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.
Not having gotten enough Latin American flavor from Saludos Amigos, Walt Disney keeps his next animated anthology film South of the border. Donald Duck receives a box full of surprises from his friends in Central and South America. These gifts entertain both Donald and the audience for 70 minutes of good fun and a little dash of impressive animation.
First, Donald opens a film projector and watched a guide to some of the regions unique birds. This includes the tale of Pablo the Penguin, who ditches Antarctica in search of the Galapagos, and the zany Aracuan. The film then segues into the charming tale of a Uruguayan boy’s discovery of a flying donkey. It’s all cute and fun and provides Disney’s animators with ample opportunities to blend their work with the orchestration.
Donald’s next present is a book about Brazil. The book opens to feature José Carioca, the fanciful parrot introduced in Saludos Amgios. Donald is magically transported inside the book to Bahia, Brazil. There, the two friends take in the local culture, colors and music. This portion of the film also includes some clever fusions of our animated characters interacting with flesh-and-blood people dancing through the streets.
After exiting the book, Donald and José open the final present, a crate from Mexico. After a fanciful music number, we are introduced to Panchito Pistoles, a gun-slinging rooster who whisks his friends off for even more Latin flavor on a magic serape ride. There’s a little more culture and a lot more music and blending of live action and animation. In Acapulco, Donald becomes smitten with beach-going gals and the nightlife of Mexico City.
The film closes with a very surreal mishmash of animated weirdness brought on by the kiss of a lovely lady. Some of it makes no sense and just seems like the animators and musicians teaming up to have a little bit of random fun. Some of it is amusing but other parts are just weird.
On the whole, The Three Caballeros doesn’t compare to Fantasia in terms of audacity and ingenuity but it does have its merits. Instead of turning out like a revamped Saludos Amigos, Caballeros does bring some new tricks along with it. The live action-animation fusion gives the film some purpose but the culture and traditions on display hardly hold up now. Maybe when Mexico and South America were less known and more exotic to Americans this film was something to talk about. That really isn’t the case anymore, so this film isn’t as likely to thrill modern audiences.
Before America entered World War II, the US government sought Disney’s assistance in keeping good relations with the nations in South America. This led to Walt Disney taking a number of his animators and musicians on a tour of the continent, all the while picking up ideas and inspirations for a South American-based series of animated shorts that would become Saludos Amigos. While this film has largely gone unremembered, it deserves credit for ingenuity and creativity.
Blending live-action footage of Disney and his crew touring various locales with the animated shorts inspired by each hot spot, Saludos Amigos manages to be part educational film and part travelogue. While it may look like South American culture has been generalized and stereotyped now, you have to consider that the film was made during the early 1940s. Americans knew very little about South America, with these generalizations probably being about it. This made them necessary inclusions in the film because it would be something familiar enough for American viewers to connect with and enjoy. For South American audiences, these generalizations may have simply been neat for them to see on screen.
However you slice it, Saludos Amigos pales in comparison to any of Disney’s previous five animated films. That doesn’t make it a bad film though. Similar to Fantasia, there are animated shorts involved but they are not nearly as complex and inventive. The first involves Donald Duck doing a little sight-seeing at Lake Titicaca and a nearby village. The narrator talks about village life and Donald is merely along for the ride as a beloved Disney character. Using a flute to control a cantankerous llama turns into an amusing two minutes where the animation and music get to play off of one another.
The second short involves the tale of Pedro the airplane. Pedro is a young Chilean mail carrier plane who has to make the dangerous trek over the Andes Mountains in order to pick up mail in Argentina and deliver it back home. This segment features more impressive animation, including detailed backgrounds of the dangerous mountain passes.
The third segment takes us to the pampas of Argentina, where Goofy learns what it takes to become a true gaucho, or Argentinean cowboy. Goofy is used for some slapstick moments involving his clothing and horse. Goofy also gets a taste of traditional Argentinean music and dance.
The final and best segment of the film introduces José Carioca, a lively parrot displaying the colors and rhythms of Rio de Janeiro. This part of Saludos Amigos is a real treat. Like in Fantasia, the blending of animation and music hits the mark. As the music pulses away, an animator's brush creates lavish scenes and South American landscapes. The music adds to the overall effect, making it even more enjoyable than some of the shorts in Fantasia. Donald Duck pops in and José shows him the beauty and fun of the samba. They dance the night away and take in Rio’s nightlife.
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.
Not having gotten enough Latin American flavor from Saludos Amigos, Walt Disney keeps his next animated anthology film South of the border. Donald Duck receives a box full of surprises from his friends in Central and South America. These gifts entertain both Donald and the audience for 70 minutes of good fun and a little dash of impressive animation.
Before America entered World War II, the US government sought Disney’s assistance in keeping good relations with the nations in South America. This led to Walt Disney taking a number of his animators and musicians on a tour of the continent, all the while picking up ideas and inspirations for a South American-based series of animated shorts that would become Saludos Amigos. While this film has largely gone unremembered, it deserves credit for ingenuity and creativity.
