Mickey Mouse: The Black & White Years (Walt Disney Legacy Collection)

Mickey Mouse: The Black & White Years is one of the first five entries in the Vault Disney Archival Collection. It will be released on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD, as will the other four sets.

The three-disc set chronicles the first 42 Mickey Mouse cartoons released, uncensored and in black-and-white. Each cartoon was originally released on VHS and occasionally, on DVD in multiple compilation videos and on DVD on two Walt Disney Treasures sets - Mickey Mouse in Black and White and Mickey Mouse in Black and White - Volume Two - but have not seen a Blu-ray release.

Description
Witness the birth of a massive worldwide hit.

''For less than ninety years, Walt Disney's alter-ego has been entertaining people from all over the world. Relive the magic and music of Mickey Mouse's first steps out of the inkwell and onto the silver screen, as the Vault Disney Archival Collection presents you a collaboration of monochrome cartoons in their original form - uncensored and uncut. ''

This irresistible duo of black-and-white animated shorts comes complete with a brand-new documentary explaining the origins of everyone's favorite mouse, story sketches and scripts from selected Mickey shorts, and a barely-seen newsreel of Mickey's official fan-club.

Disc One
The first disc contains the first 20 Mickey cartoons, as well as the story script for Steamboat Willie and an "evolution" area for that short and Plane Crazy showing the many steps in making a cartoon (storyboards, pencil tests, "work in progress", the finished projects, and television colorization(s)).

Mickey Mouse cartoons

 * Plane Crazy (1928)
 * The Gallopin' Gaucho (1928)
 * Steamboat Willie (1928)
 * The Barn Dance (1929)
 * The Opry House (1929)
 * When the Cat's Away (1929)
 * The Barnyard Battle (1929)
 * The Plow Boy (1929)
 * The Karnival Kid (1929)
 * Mickey's Follies (1929)
 * Mickey's Choo-Choo (1929)
 * The Jazz Fool (1929)
 * Jungle Rhythm (1929)
 * The Haunted House (1929)
 * Wild Waves (1929)
 * The Barnyard Concert (1930)
 * Fiddling Around (1930)
 * The Cactus Kid (1930)
 * The Fire Fighters (1930)
 * The Shindig (1930)

Bonus material
This documentary focuses on Walt Disney's partnership with Ub Iwerks, the Alice Comedies, and eventually Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, before getting around how Oswald was taken from him by Charles Mintz to Universal, thus leading to Mickey's creation. The documentary also talks about Ub's own animation studio and the cartoons made there, as well as how Mickey became the marketing juggernaut that many people today know him as. This "making of" feature provides information on how the first Mickey Mouse cartoons were made, and goes through this via five out of six steps:
 * The Men Behind the Mouse documentary on Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks
 * Mickey's Movie Magic
 * 1) Storyboards for Steamboat Willie
 * 2) Story script for Steamboat Willie
 * 3) Silent cuts for both Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie
 * 4) These silent versions are followed immediately after by the final project, as seen on the main part of this disc.
 * 5) Colorized version of Plane Crazy

Disc Two
The second disc contains fifteen more shorts (as well as a bonus promotional short currently in the public domain), as well as a newsreel, story sketches of the cartoons on that disc, and the evolution of two shorts.

Mickey Mouse cartoons

 * The Chain Gang (1930)
 * The Gorilla Mystery (1930)
 * The Picnic (1930)
 * Pioneer Days (1930)
 * The Birthday Party (1931)
 * Traffic Troubles (1931)
 * The Castaway (1931)
 * The Moose Hunt (1931)
 * The Delivery Boy (1931)
 * Mickey Steps Out (1931)
 * Blue Rhythm (1931)
 * Fishin' Around (1931)
 * The Barnyard Broadcast (1931)
 * The Beach Party (1931)
 * Mickey Cuts Up (1931)

Bonus material
This feature contains all uncut and edited versions of both 1930's Pioneer Days and the following year's The Castaway, explaining how a cartoon is often edited for television syndication and modern-day audiences. The cuts seen in later releases of the two shorts are exploited, as well as the colorization seen for the television broadcasts from the early 1990's.
 * Story sketches and script fragments for the majority of the shorts on this disc
 * Mickey Steps Out story script
 * Several versions of Pioneer Days and The Castaway
 * The Original Mickey Mouse Club (includes Minnie's Yoo Hoo sing-along short (1930), newsreel, and information on the Mickey Mouse Clubs from 1929-1935)

Disc Three
The final disc on this set includes eight more shorts, the story sketches for those shorts, and more supplemental material.

Mickey Mouse cartoons

 * Mickey's Orphans (1931)
 * The Duck Hunt (1932)
 * The Grocery Boy (1932)
 * The Mad Dog (1932)
 * The Barnyard Olympics (1932)
 * Mickey's Revue (1932)
 * Musical Farmer (1932)

Bonus material

 * Mickey's Scrapbook photo gallery (includes posters, comics, and merchandise with selected audio commentaries by Leonard Maltin)
 * Story sketches and script fragments for most of the cartoons on this disc
 * In Walt's Words feature
 * Frank and Ollie...and Mickey (from Mickey Mouse in Black and White DVD)
 * Mickey Mania: Collecting Mickey Merchandise (from Mickey Mouse in Black and White - Volume Two DVD)

Trivia

 * Surviving original title-cards for the shorts on each disc will be included. The most notable is Fiddling Around, which was called the incorrect, yet working title Just Mickey on its only DVD release. Recreated title cards for those without surviving original cards will also be made to replace the ones on their respective DVD releases.
 * This DVD set is co-produced by Leonard Maltin, David Gerstein, and Steve Stanchfield.
 * A total of 500,000 copies of this set will be produced.