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Noell Wolfgram Evans · From fps #8 · June 30, 2006 | This is either the product of my overactive imagination or an actual episode of the Sunday night Walt Disney Presents television show: Jiminy Cricket is on Walt's desk next to a globe. As he discusses various parts of the world, we see animated clips highlighting those areas. Even as a kid I understood that this was what they called learning while having fun. And you know what? I didn't mind. In fact I actually kind of liked the dual approach.

It's a Small World of Fun Vol. 1 Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 2006 54 minutes It's a Small World of Fun Vol. 2 Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 2006 56 minutes Shop for It's a Small World of Fun DVDs and more: Amazon.ca Amazon.com

When I saw that Disney was releasing a series of DVDs entitled It's a Small World of Fun, I got those feelings from my childhood all over again—particularly when I read the description, "Animated Adventures in Exciting Lands!" The unneeded exclamation point, though, was my first indicator that this two-volume set was not what I was hoping for. Oh, these are animated adventures and each is set in a different land but that is where the similarity with my (potentially fabricated) memory ends. Each volume contains a group of disparate animated shorts produced by Disney during, more or less, the mid-1940s through 1960. The shorts are connected by the fact that each is set in a different part of the world (for example, in volume one you can find Goliath II representing India and African Diary representing, well, Africa, while on volume two, Susie, the Little Blue Coupe is the showcase for the US and Peter and the Wolf is the representative of Russia).

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You'll find it and many other articles in the June 2006 issue of fps, available for only $1.49 US.