One Thing That Money Can Not Buy… To Wit – The Wag of a Dog’s Tail

1955’s Lady and the Tramp, or Everything I Learned About Romance I Learned From 2 Dogs. Beauty and the Beast is often sighted at the first Date Movie released from Walt Disney Animation Studios but I tend to feel that this is more appropriate. Sure there were princess falling in love at first sight and even twitterpated deer, but never has a relationship been developed from meet-cute to making babies before Lady and the Tramp. And of course there is the iconic spaghetti scene that is synonymous with a perfect date. 

This is your typical uptown girl and wrong side of the tracks (literally) guy fall for each other but told through the eyes of a dog. What I really love about the way this story is told is that they don’t like each other at first. Lady learns that her family will soon welcome a baby and as the Tramp simply strolls into the conversion she is having with her neighbors Jock and Trusty, uninvited. Noting that life will never be the same once the baby arrives, Lady takes immediate dislike to him and he just leaves. Throughout a series of events they meet up again and eventually fall in love. 

Tramp has a wonderful arc from a carefree bachelor to a family man. He’s got this great speech where he looks onto the world as a big place to be explored as a opposed to being tied down the leash of one family. And Lady could have actually used a little more devolvement.  She learns to like the Tramp, but she didn’t really learn much else. This is very much more Tramps story than hers.

Trusty and Jock are a great set of supporting characters. I have a Scottish Terrier, and they got the personality of the little Scottish Die Hard down pact. He’s a loyal friend but as protective as Hell to Lady. There is an odd innuendo where they infer that Lady might have gotten pregnant by Tramp and Jock steps up to the plate to offer his paw in marriage. Despite watching this movie many times as a kid I didn’t realize what this interaction was until I was much older. And I still find it kind of strange. And then there’s old Trusty the Blood Hound. He has a great running gag about him regaling stories about his uncle, Old Reliable, but never remembering if he has mentioned him before. Trusty has lost his sense of smell in his old age. At the climax of the movie, the Tramp is redeemed in the eyes of Jock and Trusty after killing a rat that entered the house and threatened the baby but is apprehended by the dog catcher shortly after and it’s Trusty who is able to track down the truck, nearly sacrificing himself, and save the Tramp. 

I also really appreciate the lack of a defined protagonist in the film. Aunt Sarah is more of a busy body and her cats, Si and Am, are just mischief makers. Neither of them are really trying to get anything out of their dislike for Lady or the Tramp. And a rat is introduced as more a plot convenience than a villain. 

Animation wise, the artist are still at the height of their game. As I mentioned, I am a dog lover, and I’ve seen my own dogs make so many of the same expressions that the characters on screen make, only my pets never had the defined eyebrows. I strike that, my Scotty has very pronounced, old man eyebrows. This was also the first Disney Animated feature presented in Cinemascope so the backgrounds are gorgeous and rich with detail. One of my favorite being the neighbor where Lady lives, with Lady and her family living in a quaint Victorian home, Jock living a brick Tudor style home, and Trusty living in an southern plantation style manor. It reflects their background and it’s something that didn’t really have to be there. Not to mention many of the Disney Artist were probably rushing to complete Disneyland, which would open not even a month after the release of the film, so to put out this caliber of art on film at the time was quite an accomplishment.

I know that there are plenty of romantic comedy clichés, but it’s really hard for me not to love this movie. Next time you want to cuddle up with your loved one, be it human or canine, I would highly recommend putting this gem of a movie on and make it a perfect bella notte. Spaghetti and Chianti bottle candle holder not included.

The Good, The Bad, and The Quasi

(In a quick departure from my Disney Movie Recaps, I’d thought I’d bring you a quick theater review from the US premier of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame currently playing at the La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla CA. Be advised, thar be spoilers ahead)

Picture it, California, 2000. A young man at the dawn of the Internet Is Useful age learns that a production of Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame has made it to the stage. And if there were ever a Disney film to be put on Broadway, it was definitely Hunchback. Lo, and behold, it’s a success on the stage, only problem, it’s playing in Berlin. In this dark time of internet, YouTube and Wikipedia had yet to be born. We weren’t Googling yet, we were using Yahoo. And back then, that young man was lucky enough to find a single Geocities site that had the vaguest information about this production of Der Glöckner von Notre Dame. That young man was me, and I became obsessed with this show. I grasped at the tiniest of straws of information about the show. New songs were written by the original team of Stephen Swartz and Alan Menken. A new, darker book had been written by James Lapine. The tone of the show was much more mature and echoed the Victor Hugo novel much closer. Frollo was an archdeacon, Quasimodo was deaf, and Esmeralda died. My best pal Ricky gifted me an imported CD of the Original Cast Recording one Christmas, and it was everything I wanted it to be (except in German). The Berlin production ran from 1999 to 2002 and rumors began circulating that a US premier would not be far behind. After years of waiting I gave up hope. I’d occasionally listen to German soundtrack and dream about what might have been. 

You can imagine my excitement when I heard that an English production was starting workshops, with a new book written by Peter Parnell,  and would have its premiere in the San Diego area! My personal Ticket Master Ricky snatched up tickets as soon as he could get his grubby paws on them and I was going to finally see The Hunchback of Notre Dame on stage.

And, boy was I not disappointed.

Just like the Berlin production, the show retains the darker tone of the novel and ditches many of the light touches that Disney added when they animated the movie. The 3 sidekick gargoyles were removed all together. In the Berlin the gargoyles were renamed and given a more serious role in the show and were, most importantly, firmly established as figments of Quasimodo’s imagination. Here, the role of the gargoyles was given to all stone figures in the cathedral’s bell tower, and the bells themselves, and played by the ensemble cast. I though this worked out wonderfully with the only hiccup being the replacement for the A Guy Like You number with a new song, the Act 2 opener, Flight Into Egypt which felt too silly for the show that had been presented to the audience up to that point.

The ensemble was just fantastic with all of them portraying multiple roles and filling in with narration, sometimes too much narration. When show opens with the stirring Bells of Norte Dame, instead of Clopin taking the lead, the cast takes turns with the exposition heavy song. I would have preferred Clopin keeping the lead role as narrator but for the most part I wasn’t bothered with this. Where it fell apart for me was when the cast started to narrate the action that was unfolding on stage. The show was told in a gorgeous setting, but very minimal sets and props. The narration filled in gaps such as “he walked into the pub” or “he slid down the parapets” and at that point it felt childish and theme parky. If you’ve ever seen Beauty and the Beast Live On Stage at Disney’s Hollywood Studio in Orlando, you know that when Belle reaches the Beast’s castle an omnipresent voice explains it as “a series of events that leads Belle to the castle.” This narration felt just like that, awkward and forced. 

Rounding out the ensemble was a full choir doing the backing vocals, and man, did this sound spectacular. The sound was so full and rich, haunting and ethereal. They remain on stage the whole time and add to the spiritual setting of the show.

The main cast is outstanding as well. Ciara Renee is pitch perfect as Esmeralda. Michael Arden brings the house down with every song as Quasimodo. He is still deaf in this production and some of the words are still sung with a slight slur. In Berlin, Quasi’s songs are sung with clarity and I think it better drives home that the songs are his inner monologue and it makes it a tad more powerful. And I really mean just a tad. I have nothing but praise Arden’s powerful voice. His 11^th hour number, Made of Stone, gave me chills and pretty much deserved a mid-show standing ovation. Frollo, played by Patrick Page, is given a back story about being orphaned with his brother Jahan and brought up in the cathedral. Jahan runs away with a gypsy and gives birth to Quasimodo before dying, making Frollo his uncle. It humanized the normally foul villain and the beginning of the story became just as much his tragedy as it was Quasimodo’s. Not until his big number Hellfire does he go full villain, and his booming voice is everything you want it to be in that song. Andrew Samonsky’s Phoebus was the dimmest star in this constellation, but it’s not saying that he’s bad at all. He had the right swagger for the character, made more morally ambiguous here than dashing hero as in the movie, and his voice were just fine. He just lacked that presence the other three leads had.

After years of anticipation I’m so glad to have finally seen this show live. The music and scenery were all goose bump inducing. Performed in a very small space, it was very intimate despite its grand score and themes. Personally I could have used a slightly bigger stage to accommodate a bigger dance number for Topsy Turvy.  The story changes were all for the better, and what I’d give to see the finale Bells of Notre Dame live again. With a few tweaks, this show will be a huge hit when it gets the spot on the Great White Way it has deserved for so long.

Now if only I could go back to tell 2000 self to be patient and not waste so much time looking for bad .jpeg images of the show. Oh, and tell him that cargo shorts are a mistake.

All It Takes Is Faith And Trust…

If there was ever a movie I wanted to live inside of when I was a little kid it was 1953’s Peter Pan. Peter Pan had it all for a young, imaginative boy like myself. There were swashbuckling pirates, flights, mermaids, pixies, racially insensitive depictions of Native Americans. The film had it all. As an adult, I couldn’t help but get swept away with the romanticism of fantasy of it all. The film opens with my all-time favorite mood setter opening credit sequence song, The Second Star to the Right. This song sounds like the feeling of drifting off into a dream land. The opening strings are just the pixie dust you need to lift you off the ground and send you on a grand adventure with Peter and his Lost Boys. 

The scene is set in London where we see the home of the Darling Family, parents George and Mary, and their children, Wendy, John, Michael, and their nursemaid/dog Nana. As George and Mary are getting ready for a night out, the boys are playing a game of make believe pretending they are Peter Pan and Captain Hook under the tutelage of the expert of all things Pan, Wendy. After things get a bit too rough, George decides that is was time Wendy grew up and this would be the last time she’d sleep in the nursery with her brothers. Mary, on the other hand, this George is being a bit too harsh. I’ve always had a certain affinity with Mrs. Darling. I’ve always seen her as the ultimate mother. She’s so caring and nurturing. She’s beautiful and you can tell that her hug is like a warm blanket. As she tries to comfort the children while tucking them into bed, Wendy ask that the window be left open in case Peter Pan comes back for his shadow. Mary shares her concerns with George, rightfully so, but George brushes this off as the imagination of a little girl.

Enter Pan.

Our titular hero has been waiting on the roof top to retrieve his shadow as it turns out he’s been listening to the stories Wendy has been telling the boys about him. Peter Pan is full of himself. If Peter Pan were any cockier he’d definitely be really annoying but he comes across more has an extremely self-confident fella than a total douche. He’s accompanied by his companion and iconic Disney symbol, Tinkerbell. I adore the original depiction of Tinkerbell. Here she is spiteful and petty. Walt once described her as so tiny that she only has room for one emotion at a time. When she feels happiness, jealousy, or rage, she feels it to the fullest. She’s been so watered down as the years go by, she’s now just a sassy symbol of all things magic. And why is she always depicted with a wand? For Ollivander’s sake, she never carries a magic wand in the movie. But I digress… The two sneak into the Darling’s nursery  for the shadow and successfully convince the kids to fly off to Neverland where Wendy will not have to grow up so she can continue to tell stories about Peter Pan to Peter Pan and his band of Lost Boys. With a happy thought and a sprinkling of pixie dust the children are off. I’d like to think that every Disney Animated film has one iconic scene that is magic at its purest and You Can Fly is it. You literally watch the children fly over London and into another world, but you feel that you are transported with them. 

When they reach the beautiful island planet of Neverland they have their first encounter with Captain Hook and his ship, The Jolly Roger. The 1950’s were a good time to be a comedic Disney Villain. The interactions Hook has with his First Mate, Mr. Smee, are hilarious. Captain Hook is wonderfully foppish and Mr. Smee joyously bumbling. Mr. Smee has always seemed too kind hearted to be mean. It’s like he’s the little brother that just wants to hang out with the big boys. There is a Crocodile lusting after Hook’s other, probably even tastier, hand and hilarity ensues. But in all honesty the comedy between Hook, Smee, and the Crocodile is some of the funniest physical comedy Disney has put out even to this date. And it’s not to say that Captain Hook isn’t dark, he attempts to kill Pan several times and successfully kills one of his crew members in cold blood. 

When they reach mainland Neverland Tinkerbell tells the gullible Lost Boys that Wendy is a bird and must be shot down. Wendy has her first brush with death and Tinkerbell admits to the attempted murder. Peter Pan banishes Tinkerbell from the island… for 2 weeks. 

During a seeming routine game of hide and go capture with the Neverland Indians (Native Neverlandians? Is that more politically correct?) the Indian Chief informs them that they will not be released until the princess Tiger Lily is set free.

 After an encounter with some deliciously bitchy mermaids (I get the sinking sensation that Peter Pan is quite the ladies man-child), Peter and Wendy, whom is on brush with death #2, see Hook with a captive Tiger Lily. Tiger Lily is captured for information on Peter’s secret hideout, but she remains tightlipped. Peter saves the princess with the help of a clueless Smee, a hungry Crocodile, and some pretty awesome impression skills. 

The Indian camp celebrates the return of Tiger Lily with the infamously inappropriate song, What Makes the Red Man Red. Now, to be honest, I still don’t see the song as that bad. Musically it’s great. It’s got a great beat with pounding drums and the chorus of singers deliver it effectively. What I try to keep in mind is that this is a 1950’s interpretation of a British Victorian view of the Native Americans. It could have been worse. 

In the midst of the revelry, Wendy is completely through with the excess and heads back to the hideout in preparation to return home. Meanwhile, back at the Jolly Roger, Hell hath no fury like a pixie scorned when Tinkerbell is manipulated by Captain Hook into revealing Pan’s hideout. 

Back at the hideout Wendy gathers the rest of the Lost Boys so they can return home to London with the movie halting song Your Mother and Mine. I thought this song was horrendously boring when I was a kid, the main saving grace being some comedy provided by the pirates who are preparing to kidnap the kids and set a bomb trap for Peter Pan. Now that I’m a bit older, the song is a bit of a sentimental one as I seem to appreciate what my mommy did more and more  now that I see all she’s done for me during my childhood. The kids get apprehended, and Tinkerbell barely escapes the Jolly Roger with enough time to save Peter from the bomb, and redeeming her treachery.

Peter rescues the Darling Children and Lost Boys and leaves Hook to fend for himself against our pal the Crocodile. Peter and the children sail back to London and the Darlings are left with memories of a grand adventure. 

Even though J.M. Barrie’s 1904 play and 1911 novel have been adapted many times over the years, there is good reason the Disney version is the one that comes to most people’s minds. It’s a colorful, wildly imaginative, and beautifully animated movie.  It’s not to say it’s a perfect film, the Lost Boys really have no character other than “Boy” and Your Mother and Mine kills the pacing, but this along with fantastic 1993 Fox animated series Peter Pan and the Pirates have kept me dreaming of never growing up in Neverland all my life.

If I Had a World of My Own, Everything Would Be Nonsense

So, I have to admit that I was not originally a fan of the Alice in Wonderland story. My basis to Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland is the 1951 Disney Studios Film. As a kid I thought it was a little dull and it lacked any story that really sucked me in. Then I met my husband. He was always a huge fan of Alice’s adventures and during the course of our relationship I have seen many, many, many, many iterations of the tale. From my nostalgic favorite TV Special from 1985 to a really surreal British Alice Through the Looking Glass from 1998 staring Kate Beckinsale. My main issue with Alice is that the episodic nature of the tale does not lend itself to a 3 act narrative very well. To solve this most of the adaptations give Alice some contrived reason to wander away and flee something, anything, just to give her a goal. This is where the Disney movie differs, sure she’s bored with her real life, but she’s just a curious little girl who follows a rabbit in a waist coat into Wonderland. Even though it combines elements from both Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, I find the Disney version to be one of the more faithful adaptations and have really grown to appreciate it. 

Alice, voiced perfectly by Kathyn Baumont, is our point of view character, the blank slate that helps us experience the craziness of Wonderland. As she daydreams of a world of her own she notices the White Rabbit and naturally follows him down into the Rabbit Hole. What should be a panicky moment for anyone, Alice tries to make sense of the situation. That’s what makes this character so charming. She’s always trying to find logic in a land where nonsense rules. 

When reaching the bottom of the rabbit hole, Alice changes size by trying different food and drink to enter Wonderland and meets the vast cast of crazy characters. Among the first she meets is Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Though these characters are fun in their own right it’s the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter they recite that I’ve always loved. It’s possible the catchy melody and rhyming, but it’s a really dark anecdote. And I’m not a dark guy. It’s tragic and deliciously twisted. 

Alice stumbles upon the White Rabbit’s home and finds him but is immediately swept into frenzy as he mistakenly takes her for his housemaid Maryanne. I always wanted to know more about Maryanne. Does she look anything like Alice? Is she possibly a rabbit? It’s so strange, yet makes perfect sense in this world. Inquisitive Alice eats a biscuit she found in the White Rabbit’s room, as is natural for any curious personality, and grows to the size of a giant. Eating a carrot she shrinks to the size of an insect and spends a golden afternoon with the flowers. An encounter with a hookah smoking caterpillar leads her to grow back to her normal size and she meets my favorite character in the movie, the Cheshire Cat.

Cheshire Cat is one of those characters that can only successfully done in animation and the whimsical style Disney went with here gives the character an iconic look. What might be a silly man in a costume in live action, animation allows this guy to disappear and reappear in sections effortlessly. Voiced by Disney All Star Sterling Holloway the performance is what gives most the inhabitants of Disney’s Wonderland this great edge warm crazy. They are insane, never quite too threatening, but I still wouldn’t turn my back on them. 

The Cat directs Alice to the film’s most memorable scenes, the Unbirthday Party. Again, another set of great characters with the Mad Hatter and March Hare. The highs and lows in mood these characters achieve at breakneck speeds are incredible. It’s another great example of not ever knowing where these characters are going to go. And it’s just a well written comedy act. Hilarious wordplay and timing, it’s totally worth a viewing as an adult just to see how well-crafted the comedy in this scene is. 

Moving on to the Royal Grounds, Alice meets the Card Army and The Queen of Hearts. The Queen of Hearts is one of the great comedic villains in Disney’s rouge gallery. I love her childish temper. She goes from the extreme of femininity one second to a raging lunatic the next. Things don’t go her way and her solution is to behead someone. And her poor little King just rolls with it. Voiced by Disney veteran Verna Felton and Animated by Frank Thomas we’re given a tyrant that’s a lot of fun to watch. The Queen finally takes Alice to her breaking point after a nonsensical trial and Alice flees Wonderland realizing life needs structure and balance. 

The only real low point of the movie is when Alice laments in the Tulgey Wood. There is a song called “Very Good Advice” that totally stalls the film and doesn’t really match wacky tone of the movie. But the rest of this film is just about Alice touring Wonderland, meeting up with one loon after another. It’s more about experiencing the insanity with Alice than it is about Alice reaching the end of a goal.

Stylistically Wonderland is a knockout. What could have been a typical cartoony tableau of bright colors are mostly black backgrounds with accented colors. This really makes all the colors in the foreground pop and is a technique Disney Legend Mary Blair uses often yet it never gets boring. 

So I concede that I underestimated this movie. It’s not just the trippy, drug induced film everyone makes it out to be. It is in fact a really creative and fun movie.  Alice in Wonderland is a great adaptation of a great literary work and has proven to be one of Disney most treasured animated classics.

Anyone Can See A Throne Would Be Your Proper Place

After nearly a decade of the package films 1950’s Cinderella was a grand return to the three act narrative. This film is a nostalgic favorite of mine as I remember watching this film over and over again with my great grandmother. She spoke very little English, and after living in the US for over 60 years I think she understood more than she let on, but she always loved watching Cinderella with me. She loved how beautiful the film looked, and she was right. This film is stunning.

Our story begins in a storybook prologue where we learn that Cinderella’s father married Lady Tremaine but passes away shortly after. Being a cruel woman and jealous of Cinderella’s beauty, Tremaine forces our titular heroine to a life of servitude to her and her 2 daughters. Cinderella herself is often criticized as being another damsel in distress but I always admire her strength given the situation that she’s in. She’s tenacious, she’s sarcastic, and she should get a lot more credit than she gets. As I stated in my write up of Snow White, I see Cinderella being another product of her times, the 50’s. This is probably what a young, strong, and independent woman was back that, and I think it still holds up.

Helping Cinderella along are the animals that inhabit the manor led by Jaq and Gus the mice. As lovable as these characters are, Gus especially providing a lot of great laughs, this is where the film falters a bit. When Cinderella is feeding the chickens in the yard she gives a few extra pieces of feed to the mice and they scramble to get their share. This scene runs a little long when I’d rather be spending more time with Cinderella and her step sisters. But it’s all forgiven when they help Cinderella make a dress for the upcoming royal ball from a vintage gown that once belonged to her mother and scraps from discarded clothing from the sister in the utterly entertaining The Work Song.

Keeping Cinderella in rags is one of my top Disney Villains, Lady Tremaine. She tries to destroy Cinderella with just and icy glare and a few choice words. She has so much power over Cinderella. My blood boils every time she is on screen. She’s just so nasty and petty for no reason other than being cursed with obnoxious, spoiled, and plain daughters. Balancing out Tremaine’s cruelty is the buffoonery of the wicked step sisters Anastasia and Drizella. During a fantastic scene, the girls are in the midst of a music lesson to Sing Sweet Nightingale, Anastasia is completely off key and Drizella is delightfully oblivious, hitting Anastasia with her flute any chance she gets. Downstairs, Cinderella is scrubbing the floor and singing along. I didn’t know until recently that Walt Disney pioneered the method of doubling up the vocal track so that Cinderella could harmonize with her image in the soap bubbles. I learn something new about that man every day.

Though thoroughly comedic the step sisters show some true rage in my favorite sequence in the film. Cinderella strikes a deal with Lady Tremaine that if she can complete her chores and finish fabricating her dress she can attend the ball. Tremaine manipulates her daughters into noticing that the dress is made up from old scraps and jewels they threw out and they proceeded to rip the dress into shreds. The opulent chateau becomes a void of crimson and black as the girls tear the dress apart. It is both striking and terrifying.  Lady Tremaine leaves the situation so smug. I get so angry, I could spit!

This is the only time that Cinderella feels she’s lost all hope and who could blame her. In her time of need her adorably absent minded Fairy Godmother comes to her aid. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo has become as pseudonymous as a magic word as Abracadabra, and for good reason. The sequence is so magical that even Disney himself has claimed that the gown transformation was his favorite single piece of animation.

When Cinderella arrives at the ball I love how massive everything looks to her. The scale is fantastic, when she enters the castle, you can feel her trepidation as the long stairways and vaulted ceilings suck you in with her. She meets a handsome and under developed Prince Charming. The King and the Duke get more time to become full characters, the Prince, he just needs to stand there and look bored until Cinderella arrives. They dance, they fall in love, midnight comes and Cinderella has to flee leaving behind a glass slipper. The search is on for a maiden to fit it. An elementary school teacher once told me that this was in the time of the cobbler, so all shoes were custom. I guess that should debunk the whole idea that someone else could have fit the shoe… but I still don’t buy it. Surely at least one other woman could have put the shoe on. And why stop at one girl if the shoe fits? What if it wasn’t Cinderella?

Logistics aside, Lady Tremaine realizes the mystery girl is Cinderella and locks Cinderella up in her room before the Duke arrives for the fitting. The mice retrieve the key and as the duke is about to fit the slipper on Cinderella, Lady Tremaine trips the Duke’s Valet and the slipper shatters. Luckily our heroine was still in procession of the matching slipper and Lady Tremaine gives the best reaction of all time. Of. All. Time. I dare you not to love the zoom in on her face. 

Cinderella marries the Charming and the scullery maid becomes a princess. This post is already longer than I intended but it’s because I love the movie. Great visuals, great storytelling and one of Disney’s best baddies, it’s just wonderful. This movie has stood the test of time and can be enjoyed by all, from little boy to an 88 year old woman who claims not speak a word of English. Disney’s Cinderella, the sweetest story ever told.

If You Were Asked to Choose the Most Fabulous Character in English Literature, Who Would it Be?

In the last of the I-Didn’t-Know-This-Was-A-Movie package film series is 1949’s The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Based off Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows this is another feature that is more famous to my generation has being two separate cartoons as opposed to one film. The tale of the Headless Horseman seems to be the more famous of the two shorts. Most likely because it’s one of the few outright spooky and dark cartoons that Disney produced and it became a staple of Halloween viewing. For those of you who don’t know, I spent a decent chunk of my career as an Attractions Host in Disneyland’s Fantasyland and you’d be surprised how many times I would hear people wonder who Mr. Toad was when I operated his beloved attraction. Most people didn’t know he had a film (not to mention an entire work of literature written about him).

Setting the tone of the film is a disembodied narrator in a lush library. The Wind in the Willows is the first story we hear, narrated by Basil Rathbone. J. Thaddeus Toad Esq. is our lead character, a wealthy toad with a penchant for anything new and trendy, in this case Automobiles. He sells the deed to his mansion to a sleazy bartender named Winky in exchange for a stolen car. Toad is falsely accused of the car theft and the resulting trial is absolutely hilarious as it parodies the justice system. Toad’s horse Cyril is a scene stealer as he recaps the events. Speaking of the horse, one oddity in this short is the scale of the characters. Toad is the size of a toad, so Cyril, being a horse, towers over him. The world is inhabited by humans, so they are much larger than our animal cast. You’d think it’d look strange but the color pallet and general madcap style make it work. Anyway, Toad gets incarcerated and breaks out of prison. It’s up to his friends Ratty, Moley, and MacBadger to help get Toad Hall back from Winky and his band of Weasels. It’s obvious that this Mr. Toad was supposed to get a full feature as the story is a bit rushed. The frantic pace sort of works in its favor, but I would have liked it to be slowed down to learn more about the characters. Ratty and Moley seem like they’re good people and their relationship is adorable, but I could have used more time with them. A full 90 minute feature could have fixed that. 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was always meant to be a short and it shows. The story is much tighter and flows much better. The tale of Ichabod Crane is narrated by Bing Crosby and what’s pretty cool is that it’s all done in song and pantomime, none of the character have any dialog. We mostly follow the daily life of the new schoolmaster as he takes advantage of most of the women in town. He may be lanky and pretty socially inept, but he’s quite the lady’s man. What struck me the most when viewing this was what a jerk Ichabod was. We normally see him has this frail victim, but he’s just not here. When he meets his eventual demise you don’t exactly feel sorry for him. Back to the plot, he falls for one of the riches women in town, Katrina, for her looks and her money. Local bully Brom Bones is jealous and regales superstitious Ichabod the legend of the Headless Horseman, riding the night woods at night looking for replacement heads. The legend comes true as Ichabod rides home and he comes face to face (?) with what is possibly one of the most scary villains in Disney history. His laugh still gives me chills. The mood set during the chase is great as the atmosphere is dark and heavy, but the action is more often funny and fast paced. In the end we don’t see if Ichabod survived as all that is found is his hat.

This is the final of the anthology films of the 40’s and as much fun it was to revisit this series of films the second Golden Age of Disney Feature Animation couldn’t come soon enough. The Adventure of Ichabod and Mr. Toad isn’t the strongest of the package films, but it’s not the worst by any measure. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is strong and the best version of the story I’ve seen but there is a want for a single narrative film. And that want is more than met in 1950 when a curtain scullery maid makes her entrance to the ball.

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.