Fun and Fancy Free (1947): That’s The Way I Wanna Be

A package feature made of 2 short films intended to be full length movies. Interestinggg.

#9 – Fun and Fancy Free (1947)

Before World War II began, Walt Disney was working on two new feature films: Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk. However, the war essentially halted feature film development at the studio. Many of his artists were being drafted, and most of his studio’s resources were pioneered by the US government to make training films and patriotic propaganda shorts throughout the war.

Those two films got condensed down to the two shorts that make up Fun and Fancy Free.

I think some of the most interesting things about this package feature come from knowing a bit about the behind-the-scenes stuff. For example, Jiminy’s song “I’m a Happy Go Lucky Fellow” was originally written for Pinocchio.

Also borrowing a bit from Pinocchio, the original story treatments for Fun and Fancy Free included the idea that Foulfellow and Gideon from Pinocchio would be the swindlers that give Mickey the magic beans. The next batch of storyboards included Queen Minnie fulfilling that role. In the actual film, it is never revealed who gives Mickey the beans.

The narration of these shorts is still killing me. I guess it made it easier to tell the stories quickly…because they could tell us about things that happen instead of taking the time to show us? I don’t know…but I’m really ready for Disney to return to pure storytelling.

One thing I particularly took note of in Fun and Fancy Free was the quality of the background art. I feel like they had gone pretty minimalist for the previous few films, and I thought they returned to more detailed, interesting background art here. It was nice to see.

As another fun side note, the child actress in the film, Luana Patten, was in Song of the South the year before. Disney has never released this film on video or DVD in the United States because they feel it is too racist and therefore too controversial. She later starred in several Disney films. People complain so much about Disney over-exposing their child stars today, but I guess it has been going on for decades.

I felt like the film featured several clever gags. The bit at the end of the film with Willie the Giant looking for Mickey in Hollywood was fun and put a good button on the ending. In general, I liked that they gave Willie such a fun personality, instead of just making him a villain or a boring oaf. I’ve always enjoyed his appearance in Mickey’s A Christmas Carol.

As I’m still going through the package features, an interesting question has occurred to me. Although it was probably more relevant for the Make Mine Music post, I’ll go ahead and pose it now.

Would a package feature, such as Make Mine Music work today? The thing about that movie that worked in the 40s was the popularity and prominence of the musicians involved. Could you imagine such a thing today? Could there be a package feature of short films with music written by Lady Gaga and Beyonce? It would be interesting. I think it would have to be super conceptual and artistic…but even still I feel like it would be a stretch. What do you think?

All The Cats Join In: Make Mine Music (1946)

After the two Latin American package features, I was anxiously anticipating a change. My change was a bit bigger than I expected, as it came in the form of a week’s absence from watching and writing. However, I got an apartment in Washington, DC (woohoo!) and am now faithfully returning to The Disney 50 with…

#8 – Make Mine Music (1946)

Here’s what I’ve decided about package features. I think I prefer them without the attempt at storyline or thematic consistency that we saw in both Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. It’s much easier to just enjoy a bunch of well-done, creative shorts that don’t feel so obligatorily tied to a theme.

Make Mine Music is a pretty fun group of shorts. I enjoyed the sense of play and the wide variety of work we get to see.

What is troubling, however, is that for the DVD release of the film, Disney censors out an entire short: “The Martins and the Coys.” Apparently, the portrayal of “comic gun play” was too inappropriate. What…? I mean, in “Casey at the Bat” one of the spectators at the baseball game yells that she wants to “kill the umpire.” That’s pretty violent too, Disney. Probably should have censored that while you were at it. For the venturesome YouTube watcher who isn’t afraid of a little comic gun play, The Martins and the Coys is readily available online.

A few of the shorts stand out in my mind as highlights. “All the Cats Join In” is particularly enjoyable to watch. Employing a sort of minimalist/surrealist style, there is a neat effect involving the animated pencil drawing all of the elements of the scenery just as the characters begin to interact with them.

As I mentioned in my post about Fantasia, Disney recycled footage originally intended for a “Clair de Lune” segment and made it into a segment for Make Mine Music called “Blue Bayou.” Interestingly enough, as much as I enjoy Debussy’s music, I thought the animation worked better for “Blue Bayou” than it did “Clair de Lune.” Still wasn’t a favorite, but worth a mention.

I loved “Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet.” Absolutely loved it. Finally, a great little story without a narrator. One of my main qualms with most of the package feature shorts is that Disney relies too heavily on a narrator instead of just letting the stories tell themselves. “Johnny Fedora” had a pretty simple story, but it was well done and Disney didn’t push it too hard. It was understated, and it worked quite nicely.

As much as I love Sterling Holloway and appreciate his place in Disney history, the narration of “Peter and the Wolf” kind of killed it for me. It could have been an opportunity for Disney to explore some really beautiful Russian artistic work, and the short came with an already established narrative…so why the narrator, I wonder? It just felt dumbed down a bit from what it could have been. Why not just tell the story? I really had higher expectations for this one. I guess I should note, though, that I do remember watching “Peter and the Wolf” in my elementary music school class. The introduction of the instruments at the beginning, showing what their motifs mean int he overall piece, is a pretty cool idea, and it helps illustrate the complexity of Prokofiev’s composition.

So, all in all, Make Mine Music was enjoyable. Out of the three package features so far, I would definitely watch this one again before the other two.

(PS – Yes, I know “Casey at the Bat” is a part of Make Mine Music, and it’s probably the best known of its shorts. I didn’t love it; didn’t hate it. I just liked some of the other stuff more.)

Back in action!

Hello all –

Apologies for having been away so long…but I am back!

Expect a Make Mine Music post tomorrow.