Part 2 of our Christmas donkey double feature takes a deep dive into Don Bluth’s last Disney project, a short film released in front of the 1978 re-release of Pinocchio.

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🎙 Guests:  

Lindy Kempe (@ieatvideogames).  

Brandon Medley (@brandmed, Blessed are the Geek).  

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💬 Topics & Tangents:  

1. Like so many Disney movies, it’s based on a book — The Small One: A Story for Those Who Like Christmas and Small Donkeys.  

2. Dragon’s Lair.  

3. The Land Before Time toys from Pizza Hut.  

4. Mouse in Transition: When Everyone Left Disney, detailing Don Bluth’s exit from Disney.  

5. Don Bluth visited Walt Disney Animation Studios 40 years later.  

6. Assistant director Richard Rich went on to direct all 8 Swan Princess movies. I’m sorry to have just informed you that there are 8 Swan Princess movies.  

7. Wikipedia’s entry for The Small One includes a very strange line about the other donkeys.  

8. One piece of silver, adjusted for inflation.  

9. Edits for home video include the Merchants’ song, and the Star of Bethlehem getting extra rays of light to look less cross-shaped. To avoid too much foreshadowing, I guess.  

10. Gordon Jump, the voice of Joseph, was on a very special episode of Diff’rent Strokes. Yeah. Sorry.  

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“The Small One” © 1978 Walt Disney Productions.  

Full show notes with links at adventcalendar.house.  
Say hi on Twitter @adventcalhouse.

Theme song by Bronwen’s Ghost.  
Full show notes and social links at adventcalendar.house.