There’s a really strange moment early in episode three where it just repeats a scene from episode one. It’s very curious, almost as though they might have done a “previously on…” but they didn’t want to make anybody who missed either of the first two installments on Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color think that they really needed to have seen them to follow the narrative. I guess that speaks to producers’ and networks’ estimation of their audience’s intelligence in 1964.
Our son enjoyed the third part more than the second, and I did as well. It’s a really tense story where the Scarecrow has to put a very complex plan together very quickly to free two prisoners from the general, and he has to rely on making a bet on one man’s better nature for it to succeed. Superbly directed and acted, just like the other two, this was a real treat.
I’ll go to my grave grumbling that Disney didn’t make a full season of these. The story comes to a reasonable stopping point, but there’s a lot more that they could have done with this premise. Nevertheless, what we got was even better than I had been hoping for over the last thirty years. This is up there with 20,000 Leagues as one of the most entertaining things that Disney did back in its classic period. Get yourself a Disney Movie Club subscription and see for yourself.
Fire Breathing Dimetrodon Time 