Make Mine Music (1946)

Still strapped for cash and a full team of animators due to World War two, Disney cranked out this, yet another ‘package film.’ Instead of a common theme uniting the individual shorts, Make Mine Music returns to the Fantasia formula- an artful combination of animation and music. Despite bringing in a few big names to contribute to this anthology, the results are pretty mixed.

The original version of Make Mine Music began with a piece called ‘The Martins and the Coys,’ a Western-themed tale of two feuding families thrown for a loop when a boy from one family and a girl from the other fall in love with each other. I had to look this short up online, however, because all home video releases have removed this short because of its comedic use of gunplay that is no longer appropriate for children. Thanks a lot, political correctness.

Instead of a fun and lively opener, the version of Make Mine Music that I watched began with the dreadfully slow ‘Blue Bayou,’ a short that was originally supposed to be part of Fantasia. It’s simply a look at the animal and plant life of a bayou in the early evening. While the animation is beautiful, the pace is a downer. This makes for a very poor first impression and may hamper your ability to let yourself get into the rest of the film.

The first half of the film goes back and forth between slow pieces and upbeat shorts, creating an awkward see-saw effect. The second short on home video is ‘All the Cats Join In.’ Featuring the music of Benny Goodman, this short provides the spark missing from ‘Blue Bayou.’ A pencil draws the action as we’re seeing it, a clever twist to the animation, as cartoon teenagers get carried away by the new popular music of the era.

‘Without You’ is next, featuring a slow ballad sung by Andy Russell. Very little about this short is remarkable, save some of the shadows matching the music. The animated tale of ‘Casey at the Bat’ brings a little life back into the mix. Ernest Thayer’s classic poem is read and plays out with some pretty polished animation. Things drop back down a notch with ‘Two Silhouettes,’ which features an early example of rotoscoping, animating over footage of live-action events. Two ballet dancers appear as animated silhouettes while they dance to a tune sung by Dinah Shore and ‘interact’ with other animated elements on the screen. It’s a neat process but the pace kills momentum.

The final four shorts end Make Mine Music on a good note. ‘Peter and the Wolf’ offers a glimpse of the animation style that would become the norm for Disney in the next few years. ‘After You’ve Gone’ brings Benny Goodman back for a rousing mash-up between music and animated versions of the instruments being played. ‘Johnny Fedora’ and ‘The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met’ are both cute little tales (though 'Whale' ends on a bit of a downer for a film targeted at children) that feature colorful animation and some good music.

While Disney may not have been deliberately trying to repeat the success of Fantasia with this film, comparison to the earlier masterpiece is inevitable. Make Mine Music features a number of interesting shorts but the order in which they play out could have been arranged better. The loss of ‘The Martins and the Coys’ is a major blow because the film starts off slow. This might cause viewers to lose interest almost immediately, which was almost the case with me.

Despite plenty of good shorts and some clever blending of animation and music, Make Mine Music doesn’t really try anything bold or groundbreaking. Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros tried a few new things but the anthology formula feels like it’s played out this time around. It’s a pretty good product in the end but it almost need to be another Fantasia to really matter. Sadly, it’s no Fantasia.

RATING: 3.25 out of 5