Melody Time (1948)

After taking a step forward with Fun and Fancy Free, Walt Disney and his animation team takes a slight step backward by returning to the overstuffed ‘package’ film format. Melody Time has its share of virtues but it can’t escape the stigma of seeming like another Fantasia clone that fails to live up to the achievements of the original.

The film opens reasonably strong with ‘Once Upon a Wintertime,’ a tale of two young people in love on a romp through the winter scenery. The inventive but forgettable ‘Bumble Boogie’ comes next and features a jazz variation of “Flight of the Bumblebee.” Up next is the classic short 'The Legend of Johnny Appleseed.' Most people my age and younger have seen this charming animated tale while growing up and it still has all the charm and magic as the first time you may have seen it.

'Appleseed' is a tough act to follow but 'Little Toot' does well enough in the cleanup spot. It’s about a rambunctious little tugboat and features the signing of the Andrews Sisters. 'Trees' offers a bland recitation of a poem by Alfred Joyce Kilmer. Saving the day is 'Blame it on the Samba,' a wonderfully entertaining short featuring Donald Duck, José Carioca and the crazy Aracuan bird. This reunion from The Three Caballeros is a welcome attraction for me, even though I’ve grown tired of the formulaic structure of these War-era Disney films.

Wrapping up Melody Time is 'Pecos Bill,' a tall tale of the legendary Western characters adventures spun by none other than Roy Rogers. The home video release is cleaned up for political correctness (gone are virtually all depictions of our hero smoking) but the good-natured fun remains. It ends the film on a high note, which is good because anything less than a solid ending would have left audiences frustrated with this re-serving of more of the same.

I don’t mean for this review to come off so negative. The animation is solid, the music is enjoyable and the stories are fine. My beef is that ‘fine’ isn’t good enough for a Disney product. I understand that World War II drained Disney of resources and box office returns tanked but this is the fifth consecutive Disney film to lack a central story line. There is no meat and no growth for characters. All we get are a few splashy colors, fanciful music and short stories. This cheap and easy approach has lost its luster and leaves you longing for the glory days of Snow White, Pinocchio and Bambi.

While Melody Time never tries to be the second coming of Fantasia, it’s impossible not to compare them based on their similar structures. Where Fantasia was a bold and innovative experiment, Melody Time is intentionally formulaic and manufactured. The end product is still worth watching though; it’s just not a main course that you’ll be asking for seconds of.

RATING: 3.25 out of 5

Fun and Fancy Free (1947)

After three consecutive ‘package’ films featuring multiple shorts, Walt Disney pulls his animators together for a more concentrated production. Instead of half a dozen or more shorts, we are given just two stories. While still technically a short, each component is much longer that what the recent Disney collections offered. While this is a welcome breath of fresh air, Fun and Fancy Free is also not quite the one-two punch Disney may have been gunning for.

Fun and Fancy Free opens with a song by Jiminy Cricket, who wanders into the living room of a house. There he finds two sad looking toys and decides to cheer them up with a story. While looking for a book to read, he discovers a story on record titled ‘Bongo.’ Narrated by Dinah Shore, ‘Bongo’ is the story of a circus bear who finds himself lost in the wild. After meeting some of the local bears, Bongo falls in love with a young female, drawing the ire of one of her hopeful suitors. Both bears vie for her attention and affection.

After finishing the tale of Bongo, Jiminy heads over to a little girl’s birthday party. This segment is live-action footage, where ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his dummies Charlie Parker and Mortimer Snerd are the entertainment. Bergen springs into the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, only the audience is treated to the animated tale of ‘Mickey and the Beanstalk.’ Mickey, Donald and Goofy take on Willie the Giant in order to restore peace and prosperity to their valley.

As entertaining as the last few ensemble films had been for Disney, the formula was getting stale. Films like Make Mine Music and The Three Caballeros contained segments that were hit-or-miss in nature. This, in conjunction with the fact that they don’t focus on a popular story like Disney’s early works, is almost certainly why these so-called ‘package’ films aren’t remembered or loved as dearly as the full-length, one-story films.

Fun and Fancy Free takes a step in the right direction by tackling two longer short stories. This gives the audience more substance to latch onto. It’s also clear that it afforded Disney’s animators more time to focus on their work. Both ‘Bongo’ and ‘Mickey and the Beanstalk’ have more detailed animation, even though it doesn’t quite compare with Disney’s early films.

‘Bongo’ isn’t a very memorable tale but it is cute and something kids will enjoy. ‘Mickey and the Beanstalk’ is something of a Disney classic. It has been repackaged and the narration altered several different times. I recall watching this on a Mickey Mouse VHS collection as a child and loving it. It still has a magical charm that thrills the imagination. Seeing it with the original narration is interesting because Edgar Bergen and his dummy friends add commentary to the on-screen action that is often times amusing.

‘Mickey and the Beanstalk’ is the better of the two shorts in this film but ‘Bongo’ still gets the job done. Taken separately, the ratings would be quite differently. As a sum of its parts though, Fun and Fancy Free under-performs ever so slightly.

RATING: 3.25 out of 5