good find. My grandchildren love hearing these stories and love the great pictures.

I really loved this book, it contains a lot of Disney Stories that are not found elsewhere and the pictures are all very good. My four year old loves it and my baby daughter who is just past one loves to look at the pictures. Really a good buy.

This is a fine book, but there's no reason to buy it. A better, and less expensive, version is also available, at least some of the time: Walt Disney's Classic Storybook (Disney Storybook Collections) [BARGAIN PRICE] (Hardcover).