Paul Bunyan (1958)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Not a great adaption for Disney, but certainly characteristic of the shorts released in the 50's. It's interesting to consider that this tale was part of American folklore long before it was put into print. Like most folklore,it's full of exaggerated fictional accounts of events. One can image loggers sitting around a campfire, or in a cabin, each trying to embellish and exaggerate the story to make it more interesting then the last time it was told. Certainly a colorful Tall Tale. All part of our collective heritage, and what fun!

"Paul Bunyan" is a Disney cartoon from 1958, so this one will have its 60th anniversary already next year. At 17 minutes, it is considerably longer than most cartoon short films from that or maybe I should say bigger because the title character is truly a tree of a man. Eventually, he is perhaps the most known lumberjack mankind has ever seen or maybe just the United States have ever seen as there is a lot of patriotism, maybe even heroism, attached to this little movie. It was nominated for an Oscar too, but lost to Warner Bros' Bugs Bunny entry that year. Back to this one here, if you take a look at the bodies of work from the director, the writer and some of the voice cast members, you will find that they worked on some real classic films. Paul Bunyan may not be among the latter, but their expertise helped in turning this into a pretty good film as well. The introduction to the character was nice for example when we see him as a baby, but the contest man vs. machine at the end was well done too. A happy ending, but they also weren't scared of including disappointments. At under 20 minutes, it is fine that all the other human characters in here are really irrelevant. It's all about Paul, who by the way was voiced in a recent animated movie by John Goodman. The size sure fits. I recommend "Paul Bunyan", a fairly good watch and finally also a thumbs-up for the "bulldog" pet who was quite a scene stealer in this one.

Paul Bunyan was one of those animations that I saw a lot as a child, and was fascinated and highly amused by it. As a 20-year old adult, I still do have a soft spot for it, but I think I liked it more as a child. Mainly because when I was younger I paid little attention to the animation quality, but when you're older it's not really something that you can ignore really. And I hate to say it, but I do agree that the animation is not that great, despite Paul Bunyan being unique for being the last Disney short film to be inked by hand apparently. The character designs came across as rather blocky, except for Paul himself, and the backgrounds are very limited and flat. There is one touch that I did like and that was the Nothern Lights at the end, very nicely done. Aside from the animation, which I do think is too big a foible to excuse, I loved the music. The title song is very catchy with great lyrics, and the rest of the songs are humorous and the scoring whimsical. The singing of it is great as well, I still marvel at how the vocal ensembles manage to blend with each other so well and Paul Bunyan is no exception, while Thurl Ravenscroft has that same resonant basso-profundo voice. The story and writing have some funny moments, are faithful to the original tale and are very clever. The characters are memorable, especially Paul who is also very endearing and easy to like, and the voice work is great. Overall, I didn't care for the animation, but I thought the rest of Paul Bunyan was highly enjoyable. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This longish short was nominated for an Oscar. Decent enough and a fairly good adaptation of the tall tale, but fairly routine Disney and with nothing especially memorable or exceptional about it in any area. Worth watching, this runs infrequently as filler on the Disney Channel during "Vault Disney in the wee hours of the morning.