Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Steve Pulaski If you scour the internet long enough, you may be able to find some little soundbites, pieces of information, or little projects you may not have known existed. With the ubiquity of Disney and its countless number of products, animated shorts, and films, it's only expected that some of their works get lost in the shuffle only to potentially resurface in the future. Consider the controversial - and still unreleased - film Song of the South, which has been withheld from a release on home video due to its depiction of old-fashioned race relations and politically incorrect mannerisms the United States once possessed. Consider the underground, home-brew short Mickey Mouse in Vietnam, a very brief animated film with anti-war themes of an optimistic, nationalistic Mickey Mouse going off to fight The Vietnam War with true pride only to return in complete agony and despair.Now take a look at The Story of Menstruation, a ten-minute long educational short film from Disney that defines the menstrual cycle for young girls beginning or currently experiencing puberty. The film chronicles it all, from what the cycle is, why it occurs, how it occurs, how to cope with it, the issues that may arise, how a girl goes through her routine when it's her time of the month, and so forth. The film only goes so far, with the sexual intercourse aspect being untouched, unsurprisingly.The film is more fun to talk about than it is to actually endure. Speaking as a male who is pretty well-informed on females and their menstrual cycle thanks to actual female friends and the benefits of a high school health class, this is pretty much old news from my perspective. However, that's not to say the short's age, brevity, and obviousness won't teach young girls even in today's world how their body operates. It does a nice, squeaky-clean job at detailing the process and what is exactly occurring in a female's body, which, as we all know, can cause extremely hormonal tendencies, self-consciousness, and confusion in even the most hard-hearted female.The Story of Menstruation is also the first film on record to use the term "vagina" because of America's long-standing queasiness and apprehension to sexual topics, especially during the time of the 1940's. As novelty viewing and a curious piece of history, The Story of Menstruation holds little conversational value outside of the aforementioned fact and the surefire giggle that will ensue when people are informed that Disney made a film about the menstrual cycle. But as an educational short, which is how the project should be viewed and critiqued in its respect, it's competent and easily-accessible.Narrated by: Gloria Blondell.

MartinHafer Although this film is somewhat sanitized (because it was made at a time when people just didn't talk about sex), it is an extremely helpful short film to show prepubescent girls so they know what to expect during menstruation. Not surprisingly, it was paid for by the Kotex company, though what may surprise many is that Disney made this film--as they made a lot of educational films during the 1940s-60s. However well made the film is, though, I think the film maker's missed a real opportunity. Instead of the nice female narrator's voice and the relatively bland visuals it would have been GREAT if they'd used Minnie Mouse and the rest of the Disney gang!! I know this would have given old Walt a heart attack, but wow that would have been a great film! By the way, although the notion of sex is barely hinted at in the film, it DOES adequately explain menstruation in general. However, it does lack some details (especially about intercourse) that I assume were included in the accompanying booklet.Now if only I can figure out why I watched a cartoon about menstruation.

jastpeel The entire 10:15 minute presentation is done in a very non-threatening and non-medical way that even preteen children can easily understand. It dispels many of the myths surrounding menstruation that were going around in those days (1946) While sex is not explicitly mentioned, the part about fertilization is. This is also, purportedly, the first Hollywood production to ever use the word "vagina" in the dialogue.It is cute how the animated character is shown topless in the shower in a purely animated character way with no defining features as was the way of the day. Many of the Betty Boop cartoons showed her undress without revealing any defining features either. Max Fleischer was a bit of a card and did this with many of the Betty Boop cartoons which required frame-by-frame viewing to find them.There is no mention at the beginning or end of the film as to who the female narrator is. In fact, there are no credits whatsoever other than those mentioning Kotex and Kimberly-Clark Corporation.This title is nearly impossible to attain; but for those who are Bittorrent downloaders, it can be found out there in the ether. This is one of those "keepers" that will become increasingly hard to find as older short subject features fade into obscurity.

rbverhoef Here is one of those educational short films made to learn the unknown people out there about facts of life. This time the target audience is preteen girls, the fact of life is menstruation. This animated film, created by Walt Disney Pictures, apparently with some sponsoring from Kotex.It starts with explaining how hormones make you grow and develop. With the help of animation and a female narrator it shows us how the body, especially the ovaries, uterus and vagina, work and why this all leads to menstruation. It is almost amazing, becoming the comic note here, how the subject of sex is avoided. Even the word is never mentioned although "furtilized" will pass once. I don't really know why I saw this, but since it is one of those rare short films that could give an impression of an innocent time, you might want to give it a try.