by The Disney Purist

#8 Make Mine Music (1946)

  1. BACKGROUND
  2. STORY #1: THE MARTINS AND THE COYS
  3. STORY #2: BLUE BAYOU
  4. STORY #3: ALL THE CATS JOIN IN
  5. STORY #4: WITHOUT YOU
  6. STORY #5: CASEY AT THE BAT
  7. STORY #6: TWO SILHOUETTES
  8. STORY #7: PETER AND THE WOLF
  9. STORY #8: AFTER YOU’VE GONE
  10. STORY #9: JOHNNIE FEDORA AND ALICE BLUEBONNET
  11. STORY #10: THE WHALE WHO WANTED TO SING AT THE MET
  12. PRODUCTION
  13. RECEPTION
  14. LEGACY
  15. FINAL THOUGHTS
  16. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Make Mine Music was the first Disney animated feature to be released after World War II.

The war and the 1941 animators’ strike had caused numerous problems for Walt Disney and the Disney Studios, however, even after the war had ended, the Disney Studios were still struggling financially, and with European markets closed off to them as a direct result of wartime relations, a new direction was needed to get the Disney Studios back up and running, therefore, it was decided that a “package feature” was their best option.

Disney had released a few “package features” previously, with the formula of Fantasia (1940) being used, although not in quite the same way. The Disney “package features” that followed Fantasia, beginning with Saludos Amigos (1942), were cheaper to make than Fantasia, and more “needs-must”. Fantasia was developed as an experiment into how far animation could go. It was devised as a proper concert, something that would be an event, an occasion, more sophisticated than just going to see a movie. The “package features” that followed were not that.

A “package feature” is basically multiple segments of varying length, with a vague connection, being bundled together to make a full-length feature. Make Mine Music was the third of these to be released after Fantasia, and comprises ten separate sequences. 

These ten sections are:

  1. “The Martins and the Coys”
  2. “Blue Bayou”
  3. “All the Cats Join In”
  4. “Without You”
  5. “Casey at the Bat”
  6. “Two Silhouettes”
  7. “Peter and the Wolf”
  8. “After You’ve Gone”
  9. “Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet”
  10. “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met”

I wouldn’t be surprised if you have not heard of Make Mine Music as it’s not particularly celebrated. It’s one of those animated features that has been mostly forgotten, at least in its entirety; some of these shorts were released separately or shown on television, so it is possible that Disney fans may be familiar with some of the movie, if not all of it.

I’d only watched it once before this week, a few years back when I was on a quest to watch all the Disney Animated Classics. I didn’t like it much then, and watching it again this week, I had similar feelings; it wasn’t very entertaining for me, though I did like some of the shorts, but others were just boring. The film is only 75 minutes long, but at times it felt longer, almost like it would never end!

STORY #1: THE MARTINS AND THE COYS

Make Mine Music begins with the standard Opening Credits, which uses the outside of a concert hall at night as the location, with the written credits appearing on posters. It then shows a theatre programme, calling the film “A Musical Fantasy”. This programme is used to introduce the upcoming ten shorts, detailing the style or genre, its musical accompaniment, and the title. The opening song, “Make Mine Music” was written by Ken Darby, who went on to collaborate on the music, alongside Alfred Newman, for films such as South Pacific (1958), The King and I (1956), and Camelot (1967), and Eliot Daniel, who wrote the theme from I Love Lucy (1951-1957). The opening song was performed by the Disney Studio Chorus.

First up is “The Martins and the Coys”, though I keep wanting to say “The Martins and the McCoys” for some reason. Maybe because the whole story idea was based on The Hatfield-McCoy feud; two warring families, one from West Virginia, the other Kentucky, which went on from 1863 to 1891, because of events during the American Civil War. “The Martins and the Coys” is described as a “rustic ballad”, and it does follow two feuding families, who live in the mountains, with them living directly opposite each other, with only a small valley and stream separating the two sides. Basically, the two sides shoot at each other for days, killing all but one family member each. They then go up and sit on the clouds as ghosts and watch over the remaining relatives. Weird.

The last two family members, Grace Martin and Henry Coy, set out to destroy each other, but end up falling in love, thus ending the feud and angering their ancestors. However, the married couple keep on fighting, as couples do, so the feud is not actually over! The narrative song is performed by The King’s Men group and was written by Al Cameron and Ted Weems. This isn’t my favourite of the shorts, and the only thing I came out of it thinking was that Grace Martin looked a lot like Katrina Van Tassel in the Sleepy Hollow section of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949). It had a country-feel to it, in terms of both the animation and the music, so I guess it was a success in creating the right mood.

STORY #2: BLUE BAYOU

Next is “Blue Bayou”. It follows two egrets flying through the Everglades with the moonlight shining on them. It’s quite a basic idea, though the animation is quite magical, and the music is gentle and calming. It’s a bit of a contrast to “The Martins and the Coys”! The song was written by Bobby Worth and Ray Gilbert, who had both worked with Disney before. Worth contributed songs to Fun and Fancy Free (1947) and Melody Time (1948), the two subsequent “package features”, and Gilbert wrote the lyrics to the Oscar-winning song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from Disney’s “banned” film Song of the South (1946). The song was performed by The Ken Darby Singers, Ken Darby’s choral group. I quite like this segment, though it probably helped that it was one of the shorter ones in the film. The animated sequence was originally intended to accompany Debussy’s Clair de Lune in Fantasia (1940); I would’ve liked to have seen that version[1].

STORY #3: ALL THE CATS JOIN IN

Following that is the “jazz interlude”, as it is introduced, called “All the Cats Join In”. The story is simple, a group of young boys and girls head over to the local malt shop to dance, eat ice cream, and drink soda. Much of the animation for this short is “hand-drawn” by an animated pencil in front of your eyes, which is quite an interesting look for the segment. The musical accompaniment was written by Alec Wilder, who had written songs for artists such as Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee, and Ray Gilbert. It was performed by Benny Goodman and his orchestra. Benny Goodman was a popular bandleader during the 1930s and 40s, with him even being known as the “King of Swing”. The singers are The Pied Pipers, a singing group formed in the 1930s.  Again, I like this sequence. The music is catchy and the animation is clever. The only strange part for me was when the girl at the start of the piece is getting ready to go out, showering and dressing, with Disney actually animating her stepping out of the shower and into her underwear; it was surprisingly risqué for a Disney movie!

STORY #4: WITHOUT YOU

Then, there is “Without You”, described in the “programme” as “a ballad in blue”. It certainly is that, with the song recounting a tale of lost love. The animation is more abstract, so if it weren’t for the song, it would just be a story about being depressed! It begins looking through a window on a rainy day, before looking at the night sky, some park landscapes, and then back into the room. It’s a bit strange and definitely melancholy, with the first part of the short mostly using colours like blue and grey, before moving into light pink and purple, which suggested the sun coming up and a new day starting, but I don’t really know to be honest. It wasn’t easy to follow, and I didn’t like the animation, though I liked the song, even though it is sad. The song was written by Ray Gilbert, and performed by Andy Russell, known for being one of the most popular “crooners” at the time in the US. He was bilingual, so performed songs in both Spanish and English, having hits with “Bésame Mucho” and “What a Diff’rence a Day Made”.

STORY #5: CASEY AT THE BAT

“Casey at the Bat” is the fifth short in the film, with it being a musical recitation of the 1888 Ernest Thayer poem of the same name. Casey is a popular baseball player who believes his own publicity. So much so, that when it comes down to him being the final batter, and needing to win the game for his team, he arrogantly ignores the first two pitches, thinking he’ll easily get a good swing on the third and final pitch, but instead, he strikes out and angers the crowd, losing the game for his team and town. Entertainer Jerry Colonna provides the narration for the short. Colonna’s voice will sound familiar to Disney fans as he would go on to voice the March Hare in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (1951).

STORY #6: TWO SILHOUETTES

Next is “Two Silhouettes”, which is literally two silhouettes of ballet dancers. Two little cupids join in with the dance at times, such as lifting the prima ballerina up onto the “clouds” to dance a solo. David Lichine and Tatiana Riabouchinska are the two ballet dancers featured in the short. They had previously served as the dance models for Ben Ali Gator and Hyacinth Hippo in the “Dance of the Hours” sequence for Disney’s Fantasia (1940). Their dance was rotoscoped, meaning that their live-action movements were traced over frame-by-frame to turn them into animation. The song was written by Charles Wolcott, who wrote music for many Disney shorts and films, such as Saludos Amigos (1942) and The Three Caballeros (1944), and performed by Dinah Shore, a popular singer of the “Big Band” era. I personally didn’t like this short much at all, even though I like ballet, because I felt like the dance was basic and not very entertaining. I didn’t like the song either, but at least it was another short segment.

STORY #7: PETER AND THE WOLF

Then, there is an animated sequence of “Peter and the Wolf”, using Prokofiev’s musical composition of 1936. It is narrated by Sterling Holloway, Disney’s original voice of Winnie the Pooh, who begins by explaining that each character we will see in the short is represented by a different instrument, i.e., Peter by strings; the cat, Ivan, by clarinet; the bird, Sascha, by flute; the duck, Sonia, by oboe; and the Wolf by horns and cymbals. The story states that Peter wanted to go into the woods to capture the wolf that terrorises their town. His grandfather tells him to stay inside, but he disobeys, armed with only a toy gun. The animals, Sonia, Ivan, and Sascha, come to help Peter. They find the wolf, only for Peter to realise that his gun won’t do anything to it. Sonia is presumed killed in the chaos as they all try to run up a tree to protect themselves from the wolf.

Sascha tries to distract the wolf but almost gets eaten itself. Somehow, Peter and Ivan manage to ensnare the wolf’s tail in a rope and hoist it up into the tree to tie it to the branch. The town hunters come by shortly after to capture the wolf, but seeing that Peter has already managed to do this, they bring the wolf back to town and celebrate Peter’s heroism. A surprise ending also shows that Sonia is in fact alive and was not killed by the wolf after all. This short is perhaps the most well-known of the ten that feature in Make Mine Music, and for many a highlight of the film, but I didn’t enjoy it so much. It felt the most like traditional Disney storytelling, but the animation wasn’t for me, though I liked the music.

STORY #8: AFTER YOU’VE GONE

Next, there is another strange animated sequence, this time featuring anthropomorphised musical instruments, like a clarinet, double bass, and piano, each meant to represent one of the Goodman Quartet and Benny Goodman himself, who perform the music. The instruments are running around on different abstract shapes and landscapes; at one point, the clarinet and double bass seem to be about to wrestle or box. I don’t know; it was odd and I didn’t like it! But again, it was short, less than three minutes long, so it wasn’t difficult to sit through. The jazz music was quite nice, and is an upbeat version of the 1918 song “After You’ve Gone”, written by Turner Layton and Henry Creamer.

STORY #9: JOHNNIE FEDORA AND ALICE BLUEBONNET

Second to last is “Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet”. It is a tale of two hats who fall in love whilst sitting in a window of a department store. However, one day, Alice Bluebonnet is bought, and later so is Johnnie Fedora. This sequence follows Johnnie as he spends his life trying to find Alice again. At one point, he sees her in the city, but as he tries to follow her, he becomes battered and lost on the streets. When all looks lost, and it seems that Johnnie is about to be washed down into a sewer, he is rescued, with two holes being cut into him, so that he can fit on this man’s horse. It would seem bad, however, sitting on the top of the next horse is Alice; the two are finally reunited. The musical narration is provided by The Andrews Sisters, a close harmony singing group, who had hits with songs such as “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” in 1941. The song was written by Ray Gilbert and Allie Wrubel. Wrubel collaborated with Ray Gilbert on the song, “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah”. Some reviews said that they found this short silly, but I liked it and thought it was sweet.

STORY #10: THE WHALE WHO WANTED TO SING AT THE MET

Finally, the grand finale, “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met”, an “opera pathetique”. The story goes that a whale has been spotted singing in the ocean. Many experts try to disprove the phenomenon, or figure out how it may be possible. One man, Tetti-Tatti, believes that the whale must have swallowed an opera singer and sets out to “rescue” him. The whale, named Willie, who really can sing and is desperate to be discovered, swims right up to Tetti-Tatti, who tries to shoot him with a harpoon, believing that due to Willie’s impressive range of voices he must have swallowed three singers. It seems that Tetti-Tatti has realised that he is just an impressive whale, and takes him to the Met, where he performs opera in front of mesmerised crowds who adore him.

However, this was all just a dream, and we return to the ocean where Tetti-Tatti succeeds in shooting poor Willie, who unsurprisingly dies from his wounds. The Narrator tries to encourage us by saying that Willie is now singing in Heaven, where one of the final shots shows a “Sold Out” sign on the Pearly Gates, proving that Willie did still get his dream. That does little to take away from the fact that that is quite a dark ending to a Disney movie, especially one that didn’t seem to be heading that way, with its unconnected, mostly harmless short cartoons! It was quite a good story up until that point, but I guess having a whale sing at the Met would’ve come with numerous challenges, so we actually ended up with the most realistic ending for a change!

Anyway, all the voices, including the singing, in this short are provided by Nelson Eddy, who had performed in numerous operas, including those by Gilbert and Sullivan with the Savoy Company in the 1920s. He then appeared in movies, including eight starring alongside soprano singer Jeanette MacDonald, in the 1930s and 1940s. To perform as Willie the Whale and sing all the parts, including tenor and bass, as he was predominately a baritone, Eddy used home recording equipment to manipulate his voice to fit all the necessary registers. The short contains excerpts of multiple opera pieces, including “Largo al factotum” from The Barber of Seville. Walt Disney told reporters that the Disney Studios could not obtain the rights to use music from the opera I Pagliacci, leaving Eddy to write a “phony one himself, complete with sobs”[2].

PRODUCTION

After World War II, the Disney Studios did not bounce back instantly, unsurprisingly. Many staff members had been called up to the army to fight, the US had to recover from the impact of it, and foreign markets were still closed to Disney, with some European countries taking years to pick themselves up after the hardships of war. It was decided, because of this, that a new animated movie had to be quick and cheap to make, compared to Disney’s pre-war full-length features. A “package feature”, also called anthology features, omnibus features, or compilation features, was deemed the best medium for Disney to go with.

The idea for Make Mine Music was essentially based on Fantasia (1940), i.e., non-related animated sequences being set to music, with a loose narrative connecting them together. They had been working on the ideas for animations based on Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”, as well as the story of “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met”, but alone, they would not make a full feature, which is why other sequences were developed and assembled together to create Make Mine Music.

Walt Disney was still sensitive about some of the criticism he’d received after the release of Fantasia, namely that the use of classical music had been too “high-brow” for many audiences, and had therefore not worked for everyone. Based on this feedback, Walt Disney decided that for Make Mine Music they should use popular tunes instead, using well-known acts for the time to perform the songs, such as Benny Goodman, Dinah Shore, Nelson Eddy and the Andrews Sisters[3].

RECEPTION

Make Mine Music was released to theatres in the United States in August 1946. It received mixed reviews at best. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote in a review at the time that the movie contained a mixture of “delightful” subjects, with others being “ponderous and dull”. Reading his review, it seems like Crowther liked around half of the sequences, with “After You’ve Gone”, “All the Cats Join In”, “Casey at the Bat” and “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met” being his preferred ones. Benny Goodman and his orchestra’s performances in “After You’ve Gone” and “All the Cats Join In” were the biggest highlight for Crowther. The other shorts were deemed to be confused and silly at times[4].

His review echoed the thoughts of many viewers back then, and his words still ring true today. It is near impossible for a movie containing so much diverse material and varying musical styles to have universal appeal; there will always be some who like certain aspects, and others who like a different one. As an example, my favourite short was actually “Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet”, which many thought was silly, but I suppose I liked it for its musical theatre style of music and its romantic storyline, though I am aware it is about two hats falling in love, which is a bit odd! I did also like “Casey at the Bat” and “All the Cats Join In”, as many others did, however, I personally did not like the animation style in “Peter and the Wolf”, although appreciated the use of Prokofiev’s music, or “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met”, which I just found weird and not amusing at all. But the good thing about a movie like this is that there is something for everyone – providing they have the willpower to sit through the whole movie to find it.

Make Mine Music was later entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, which ran from 20th September to 5th October 1946, where it won the award for Best Animation Design. This was the first Cannes Film Festival to take place, though it could be considered a relaunch after the first attempt to put on the Festival in 1939 was halted because of the imminent outbreak of World War II, when German troops invaded Poland on 1st September, the official start date of the event.

However, Make Mine Music’s triumph at the Cannes Film Festival did nothing to help the Disney Studios financially, nor did further releases of two more “package features” in the coming years do anything to help Walt Disney’s reputation, where he was thought to have lost his vision and direction, even being called “a hack filmmaker”. Luckily, the release of Cinderella (1950), a return to the magic of Disney animation and storytelling, would recover his reputation and the financial stability of the Disney Studios, with the movie becoming their biggest money-maker since before the war[5].

Many of the sequences from Make Mine Music were released separately on other Disney compilation and anthology releases, such as “Peter and the Wolf” and “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met” featuring on the Walt Disney Mini Classic series and Favorite Stories Collection. The actual film was released on VHS and DVD in 2000 in the United States, however, the full sequence of “The Martins and the Coys” was removed from the movie for scenes of “comic gunplay”, along with “sexual imagery” from “All the Cats Join In”, which I can only assume is the scene of the girl getting dressed. The movie was released on Blu-Ray in 2021, but it was still the 2000 censored version of the film, disappointing some.

Luckily for me, I’m British and live in the UK so I have a copy of Make Mine Music on DVD from 2006, and it is the full version, not the same censored version that was released in the US six years earlier. I distinctly remember where I bought the DVD as well, from an HMV in Milton Keynes, in 2016. I’d been trying to watch all the Disney Animated Classics, and though I had the help of the streaming app Disney Life, basically the UK, and maybe other parts of Europe, version of Disney+ before that appeared, it must not have featured any of the six “package features” of the 1940s as I purchased all of them at that time.

But it’s a good thing I did, because Make Mine Music is actually the only feature within the official Disney Animated Classics list that is still not on Disney+. In 2021, Make Mine Music’s 75th anniversary, a few people commented on this omission, trying to figure out why it is not there, and asking Disney to put it on the service. It is still not on the UK version of Disney+, as of the time of writing, so I can only assume it is not on the US Disney+ either.

Some thought it could have been due to offensive content within the movie. After all, “The Martins and the Coys” and parts of “All the Cats Join In” were removed from the US version of the film as far back as 2000. It could have suffered the same fate as Song of the South (1946) and been hidden away for all eternity, though Song of the South has never been re-released in any format, not even on home video, whereas Make Mine Music has.

It is also worth noting that many of Disney’s animated releases, such as Dumbo (1941) and Peter Pan (1953) are still featured on Disney+, despite their offensive content; a 10-second warning was added to the start of the movie as an alternative to removing it from the platform entirely[6]. Perhaps it’s a rights issue, maybe around some of the opera music in “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met”, as Walt Disney even stated around the time of Make Mine Music’s release that they had not been granted the rights to use music from the opera I Pagliacci. All the shorts are available to watch online though, from what I can see, so there’s no need to miss out.

Basically, no-one knows, and this not knowing and wondering if or when it will come to Disney+ has apparently driven people crazy, or it had done in 2021; maybe they’ve all forgotten about it now! Even if it was on Disney+, these few people waiting for it might watch it once, realise it’s not as great as they thought, and never watch it again. It’s the rarity that’s making it so interesting – and I can say all this with a big smile on my face, knowing that my copy of Make Mine Music is sat neatly and comfortably in my alphabetised DVD cupboard. And people think I’m weird for still having DVDs – well, who’s laughing now?

LEGACY

Due to the style of movie that Make Mine Music is, it did not receive a sequel and it is highly unlikely that it will ever receive the “live-action” treatment from Disney. However, the short, “Casey at the Bat”, did get a sequel, another animated short entitled “Casey Bats Again” which premiered in June 1954. Shortly after Casey’s infamous strikeout, Casey finds that his wife is pregnant, and is excited to have a boy to teach how to play baseball. But, despite having a total of nine children, all of them end up being girls. Casey is dismayed. His friends tell him that his girls are just as good at baseball as he is, and so, Casey starts up a women’s baseball team, called “The Caseyettes”. Casey is concerned about his daughters losing a big game, so during the game, he goes in to bat, disguised as a girl, obviously, replacing his eldest daughter. As Casey is about to strike out again, his daughter comes up behind him and hits a home run, winning the game for everyone.

Make Mine Music’s short sequences were released separately and shown elsewhere after the movie’s initial release, with the only other movie that Make Mine Music helped create being the last “package feature” to be released during Walt’s lifetime: Music Land (1955). It was never released on home video, and only played in 1955, and once more at the 1970 Tribute to Walt Disney retrospective at the National Film Theater. Music Land (1955) is not the animated short of the same name, released in 1935 as part of the Silly Symphonies catalogue, but a film that took four segments from Make Mine Music and five from Melody Time, thrown together and released on 5th October 1955. It was only made to satisfy Disney’s contract with RKO, who needed one more release under that contract before Disney could use their own distribution company, Buena Vista Distribution. From Make Mine Music, Music Land used the shorts: “All the Cats Join In”, “After You’ve Gone”, “Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet” and “Casey at the Bat”[8].

Surprisingly, some of the Disney theme parks actually do feature references to some of the sections of Make Mine Music, with the biggest one being the quick-service baseball-themed restaurant, Casey’s Corner.

When Disneyland Paris opened in 1992, the location at the end of Main Street, which at Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom at the time was a Coca-Cola-sponsored location called Refreshment Corner, was instead named Casey’s Corner, and themed to both the 1888 poem “Casey at the Bat” by Ernest Thayer and the Disney short cartoon of the same name that features in Make Mine Music.

When Magic Kingdom’s northwest side of Main Street was renovated, Casey’s Corner was then brought to Walt Disney World, with the food location opening on 27th May 1995. It is heavily baseball-themed, with signage shaped like baseballs, Cast Members wearing vintage baseball player costumers and umpire-style aprons, vintage baseball memorabilia throughout the area, as well as two fibreglass statues of baseball players outside the restaurant. Disneyland Paris’ Casey’s Corner has these same pieces of theming.

At Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, it used to have bleachers to sit on, with a screen running sports-themed Disney cartoons on a loop in front of the seating location. I remember it was always busy to sit inside there – it still is – but I think I managed to get a seat in their once or twice. In 2014, this area was removed and replaced with more traditional seating, with the outdoor seating being doubled. Casey’s Corner at both Disney Parks feature red and white chairs and table umbrellas, as well as vintage Coca-Cola light fixtures, to signify the locations’ Coca-Cola sponsorships[9].

Casey’s Corner serves traditional hot dogs and fries, with the Magic Kingdom spot also serving fan-favourite corn dog nuggets, amongst other typical baseball game-themed fare. They also have more premium hot dogs nowadays with interesting toppings. Casey’s Corner in Paris has less options, but does sell ice-creams. I have been to both; Casey’s Corner at Walt Disney World has much nicer hot dogs, but then it is in America and not France!

An added bonus to Walt Disney World’s Casey’s Corner is that a pianist is scheduled to perform just outside the restaurant daily, at various times throughout the day, playing a mixture of ragtime tunes, Disney classics, and may even take requests. Disneyland Paris used to have a pianist in this location, however, I cannot confirm if they still have one there.

At Disneyland, this food location, though in the same spot as Magic Kingdom’s and Disneyland Paris’, remains as Refreshment Corner. The other three Disney theme parks also do not have a Casey’s Corner.

A poster of Willie the Whale, singing in the opera I Pagliacci, can be seen in the queue area of Mickey’s PhilarMagic at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and at Disneyland California Adventure. It would seem that Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland, although having a version of Mickey’s PhilarMagic at their parks, do not seem to have this poster in their queue.

But, at Disneyland Paris, on the Storybook Land Canal Boats attraction, currently, as you go through the tunnel, Prokofiev’s music for “Peter and the Wolf” can be heard. Then a snow-covered miniature scene of the short can be seen on the left. However, in October 2023, it was announced that two new areas will be coming to this attraction in 2024, known as Le Pays des Contes de Fées in French. These are one for Frozen, and another for Winnie the Pooh. It would seem that the Frozen scene will likely replace the “Peter and the Wolf” scene.

Finally, a very brief scene, literally a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, from “After You’ve Gone”, with the anthropomorphised clarinet, can be seen during the Wonderful World of Animation nighttime show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort. It is almost at the very end of the show, within the compilation of scenes from various movies that follows the Encanto scene; it is on the righthand side of The Chinese Theater – in case anyone wants to find this scene one day!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Make Mine Music is not terrible or unwatchable; it’s just a bit boring in places, although certain scenes are relatively enjoyable. It also served a purpose: to keep the Disney Studios afloat, so that they could make “better” animated movies when staff numbers were back to normal, and when foreign markets were able to show Disney movies again.

Without Make Mine Music, and the other “package” features, it was possible that the Disney Studios may have gone bankrupt, and then the world would have been without so many iconic and beloved classic animated movies.

So, let’s all give thanks to the lacklustre, but very necessary, Make Mine Music.

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 5 (2016), ‘The Disney Package Features’, pp. 65-73.

[2] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 5 (2016), ‘The Disney Package Features’, pp. 65-73.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Walt Talks About the Disney Package Features’, MousePlanet.com, 2nd December 2015.

[4] Credit: Bosley Crowther, ‘THE SCREEN IN REVIEW: ‘Make Mine Music!’ Animated Cartoon by Walt Disney, in Which Casey Once More Swings Bat, Arrives at Globe’, The New York Times (online), 22nd April 1946.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, The Vault of Walt Vol. 5 (2016), ‘The Disney Package Features’, pp. 65-73.

[6] Credit: Josh Spiegel, ‘’Make Mine Music’ Turns 75 Today, But It’s The Only Disney Animated Film Not Streaming On Disney+’, SlashFilm.com, 20th April 2021.

[7] Credit: Disney, “Bonus Features”, from Make Mine Music (1946) 1-Disc DVD (2006).

[8] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Walt Talks About the Disney Package Features’, MousePlanet.com, 2nd December 2015.

[9] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Casey’s Corner’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

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