Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Michael_Elliott The Reluctant Dragon (1941) *** 1/2 (out of 4)Robert Benchley and his wife are sitting around their pool when she suggests he pays Walt Disney a visit and talk him into making an animated short out of The Reluctant Dragon story. At first Benchley doesn't want to but after she forces him he finds himself on the Disnet lot where he gets a behind-the-scenes look at the company while trying to find Walt Disney.Those walking into this expecting a full-length Disney movie might be a tad bit disappointed but I think adults and fans of the company will really enjoy this part-documentary, part-animated short. What we've basically got here is a tour of the Walt Disney Studios with Benchley given access to various things that most common people wouldn't get to see. Along the way he interacts with Donald Duck, Goofy and a few other characters as well as getting to view the HOW TO RIDE A HORSE short (which would be released on its own in 1950).What I enjoyed the most about this documentary is the fact that you really get to learn how an animated movie is made. This might be more common knowledge today but back in 1941 I'm sure most people didn't know everything and this film does a great job at explaining it. Even better is the fact that we get to meet some of the actual people who worked on the films as either animators or even those doing sound effects or working around the office.The animation sequences are perhaps the least entertaining thing in the film. The Goofy short is good but it certainly isn't one of the studios best films. The Reluctant Dragon is mildly entertaining but it's certainly far from classic Disney. For his part in the film Benchley is good, warm and isn't as annoying as he was in some of his own personal shorts. I'm not sure kids will enjoy this but adults are bound to have a great time with this behind-the-scenes look at Disney and we even get a nice sequence with the man himself.

SnoopyStyle 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.

nycruise-1 After filming the live-action sequences of "Fantasia" and hurting for a "feature release" following the financial fiascos of the aforementioned feature, presumably Disney rushed this into production (with most of it live-action, it not only cost less than a fully-animated counterpart of equal length, it took much less time to complete).It purports to tell the story of how Disney animated cartoons are made, but, courtesy of a disclaimer at the beginning of the movie, it turns out to be more fiction than fact.Various processes - like sound recording, paint-mixing, cell-photographing, multi-planing, etc - are all upended for the sake of humor (in one instance, a complete cel of Donald Duck comes to life, in another instance, the sound effects crew creates an "unplanned" cacophony by knocking over all the equipment).More to the point is that the sequences are not just staged, but they employ professional actors (such as Alan Ladd!) portraying Disney animators and other staff (although in certain instances, actual animators such as Woolie Reitherman and Ward Kimball make appearances).The "Baby Weems" sequence is often commended by many for being innovative and the forerunner of the UPA-style that would dominant the art of animation in the 1950s, but the fact is that "Weems" is nothing more than a sleek, streamlined version of a "leica reel" (a film which combines the pre-recorded soundtrack with the animators' storyboard sketches, as a way of assessing how story pacing and timing are before *before* any time and effort are spent creating fully-animated sequences). The story is cute, the drawings are more fully- rendered than they would be in a genuine Leica reel so they are nice to see, but "innovative"? I don't think so.The Goofy "How-to" sequence is okay (I never cared for the "How-To" series, but I know a similarly-themed version in "Saludos Amigos" with Goofy trying to be a Gaucho is funnier).The title short - "The Reluctant Dragon" - is cute and funny. I don't think it rates as a classic, but because it is such a rarely-viewed piece it needs to be watched by all Disney-philes.Considering its historic value, this movie is hardly a waste of time. It's just not one that deserves repeated viewings.

Aleck-3 I happened upon this film during a late night when nothing else was on TV, and couldn't have been happier that I came across it.In this, we're taken behind-the-scenes of Disney studios circa 1941, and given a humorous (and, I'm sure, highly fictionalized) tour of the studio and its various departments. While I've always been a fan of Disney's animation, I'd never been given a glimpse of the animators themselves, and I always thought that they deserved to be as well known as the Warner Brothers stable of talent. Well, here they're given a chance to hog the spotlight (as Disney himself doesn't show up until the final few moments of the film) and show off their talents.Not only is this a good chance for you to see how some of your Disney favorites were brought to screen, the linking device with comic Robert Benchley is charming throughout, and the attitude is more than a little self-deprecating (playing up the notion that one is indoctrinated into the "Disney way of life" in working for the Mouse, Benchley's guide is portrayed as a militarily-garbed, wormy little walking Disney Rule Book). The animation itself is great (as is usual for Disney of this vintage) and the live-action work is funny in a way that most Disney live-action works aren't. All of this adds up to a most rewarding, and highly neglected, classic from the Vaults of Disney.