There’s Drama, There’s Excitement, There’s Harmony

1948’s Melody Time could have easily been the sequel to Make Mine Music. They follow the same format of animated shorts set to popular and modern music, 1940’s modern, some of the shorts leaning toward the abstract and some telling a straight story. This less-ambitious-than-Fantasia concert film format succeeded for Make Mine Music and it’ll succeed again for Melody Time.

A narrator sets up the sequences and the love story Once Upon a Wintertime kicks off the film. A really sweet Mary Blair styled short about 2 pairs of lovers, one pair human and the other rabbit, is a gentle little tale. But what is most memorable about it is the gorgeous art. Damn it, Mary Blair, why you so talented?

Bumble Boogie is great in all its abstractedness. Animated to a jazzy version of Flight of the Bumblebee, a little bee is just trying to escape the music. The surrealism could have easily been a part of the Pink Elephants scene in Dumbo, and the breakneck speed of the animation is only rivaled by the breakneck speed of the music. Fun fact: this was an abandoned scene from Fantasia and could have worked perfectly as juxtaposition against all the pomp and pageantry of the film.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed tells the story of the titular hero roaming The United States planting apple trees, in song of course. Miss Blair hit it out of the park again with the art direction. There is so much great, poetic imagery. As the piece comes to a close and orchard of apple blossomed trees melds with the pink, dusk sky to lead an old aged Johnny to Heaven. It’s just breath taking.

Little Toot is sort of a letdown after all we saw coming before it. The story of a rascally little tug boat is cute and all, but that’s about it. The animation is your standard, albeit quality, Disney animation. If it wasn’t for the tight harmonies of the Andrews Sisters telling the story, Little Toot would be rather stale in comparison to this line up.

Thankfully Trees picks up the feature with a poem about the life of a tree. Sounds dull, but it moved me. The short is beautifully animated and gave me a lot of deep thoughts about how important trees are. To be fair, I might have been on my 3^rd glass of wine when watching.

Blame It on the Samba plays like a reject from the Good Neighbor movies but that doesn’t mean it’s not a lot of fun. Donald and Jose Carioca are mixed a samba cocktail by the Aracuan Bird. There is live action footage of an organist and she’s phenomenal! Her fingers move at lightning speed and there is actually minimal animation going on around her. She didn’t need it, the playing is that captivating.

Finishing up the film is Pecos Bill. It’s got fun music and animation but I can’t help but feel that if they wanted to end on American Folklore, they should have ended it with Johnny Appleseed. The wacky animation is fine, but Appleseed’s imagery has so much more atmosphere and story is way more powerful.

If I had to pick a favorite of the less-ambitious-than-Fantasia concert films, I think Make Mine Music has a little more going for it but Melody Time is definitely worth a watch.

Yes, Swing ‘Till the Rafters Ring

Even though Fantasia received an official sequel in Fantasia 2000, 1946’s Make Mine Music could be an appropriate sequel as well but with Popular Music being showcased instead of classical. The third package film of the 40’s, this one featured a lot of my childhood favorite shorts that I had no idea were part of a full length feature film. My generation of Disney Channel had very little original programming and consisted mostly of old Disney shorts spliced together to make various half hour programs. All the Cats Join In,  Peter and the Wolf, Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet, and The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met being some of my all-time favorite cartoons happen to originate from this film.

The similarities to Fantasia start from the beginning with the short Blue Bayou. In fact, the animation is recycled from a cut segment from Fantasia. It’s a beautiful opening with a stunning tracking shot in the middle of the piece. Sweeping shots like this never cease to amaze me in animation.

Next in the program is the fantastic All the Cats Join In. Done in the distinct style of Disney Animator Fred Moore, this short follows a set of teenagers living it up at a local dinner. Everything about it screams fun. From the swing music to the bright color palate, so much energy is comes out that you can’t help but want to party with this group of kids.

The short titled Without You is a great atmospheric piece about love lost. The perspective is of one staring out a window on a rainy day looking out to a weeping willow. It goes one to get pretty abstract before returning back to the starting point. There was so much mood and emotion that I actually got a bit choked up.

I’m sure we’ve all seen Casey at the Bat, and it’s just as hilarious as ever. Strange choice as I don’t see the connection to the music theme other then it being a recited poem? Other than that, I could watch Casey strike out over and over again.

Two Silhouettes features, oddly enough, two silhouetted live action ballet dancers performing against an animated backdrop. It’s kind of a stalling point in the film, it’s a bit dull but luckily pretty short.

The classical piece of Peter and the Wolf features some brilliant character animation. You can tell they had a lot of fun bringing these characters to life using only the instrument assigned to each one as their voice. Sonia the Duck has always been a favorite of mine, his low, lazy oboe perfectly fitting his carefree but oblivious personality.

After You’ve Gone is another short little interlude, but is a bit more fun while we watch the instruments featured in the song do their thing in a cartoon land.

If you ever wondered if you could buy a love story between two anthropomorphized hats, then look no further than Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet. Told through song by the tight harmonies of the legendary Andrews Sisters, this short has always had a little spot in my heart. I don’t know if it’s the beautiful tones of the Andrews Sisters or the fact that this story can only be told in an animated world but the moment I saw that department store window I was always glued to the screen.

The finale short is the tragic The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met. Without giving too much away, the story takes you to fantastic highs as we see the meteoric rise of Willie the Whale as he becomes an opera star, but takes us to a really low, dark place. There is still a happy ending, but not the happy you normally associate with Disney. It’s pretty sophisticated storytelling for a little short. Mention has to be made to Nelson Eddy who provides all the vocals.

As you could probably tell, this is definitely my favorite of the package films, probably due to a huge case of nostalgia since so many of these were already among my favorite Disney cartoons and seeing them all together is a treat. If you haven’t revisited these ones in a while, I high recommend giving the film a view. You’d be surprised that they work well separately as shorts but work harmoniously together as a film.