YMMV / Walt Disney Presents

• Alternate Character Interpretation: In The Mickey Mouse 40th Anniversary Show, was Plane Crazy Mickey really incapable of speaking in nothing but squeaks and squawks? Or was he just being a troll to his modern self? It should be noted that Mickey back in his early shorts was originally much more of a mischievous and jerkish Anti-Hero compared to the more mellowed-out and heroic everyman he became in later shorts, so the latter interpretation would not be out of character.
• Archive Panic: The entire series ran for 1,224 episodes! ^{For each run...} (99 episodes of Disneyland [1954-58] and 81 episodes of Walt Disney Presents [1958-61] for a total of 180 episodes for the 1954-61 ABC run; 201 episodes of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color [1961-69], 197 episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney [1969-79] and 25 episodes of Disney's Wonderful World [1979-81] for a total of 423 episodes for the 1961-81 NBC run; 42 episodes of the 1981-83 Walt Disney run on CBS; 71 episodes of the 1986-88 Disney Sunday Movie run on ABC; 56 episodes of the 1988-90 Magical World of Disney run on NBC; 277 episodes of the 1990-96 Magical World of Disney run on the Disney Channel; 175 episodes of the 1997-2008 Wonderful World of Disney run on ABC.) Even if you limit binge watching them to just the episodes hosted by Walt Disney himself, you still have a staggering 334 to watch!
• Awesome Ego: Mike Fink from the Davy Crockett television show. Born too mean to die indeed!
• Bile Fascination: Disney+ subscribers developed this for The Mouseketeers at Walt Disney World after the service posted a rip of a VHS recording in July 2020, providing a look at WDW's infancy in an hour of '70s camp complete with period-appropriate commercials.
• Condemned by History: Not the show itself but another example is mentioned that zigzags between this and Vindicated by History in "The Great Cat Family." The episode shows how the cat was once worshipped as a god by the ancient Egyptians and became a useful tool in reducing the number of cases of Bubonic Plague, only to be demonized through superstitions and treated as a monster, witches in animal form, and minions of evil. The episode ends on a happier note showing how cats have managed to bounce back.
• Funny Moments:
  • The version of the Spectrum Song featured on Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color features this bit:
  Ludwig Von Drake: Now, alright, we know that everybody don't have television sets with color, so... we're gonna do a version for them, we don't want you to feel left out of it. Here's for you...
  Black black gray white gray gray gray white white white gray gray white, black.
  Black black gray white gray gray gray white white gray gray gray black, black.
  Alright, now you're happy? You don't feel left out? Now I wanna get back to my song.
  • The science-fiction parody in "Mars and Beyond" is one big fat Crowning Moment of Funny. It is a rapid-pace chase scene with a quick cameo by a certain angry bird.
  • In the Disneyland Fourth Anniversary Show, after the Peter and the Wolf segment, Walt is going to talk about how other music makers inspired them in the realm of animation, when the door opens and Walt looks over and sees Cubby who waves and says "Hi!". Walt waves, says "Hi, Cubby" and briefly introduces him to the audience before telling Cubby, "Later, Cubby, okay?", so Cubby leaves. Walt then begins talking about Tchaikovsky's music when they were making Fantasia, when Cubby returns. Walt excuses himself and tells Cubby "Cubby, I don't think you understand, I'm talking to our Disneyland audience", so Cubby says "Fine! It's okay kids! He's just sitting on the desk, talking! Come on!" and all the Mouseketeers enter, talking at once. Then, when Walt tries to have them go sit down, so he can do the second half, they bring him to the Mouseketeer's stage to do the second half. The door closes, and then Cubby reopens the door and does the "Come on!" gesture to the camera.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The 1958 Christmas special, From All of Us to All of You, while obscure in the US, has aired in the nordic countries every year since 1959 and in Sweden, is considered to be one of the Christmas specials, with a huge percentage of the country (often going as high as 40-50%) watching it every year during Christmas Eve.
• Heartwarming Moments: "This Is Your Life, Donald Duck" is a big one, as it's an entire special honoring Donald Duck. In the actual show that serves as the Framing Device for the whole thing, by the end of the show Donald is moved to tears at all of the recognition.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The November 1954 showing of Alice in Wonderland opened with Walt explaining the British Christmas tradition of telling stories like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast, two stories that Disney had planned to adapt for TV, but would instead release as animated movies in 1992 and '91.
  • In a segment of "Man and the Moon" that talks about children nursery rhymes of the moon, the little dog that laughs at the moon looks similar to Courage the Cowardly Dog.
  • In an animated segment of "Our Friend the Atom," we have a genie from the Arabian Nights story of "The Fisherman and the Genie", who notably has blue skin, much like the more well-known one.
  • In 1955, an episode of the Disneyland television show entitled "Man and the Moon" aired, featuring none other than former Nazi rocket scientist Wernher von Braun discussing the potential of the Apollo program. 68 years later, Disney produced Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which featured a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of von Braun as the antagonist disinterested in space travel and more interested in time travel.
• Memetic Mutation: This image◊ of Goofy from "Holiday for Henpecked Husbands".
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Patchwork Girl seen in a preview of Walt's later-aborted Land of Oz-inspired musical, The Rainbow Road to Oz.
  • Goofy's attempted suicide from "The Goofy Success Story", especially the sultry voice calling him into the water that gets more and more angry when he resists.
  • The ending to "Disneyland Showtime", where after the Osmond brothers exit The Haunted Mansion, they realize that Donny is not with them. As they start calling for him, it pans up to see ghosts flying above the mansion as scary music plays.
  • Donald's "Nightmare sequence" in "Down and out with Donald Duck". The whole thing. Donald even lampshades knowing that he's in a nightmare by saying "I'm dreaming!" at the start before things start to spiral out of his control. The nightmare finishes with Donald's Nightmare Face from "Trombone Trouble", cackling with delight, showing what kind of madman Donald has become.
• Older Than They Think: Decades before surround sound home theaters became common, Walt Disney had some cities telecast "The Peter Tchaikovsky Story" in stereophonic audio by playing additional audio tracks over the radio. Because this could not be arranged in all markets, two versions of the episode were created. Both versions are included on the Platinum Edition release of Sleeping Beauty.
• Once Original, Now Common: Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color came during a time when color television was still a novelty and the show was responsible for a huge increase of sale in color TV sets. Heck, 50% of the nation didn't own a color TV until 1972. Thankfully Von Drake's humour and animation still make the special entertaining even after this novelty has long worn off.
• Retroactive Recognition: The Osmond Brothers made their TV debut as a child barbershop quartet in the 1962 episode "Disneyland After Dark". They later appeared in the 1970 episode "Disneyland Showtime".
• Unexpected Character: Beginning in 2015, Disney added characters from Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe to the opening, even though those franchises typically lack Disney's branding. It looks especially jarring to see Din Djarin and Grogu in the 2022 intro, as this resulted in clips from two Disney+ shows (The Book of Boba Fett and The Mandalorian) randomly appearing in between excerpts from movies.