What Parents Should Know
Comprised of classic cartoons from Disney's golden age, the animation is, as usual, beautifully rendered. Fast-paced action adds considerable punch to the wild humor. The Halloween edition is the most frightening of the three videos in this series, and parents may want to shield younger viewers, or more sensitive kids from its images of hell and eternal damnation. The rest of this series is perfect for preschoolers, who may not catch everything, but will appreciate the gentle humor and lovable characters. Older kids will pick up the more subtle humor, but may find these shorts too tame for their tastes. The charm factor should still entice teen viewers, especially Disney and/or animation buffs.

Families who watch this series may want to use it to encourage creatively-inclined children to draw (on paper) or find out more about the animators behind Disney's most famous characters.

Common Sense Media Review
Titles reviewed in this series include: Disney's Cartoon Classics 3, Here's Goofy; Disney's Cartoon Classics 10, Starring Pluto and Fifi; and Disney's Cartoon Classics 14, Halloween Haunts.

The classic Disney cartoons in this collections were intended for the silver screen, as theatrical shorts, and it shows. The quality of the animation is superb and the stories are often complex and more interesting than your average cartoon fare.

The best in the series is Here's Goofy!. This collection of Goofy theatrical shorts is unusually funny. Pitting our clumsy hero against a variety of oversized opponents, the cartoons boast the typical quality Disney animation, but with far more outlandish humor than usual. Kids, big and small, will appreciate the lovable goofiness of the title character. It doesn't hurt that these cartoons have a significant Warner Brothers influence. The humor is more aggressive, and the pace noticeably accelerated. These elements, combined with the wonderfully spastic animation of the frenzied, flailing Goofy, result in some of the funniest shorts that Disney has ever made. Contemporary kids will appreciate the faster pace of these episodes, as that's what they're accustomed to seeing in more recent cartoons and video games.

The weakest of the three is Halloween Haunts, simply because it may frighten youngsters. Mickey and the gang take on ghosts and goblins in this supernaturally themed collection of theatrical cartoons. Though scary, all are top-notch samples of Disney animation at its best, brimming with the lavish visuals that make their shorts unique. Children and parents will likely embrace this sometimes dark, but mostly silly collection of tricks and treats. The scariest, and perhaps one of the best shorts Disney ever created is "Pluto's Judgement Day," which leads off this trio of theatrical shorts. The piece manages to come across genuinely creepy, while staying silly at the same time. But it's depiction of hell and eternal damnation may be too much for some kids.