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Show:		8.0
Picture:		8.0
Sound:		7.0
Extras:		7.0
Score:		8.0

Director(s):	Charles Barton • Hollingsworth Morse • Norman Foster
Writer(s):	Johnston McCulley, Bob Wehling, Lowell S. Hawley
Starring:	Don Diamond • Gene Sheldon • George J. Lewis • Guy Williams • Henry Calvin • Cesar Romero • Jolene Brand
Genre:	Action • Adventure • Children & Family
Release Date:	November 03, 2009

List Price:	DVD - $38.99
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By the time that Zorro had completed its first season, the Disney company had virtually cornered its television demographic through various programs, not the least of which were Zorro, Walt Disney Presents, and the Mickey Mouse Club. Uncle Walt having the dedication to perfection that he did, he set the bar pretty high for the second season, wanting to maintain everything that had made the show so popular (granted, most shows face such a challenge, but many producers are content to allow their product to suck as much as it did the first time around). Back again to kick around some more bad guys are Diego de la Vega (Guy Williams) the young, rich son of a don whose alter ego should be painfully obvious to anyone in the immediate area, his faithful manservant Bernardo (Gene Sheldon), who speaks only through pantomime, and Sergeant Garcia (Henry Calvin), the obese, villainous comic relief. Added to the mixture is Anna Mara Verdugo (Jolene Brand), a strong, ongoing love interest for Zorro, as well as guest appearances by then popular stars Annette Funicello (popular Mouseketeer) and Cesar Romero (among the more famous Hispanic stars at the time, later appeared as the Joker in the Adam West Batman series). There’s also a little bit more drama, as Leonard Maltin graciously points out in his video introduction, as de la Vega begins to struggle more and more with his dual identity (all that much harder to keep when there’s the constant chanting of ‘Zorro’ by the chorus in the opening credits).

How does this compare with the first season? By and large, it still takes place in the same world of endless stables, canyons, and other centerpieces of the Western mythos. Zorro still works hard to correct the wrongs of the rich and powerful, all with a smile on his face and a song in his heart, and without fail, he makes the world a little bit of a better place, at least until some other callous villain enters the picture and decides to stir up a little bit of trouble. Without my telling you any more, you could probably guess that there aren’t any episodes where gunshots produce any more than smoke or Zorro broods depressingly against a moonlit sky. As I said before, this is a completely antiquated program, and you should be prepared for that before you invest in the twenty-three hours (I kid you not) that this set has in it. You have to really be into it.

But it’s also possible that spending that much time with a virtual time capsule could give you new appreciation for the era. I’m never going to use the phrase ‘good old days’ without first qualifying it, but it is clear upon first viewing just how much swordplay and general fighting goes into Zorro, and just how talented in practical effects so many people had to be to make this possible on a weekly basis. In addition, there’s all sorts of swinging on chandeliers, falling off ladders, and other impressive pieces of gymnastics nearly every five minutes, and it doesn’t take long to wish that you saw House do that every week. There’s a quality of craftsmanship that is present in the stunt work, in the musical cues, and in the ensemble that is consistent but never obtrusive. Without getting into a whole digital versus analog argument, it’s clear even from something like this that there’s something special about practical technologies, and that we should be careful to preserve them in the rush to convert everything to the binary system.

One last thing to be mentioned before I hand it off to the special features (admittedly the star of the set), and that is the way that the show handles its Hispanic characters. Considering that this show premiered in the same decade as John Wayne’s infamous turn as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror, it’s probably worth mentioning that I didn’t cringe once. In a supplementary documentary, his widow discusses Williams’s (who was Hispanic himself) working with Walt Disney to perfect his accent, which had a distinct character to it, without ever coming across as a direct affectation. Without calling it a landmark in race relations, I will say that the Disney demonstrates more respect and grace here than it is typically credited with having.

DVD Bonus Features

The set also contains Zorro: The Postponed Wedding and Zorro: Auld Acquaintancce, originally broadcast on Walt Disney Presents, as well as “Behind the Mask” and “A Trip to the Archives”.