Walt Disney Treasures: The Mickey Mouse Club Presents Annette - 1957-1958 Season (Collector's Tin)

Not only is Annette Funicello unforgettable, but she is ably supported by a cast of unusual young actors with at least two titanic performances worthy of Emmy awards (did they have the Emmy in 1958?) Annette McCloud is an orphan from Beaver Junction who comes to the Los Angeles suburb of Ashford to a middle-class world of hayrides and malt shops, and a crowd of wealthy high schoolers who view her as a freak. When she gets off the train in her straw suitcase, her own home-made dress, and long unruly hair a la Jennifer Jones in DUEL IN THE SUN, she looks like an anomaly from some other century. She introduces herself to an aunt and uncle who don't even know she's alive. I wondered about this part--why couldn't Archie and Lila at least have known of her existence? The fact that they never bothered finding out what had become of their black sheep brother Bryce showed, to me, a certain heartlessness never really addressed by the film. And also, why did they have Archie and Lila as brother and sister? Wouldn't it have made more sense for them to be a married couple? The way it is now, I'm sorry, it's just plain kinky.

What is strange is that all, I mean ALL, the adults eeem like grandparents and not parents. How old are they supposed to be? The mother of Tim Considine (Steven Abernathy) looks like Helen Hayes playing the Snoop Sisters--and yet figuring by the calendar, she's probably not yet 40.

Annette is charming, if only occasionally lifelike. Her character is constantly being told she's not confrontational enough, and so two more volcanic personalities find it easy to steal the show--Roberta Shore as Laura Rogan, a visiting debutante who rules the entire teen social world of Ashford, and rules it with an iron fist. Beautiful, seductive, charming, blessed with a lovely voice and a great way of selling a song, Laura is also a deadly snob and soon finds a way to accuse poor Annette of stealing a valuable necklace. Oh, that necklace! I just finished watching Max Ophuls' French melodrama THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE and in all honestly, if you're interested in losing precious jewelry, hat happens to Laura's necklace in the story of Annette is a much more cinematic and fulfilling story. Roberta Shore is what Susan Sontag used to call Fascinating Fascism--when she's on the screen, even in a crowd scene, one hunts her out just to see how much attitude she's striking. I make her seem totally mannered, the miracle is she's not, she's natural as rain, and gorgeous to boot.

In the opposite corner we have Jett Maypen, the farmer tomboy girl who delivers eggs and chickens to Mary Wickes (Katy, the maid to Uncle Archie and Aunt Lila). Jett becomes Annette's best friend somewhat against Lila's wishes, for Lila wants Annette ot have more sophisticated friends. As played by Judy Nugent, Jett is one hot potato just simmering with class rage and what looks like good old fashioned twilight passion--the love for Annette that dare not speak its name. Laura scorns Jett as beyond the social pale, but she sure cleans up nice, and before long, she is surprising the audience with her frank appreciation for Tim Considine's dreamy features. "He shore knows how to make a fellow feel good!" Daytime TV in the fifties offered no more exciting confrontation than the final poolside smackdown between Laura and Jett, and now the entire serial is available in one of those Disney Treasures tin boxes.

It's a musical too, sort of, with great numbers for Annette ("How Do I Know My Love"?), Roberta Shore ("The Three Rs of Today" and her masterpiece "Don't Jump to Conclusions"), Annette and David Stollery (from SPIN and MARTY, here playing a hardworking soda-jerk ("Meeting at the Malt Shop") among others. There's a subplot of two subteens, Olmstead Steady Ware and a girl called Kit who looks like one of the little people but I don't think is. The two of them are energetic and bizarre, like twin Urkels. This is worth 200 dollars or even 3. God bless Annette, we never let a day go by without saying a prayer for her continued success battling MS.

This is another disney masterpiece, collect this tin, and you can't go wrong, buy all the disney treasures if you get the chance, they are collectors items now as most are out of print

I am quoting the theme song from this Mickey Mouse Club Serial, which was also a "Fun With Music Day" song by Jimmie Dodd, and cheering too, because if you read Mouse Tracks, you know Annette is very special to us. This DVD set is somewhat of an event. It's also an interesting coincidence that is has been released within weeks of the Hannah Montana Season One DVD. Again if you read Mouse Tracks, there is a definite connection between today's Disney pop star and Walt's first and most beloved.

Leonard Maltin's commentary and two special bonus mini-documentaries give you a brief overview of Annette's career as America's first female teen pop idol, from her selection by Walt to her beach party movie days, and gently touching on her more recent bout with Multiple Sclerosis (which resulted in her and her husband, Glen Holt, creating a foundation to help others with the affliction -- how can you not love her even more?)

It's the subject of many a Disney fan's roundtable discussion as to how Annette became such a phenomenon while the Mickey Mouse Club odds-on favorite for breakout stardom at the beginning was the gifted Darlene Gillespie (and if you have not heard her version of Alice in Wonderland with the great Tutti Camarata, I highly recommend you download it from iTunes -- it's my favorite record album.)

Maltin's comments add fuel to the discussion by mentioning that one reason Walt may have selected her was because her ethnicity, in a very white bread period for television, made her stand out. It's fascinating to consider his instincts and strategies as well as his knack for knowing what would appeal to the public.

The serial, which covers 20 12-minute episodes taking up about three hours total, was originally presented as a daily segment on the last season that the Mickey Mouse Club would feature new material (the following season consisted of edited earlier shows). From February 10 (the "Introduction" episode) to March 7 ("The Mystery is Solved") you would see either a cartoon, musical number, special guest, circus act or young talent.

The serial was often followed by a Jimmie Dodd message segment in which he would tell an Aesop story, convey a Mousekethought or introduce another Mouseketeer with an inspiring message. The Mickey Mouse Club Presents Annette DVD contains two 1958 Mickey Mouse Club shows (the first and last to present Annette) to give you the context if you're not familiar with the original series.

The Annette serial, based on a teen novel by Poky Little Puppy author Jeannette Sebring Lowrey, was the a showcase for Annette Funicello and many other young performers including her soon-to-be-real-life best friend Shelley Fabares (The Donna Reed Show, "Johnny Angel"), Roberta (Jymme) Shore (The Shaggy Dog, The Virginian), Tim Considine (The Shaggy Dog, My Three Sons) and Judy Nugent (who likely was a replacement for Darlene Gillespie who was to co-star when the serial was called Annette and Darlene but was assigned to the ill-fated Rainbow Road to Oz).

It also features many of Hollywood's best character actors, like Sylvia Field (Mrs. Wilson on Dennis the Menace), Doris Packer (Principal Mrs. Rayburn on Leave it to Beaver) and Richard Deacon -- who was playing pompous Fred Rutherford, Lumpy's father, during this period on Leave it to Beaver, and would soon become Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show. All of these performers make the most of sometimes stodgy dialogue and often add character subtexts that are not in the lines themselves.

The lady who ties the whole show together is the inimitable Mary Wickes, who was pretty much universally loved by everyone in show business and plays the kind straight-talking, earthy confidant that she reportedly really was in Hollywood circles, being a close pal of Lucille Ball and others. As Katie, Wickes not only opens the series by previewing virtually the entire storyline (an ingenious Mickey Mouse Club serial device that gave young viewers lots to look forward to plus the final cliffhanger to anticipate), she's the only one who seems to know what's going on -- a popular movie and role for a servile supporting character in Hollywood's early days.

One of the most fascinating things about watching Annette is seeing it as a TV time capsule of what appealed to teens at the time and comparing it to the Disney Channel shows today. The dialogue itself is interesting because it's not like screenwriter Lillie Hayward was unaware of basic teenspeak of the 50's, since some characters, like Steady, Laura and Jet, use more casual colloquialisms than Annette, Steve or Mike. But the big difference is that Laura is the villain and Steady and Jet are the less refined of their peers. TV of the that day, always eager to please viewers and sponsors with the ideal example of "nice young ladies and gentlemen," do not allow the heroic characters to talk in slang beyond words like "golly" and "keen." Today's TV kid characters have no such lines of demarcation -- slang and sarcasm is up for grabs for all. The prime exception of the 50's era is Leave it to Beaver, which was more perceptive in some ways than its fellow family shows and featured more casual language among its lead characters.

I also noticed that, perhaps coincidentally, that the central plot about the lead being accused by the "mean girl" of stealing a necklace is also a subplot of a recent Disney Channel TV movie, Camp Rock (only it's a bracelet). Perhaps it's because the more we change, the more we stay the same. The seemingly insurmountable problems and joys of teenage life are fairly constant. That's why Archie comics have stood the test of time.

I didn't grow up in the 50's, and didn't see these on the Mickey Mouse Club. But I recall seeing "Annette" on some reruns on the Disney channel. This is a great, corny anthology series that is very similar to the feel of an episode of "Leave It To Beaver" episode with hints of the movie "Pollyanna." The DVD is terrific, and it's easy to watch all the episodes in this serial in one sitting. The picture is super sharp, and it's very much about going back in time, and seeing what was "representative" of a teenager back in the 50's in a perfect world where hayrides, barbecues, malt shops, and sing-alongs are the norm. It is strange to see a completely white teenage world.

With that said, I do wish Disney had a play all feature. Each time an episode ends (and some of them last no more than 10 mins) it pops back to the main menu and then you'll need to select the next episode. The opening credits get tiring to sit through, so you'll need to fast forward each time through them.

As always, Leonard Maltin does a great introduction on both discs to provide historical perspective and context.

I hope Disney never stops issuing these great, unseen classics - both animated and live. I've been collecting these since the initial series started in their beautiful tin cans.

ANNETTE is another must-buy! (and only 35,000 editions available)

I have waited most of my life to see the whole Annette series. Somehow I didn't get to see the complete series. I love Annette and love this DVD!