1. BACKGROUND
2. STORY #1: BONGO
3. STORY #2: MICKEY AND THE BEANSTALK
4. PRODUCTION
5. RECEPTION
6. LEGACY
7. FINAL THOUGHTS
8. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Due to the difficulties the Disney Studios faced in the 1940s, with the 1941 Animator’s Strike, and the impact of World War II on both the European markets and the animation workforce, the Studios released a series of “package features”. Fun and Fancy Free was released in this era of the “package feature”, being a more cost-effective film to release because of the financial pressure the Studios was under at the time.

Unlike the three previous “package features” to have come before Fun and Fancy Free, which contained four separate segments, then seven, then ten, for Saludos Amigos (1942), The Three Caballeros (1944), and Make Mine Music (1946) respectively, Fun and Fancy Free consists of only two sections that tell two different stories: “Bongo” and “Mickey and the Beanstalk”. These two stories were combined together, both being roughly thirty minutes in length, with linking material to make Fun and Fancy Free.

Of all the Disney Wartime Era “package features”, Fun and Fancy Free is the one I dislike the most, but not for its lack of detailed plot, not for the fact it simply joins two unrelated stories together, not for Disney’s loss of vision, but for ventriloquist dummies….

For some reason, ventriloquism seemed to be a more popular form of entertainment back in the day than it seems to be now, but as I have a strange fear of dolls, ventriloquist dummies, puppets – anything with a human face, especially if they move as well – I have only watched Fun and Fancy Free once, well, twice now, because midway through the film, as the second of the two stories is being introduced, Edgar Bergen appears with his two dummies, Charlie and Mortimer, for probably ten minutes in total – and I am not here for that.

Yet if I ignore the ventriloquism, which is difficult to do as they pop up throughout the narration of “Mickey and the Beanstalk”, Fun and Fancy Free as a whole isn’t terrible; it’s just not as enjoyable for me as the other five of this era. I didn’t find the stories as interesting, probably because “Bongo” is quite a dragged-out simple story and “Mickey and the Beanstalk” is just another retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. The music wasn’t very catchy either. But like I said, it’s not awful, just not the best.

STORY #1: BONGO

The movie begins with the typical, for this time, Opening Credits and the title song “Fun and Fancy Free”. It’s quite a jazzy, Big Band-type number, like it belongs in the Golden Age of Hollywood Musicals. It reminds me specifically of Top Hat (1935) and Fred’s song “No Strings (I’m Fancy Free)”. But that could just be because both songs use the phrase “Fancy Free”. Regardless, as I like musicals, I was not surprised at how much I enjoyed the song. This song was written by Bennie Benjamin and George David Weiss, who worked together frequently, including on the title song for Disney’s Melody Time (1948), however, for me, I have heard of songs written by both of them but with different collaborators. Benjamin, for example, wrote the song “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”, with Sol Marcus, for Nina Simone, and Weiss co-wrote “What a Wonderful World”, which was first recorded by Louis Armstrong, and “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, recorded by Elvis Presley.

Straight from this opening number, we then see Jiminy Cricket, who appears to be paddling on a stream, only to find he is actually paddling through some sort of indoor planter! He makes his way out of the planter and into a house, where he tells us “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow” in song. This song melds well with the title song, and again, I quite like it. It was written by Ned Washington and Eliot Daniel. Eliot Daniel went on to co-write “Blue Shadows on the Trail” for Melody Time (1948), as well as write the song “Lavender Blue” for So Dear to My Hear (1948), which was Oscar-nominated, and then compose the theme from I Love Lucy (1951-1957). Ned Washington wrote the lyrics for some of the music from Dumbo (1941), including “Baby Mine”, nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song, and “When You Wish Upon a Star” from Pinocchio (1940), which did win the Oscar for Best Original Song. “I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow” was originally written for Pinocchio but for some reason, it was not used[1]. Cliff Edwards, original voice and singing voice of Jiminy Cricket in Pinocchio (1940), reprises his character again for Fun and Fancy Free.

After his song, Jiminy tells the viewers that everyone worries too much; we read too many serious things in books and newspapers, and we should all relax more. He then finds himself in a bedroom, with a sad-looking doll and teddy bear, and says he’ll put some music on to cheer them up. He finds a record called “Bongo”, a musical story by Dinah Shore. She sang “Two Silhouttes” for Disney’s Make Mine Music (1946), and was one of the most popular female vocalists of the 1940s, having 80 charted records by 1957. Shore later hosted talk shows in the 1970s[2].

Then we move into the animated world of “Bongo”. It begins by saying this is a story of three bears, but not the three bears story we know that involves Goldilocks; this is a love story instead. Bongo is a big circus star, being able to juggle, lift weights, and walk tightropes amongst many things, however, outside of his onstage performances, he is treated badly by the circus owners and moved constantly from place to place, never getting to experience the outside world. One day, Bongo breaks free from his train carriage and cycles away on his unicycle into the woods. Once he gets there, he realises that he doesn’t know how to be a real bear, as he can’t climb trees, hunt food, or even growl correctly. Some of the forest creatures make fun of him, including two chipmunks who appear to be Chip ‘n’ Dale, but Bongo doesn’t care: it’s a bright, sunny day, and he’s free, to just relax in the countryside and experience all of nature for the first time.

That night, though, as he settles down to sleep, everything seems so loud to him, like insects, bats, thunder, lightning and rain. He stumbles around the woods, trying to find somewhere calmer, eventually falling asleep. Bongo wakes up by a cliff, and is cranky and hungry. He tries to catch a fish but falls through a waterfall, where he sees a girl bear. Bongo thinks he’s dreaming, but she’s right there. Bongo follows the bear into the woods and it’s love at first sight for both of them. All the others bears in the woods surround them and stare at them, as Bongo and the girl, Lulubelle, stare into each other’s eyes – creepy. But they scatter, as a big bear comes stomping into the woods. It’s Lumpjaw, a huge bully of a bear, who likes Lulubelle, and doesn’t want Bongo anywhere near her. He picks Bongo up and throws him around a bit, before Lulubelle tells Lumpjaw to stop. She then proceeds to slap Bongo around the face, not once, but twice! Bongo is heartbroken, not understanding why the girl he loves would be slapping him. Lulubelle goes to slap him one last time, but Bongo ducks so Lulubelle ends up slapping Lumpjaw, who instantly claims her as his girl. It turns out bears slap each other when they like each other – who knew?

Bongo leaves the others bears and goes back to the cliff he woke up on. He watches as the others bear randomly square dance and sing about the strange custom of how their love is shown with a slap. Bongo finally twigs that Lulubelle was slapping him because she likes him. Of course! Because that’s what a normal person would think! Bongo tries to get close to Lulubelle, who is clearly unhappy with Lumpjaw, so he can slap her, and show he likes her too, but Lumpjaw isn’t about to give her up so easily. He tries to beat up Bongo, but Bongo, with his circus skills and unicycle, manages to avoid and outsmart him every time. But then, they both fall into the fast-flowing river, balancing on a log initially, but the log goes over a waterfall and takes them both with it, with the current being too quick to swim out of. It seems that both Lumpjaw and Bongo have been lost forever – except Bongo’s circus hat has saved him from falling over the waterfall, as it became caught on a branch. Bongo goes back to the other bears to win his girl with – you guessed it – a slap round the face! They then live happily ever after up a tree, as wild bears do.

Aside from Dinah Shore’s narration, both singing and spoken, and Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket, there is no other real dialogue, mostly just sound effects. There are three other songs in this half of Fun and Fancy Free though, all performed primarily by Dinah Shore. Written by Bobby Worth, who also contributed the songs “Blue Bayou” in Make Mine Music (1946) and “Once Upon a Wintertime” in Melody Time (1948), the song “Lazy Countryside” is performed as Bongo enjoys being in nature for the first time. It’s a calm, relaxing song, if not particularly memorable. The next song is the love ballad “Too Good to Be True” as Bongo and Lulubelle dance in pink candy floss clouds and fall in love. Again, this song is nice enough to listen to, but I didn’t find myself remembering it afterwards. It was written by Eliot Daniel, who co-wrote the title number, and Buddy Kaye. Buddy Kaye wrote numerous songs throughout his career, which were recorded by singers such as Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Barry Manilow, and Cliff Richard. Daniel and Kaye also wrote the remaining number, “Say It with a Slap”. This is a strange song, not only for its lyrics, but also for its country feel, as it is performed when the bears start to square dance. But because of this, it was catchier than the other songs in this section of Fun and Fancy Free! This song, and “Too Good to Be True”, are reprised together at the very end of the segment, rounding it off nicely.

STORY #2: MICKEY AND THE BEANSTALK

And then, we are back in the room as the record ends with Jiminy Cricket, the doll and the teddy bear, who are both now smiling. Jiminy Cricket sees an invite for a birthday party on a table. It is addressed to Miss Luana Patten, a child actress for the Disney Studios at the time, who starred in Song of the South (1946) with Bobby Driscoll, the voice and model of Peter Pan, in the year before Fun and Fancy Free, and then reappeared alongside Driscoll again in both the “Pecos Bill” segment of Melody Time (1948), and in So Dear to My Heart (1948). The invite says the party is at “the house across the way”, so even though Jiminy is not invited to it, thanks to a reprise of the song “Fun and Fancy Free” titled “The House Across the Way”, he is motivated to break into the house across the street and see what’s going on at this party!

The word “party” is a bit of an over-exaggeration, it’s more of a “get-together”, because there are only Luana Patten, Edgar Bergen, Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd over at this house, but who are these other three “people”? Well, this is the part I don’t like. Though ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, father of actress Candice Bergen, himself is not scary to look at, though he is doing some weird talking act with his hand at first, it’s his two friends Charlie and Mortimer who are the ventriloquist dummies who haunt my soul… I actually think the two of them are quite funny if I don’t look at them, because some of the things, particularly Charlie, come out with are amusing during this section of Fun and Fancy Free. Alas, even though I don’t like them, these are Bergen’s two most famous characters, with the trio being particularly famous on radio at the time. They would also appear on Walt Disney’s first television production, a Christmas Day special, in 1950, titled One Hour in Wonderland.

Anyway, back to this “party”. Edgar offers to tell them all a story, with Jiminy Cricket settling down on a plate to listen to it. After some delay where Edgar tries to get Mortimer to imagine the land of Happy Valley, only to find he can’t do it and asking Luana to imagine it instead, we find ourselves in a prosperous land, where everyone and everything is happy. In a castle on top of a hill at the top of the lush valley, the singing Golden Harp resides, whose singing and general presence seems to boost the area and all who live there. One day, a shadow comes over Happy Valley and the Harp is stolen. Now the valley is miserable and desolate. Many residents have left the area, but three poor farmers remain. Those farmers are Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. They have no money, very little food, and just an old cow who no longer produces milk. Donald is fed up with this way of life and goes a bit crazy, threatening to kill the cow just so they can finally eat. Mickey and Goofy manage to restrain him. We then end up back at the party, where Edgar has used Charlie to re-enact this scene. Charlie and Luana debate over whether eating the cow would make sense – which it would, but this film is meant for children, so naturally, Luana says it should survive.

Back in the story, Mickey goes to sell the cow, giving Donald and Goofy hope that they will be able to eat well again, picturing all the foods they’ll be able to eat now. Except Mickey comes back, and the cow has gone, but he sold it for magic beans to plant in the light of a full moon. Donald and Goofy believe he’s been scammed, with Donald throwing them into a hole on the floor and they think no more of it. Overnight, a beanstalk grows all through their house, taking them up and out of their beds as they sleep, high into the sky. They wake up to see a giant castle straight ahead of them and decide to investigate. They walk through a huge garden, row over an enormous moat, and eventually make their way into the castle, after scaling the large steps. They knock on the door, but there is no answer, so they crawl under the door to get inside. They’ve clearly taken some advice from Jiminy Cricket on how to break in to other people’s homes when you haven’t been invited to go inside!

On a table above them, they see a huge feast laid out. Once they’ve climbed up onto the table, they have at it, eating whatever they can, as fast as they can. But then, they hear a voice, which leads them to a locked box, also on the table. Inside is the lost Golden Harp of Happy Valley! She tells the three that she was kidnapped by a giant and that he keeps her locked up in this box most of the time. We then go back to the live-action party, where Edgar shows the others what the Giant looks like by making a shadow puppet with his hands. Back into the animation, we meet Willie the Giant, as he makes his way down the hall and to his table. It turns out Willie the Giant has magic, and can even shapeshift into different things. The three hide as the Giant sits down to dinner, but Mickey chooses to hide in the Giant’s sandwich – that seems like the last place he should be hiding, shouldn’t it? The Giant goes to eat the sandwich, but Mickey sneezes from the pepper and gives himself away. Mickey then reads the Giant’s palms, to gain his trust, which seems to work as the Giant offers to show off his powers. Seeing a fly swatter nearby, Mickey asks the Giant to turn himself into a fly. The Giant would rather become a Giant pink rabbit instead, and as he does so, he spots Mickey, Donald, and Goofy grabbing at the fly swatter. He catches all three of them and locks them in the box with the Harp.

Unbeknownst to Willie, Mickey is actually free, and as the Harp is taken out of the box to sing the Giant to sleep, Mickey uses a length of thread to abseil down to the Giant and get the key that unlocks the box. In the Giant’s pocket, along with the key, is his snuff box, which Mickey disturbs, sending up a plume of dust, which makes Mickey and the Giant sneeze. But Mickey gets the key, and frees Donald and Goofy. They make a break for it with the Harp, but the Giant wakes up and starts to chase them. Mickey stalls the Giant so that Donald and Goofy can get to the bottom of the beanstalk and cut it down. Mickey gets down just in time. TIMBER! The beanstalk falls with the Giant still on it. Presumably, the fall has killed him. But the Golden Harp has returned to the valley so everything is great again.

Back at the party, as the story has now finished, Edgar consoles a crying Mortimer, who is upset that the Giant is dead. This scene is seen briefly in Disney’s Enchanted (2007), when Prince Edward is flipping through the channels on the TV in his dingy hotel room. Edgar tells him that the Giant wasn’t real anyway, but then, in a shock twist, Willie the Giant rips off the roof of Edgar’s house and asks them where Mickey Mouse might be, quite politely, I might add. Edgar is so shocked by this turn of events that he faints on the spot. Mortimer bids Willie goodnight and tells him to quietly put the roof back on so as not to wake Mr. Bergen. Willie then walks over to Hollywood, lifting up random buildings to find Mickey, even picking up the Brown Derby Restaurant hat sign to take with him, as Jiminy watches him go.

Voice actor Billy Gilbert supplies the voice of Willie the Giant. Gilbert was known for his comedic sneezing routines, so when Walt Disney first saw this routine, he cast Gilbert in the role of Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Naturally, since Gilbert is so good at sneezing, Willie the Giant had to have a big sneeze in “Mickey and the Beanstalk”, so one was given to him; when Mickey spills the Giant’s snuff box.

Speaking of Mickey, Walt Disney actually provided some of Mickey’s lines for this segment around 1940 or 1941, but he was too busy to do any further recording when production resumed after World War II, so Jimmy MacDonald, the original head of the Disney sound effects department, was asked to finish recording the lines. This was MacDonald’s first voice appearance as Mickey, but he would continue to voice the character from that point until 1977[3].

Clarence Nash and Pinto Colvig return to voice Donald Duck and Goofy in “Mickey and the Beanstalk”. This segment of Fun and Fancy Free was the first time that Donald, Goofy, and Mickey had appeared together in a feature-length animated film. They had appeared together as a trio prior to this, but only in short cartoons. The debut of the three characters as a trio came in 1935 with Mickey and the Service Station[4]. For Mickey Mouse, Fun and Fancy Free was his second feature film appearance, with his first being Fantasia (1940), in “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” section of the film[5].

In March 1953, a short cartoon titled The Simple Things was released, which featured Mickey Mouse and Pluto. This was then the final theatrical appearance of Mickey until Mickey’s Christmas Carol in 1983. Mickey’s Christmas Carol also saw Donald and Goofy in a return to the screen, with Willie the Giant even reappearing, this time as the Ghost of Christmas Present. Mickey played a version of Bob Cratchit; Donald, a version of Scrooge’s nephew; and Goofy, a version of Jacob Marley’s ghost.

Anita Gordon, singer who performed for radio, television and film productions, including dubbing the singing part of Margy in the film remake of State Fair (1962), provides the voice, singing and spoken, for the Golden Harp. She sings two songs in “Mickey and the Beanstalk”: “My, What a Happy Day” and “My Favorite Dream”, both written by Bill Walsh and Ray Noble. Bill Walsh had worked on various Disney television productions, including Davy Crockett (1954-55) and The Mickey Mouse Club (1955-59), and wrote movies for the Studios, such as Blackbeard’s Ghost (1968) and, most famously, Mary Poppins (1964), alongside Don DaGradi. Ray Noble was a bandleader and composer, who worked with Edgar Bergen during his career, and appeared in the 1937 Fred Astaire film A Damsel in Distress. Of the two songs, I like the upbeat, opening tune of “My, What a Happy Day”, whereas “My Favorite Dream” is a lullaby for the Giant and isn’t as fun as the first song. 

Willie the Giant also gets a song here, “Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum”, where he talks about his magical powers. It’s good for showing us what the Giant can do, but it’s not the best song here; it’s also less than a minute long so isn’t much of a song! It was written by Paul Smith, who worked on numerous Disney movie scores from the 1930s to the 1960s, including Cinderella (1950) with Oliver Wallace, and Pinocchio (1940), alongside Ned Washington and Leigh Harline, which won Best Original Score at the Academy Awards in 1941.

Apart from a brief reprise of “Fun and Fancy Free” at the very end of the film, the only other song in Fun and Fancy Free to mention is “Eat Until I Die”, which is performed by Donald and Goofy as they dream about what food they’ll be able to eat when Mickey comes back from selling their cow. This song uses the same tune, but different lyrics, as the Neapolitan song “Funiculì, Funiculà”, composed in 1880 by Luigi Denza and Peppino Turco. It has been performed by many artists including Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli.

The film score for Fun and Fancy Free was primarily composed by Oliver Wallace and Paul Smith, with Charles Wolcott as the General Musical Director. Wolcott had this role from 1944 at the Disney Studios, working on many of the Disney “package features” during this era, before transferring to MGM Studios in 1950. Wallace and Smith animated many of Disney’s cartoon short and film scores from the 1930s to the 1960s. 

Jiminy Cricket is the only character to appear all through Fun and Fancy Free. This was his first appearance since Pinocchio (1940), but he would later be used to narrate educational shorts for children, many of which first aired on The Mickey Mouse Club television series in the 1950s. Jiminy even narrated the “Bongo” story, instead of Dinah Shore, for an episode of Disneyland in 1955. He also hosted five of the Disney Sing-Along Songs videos in the 1980s and 1990s[6].

PRODUCTION

Fun and Fancy Free combined two separate stories and packaged them into a full-length feature film. This was not the intention from the start as both “Bongo” and “Mickey and the Beanstalk” were meant to be full-length feature films, released on their own. The Disney Studios wanted to make a full-length adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk, the English fairy tale popularised in 1890 by Joseph Jacobs, since Disney had already used this story as a basis in 1922 for a Laugh-O-Gram short, then the Giantland short in 1933 with Mickey, and once again with Mickey in Brave Little Tailor (1938), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.

In the initial planning, it was decided that this Jack and the Beanstalk story should involve Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy, who were well-known as a comedic trio in short cartoons, but needed an opportunity to carry their own feature-length film. Development properly began on this story in 1940, with many ideas such as how the beanstalk would grow, the Giant’s dinner table, and the Golden Harp all being decided at this time. There was also a plan for Gideon and Honest John from Pinocchio (1940) to be the ones to trade Mickey the cow for the “magic beans”. But instead, it was decided that Minnie Mouse, as Queen Minnie, would be the one to do this trade, with her saying that she couldn’t just take his cow for nothing, so would give Mickey her family heirloom of a box of magic beans, which held a legend of fame and fortune should they be planted. This scene was storyboarded and voice tracked, but was not animated, and ultimately not used.

“Bongo” was based on a children’s story written by Sinclair Lewis for Cosmopolitan magazine in 1930 under the name “Little Bear Bongo”. There are a few differences between Disney’s version of the story and the original. One of these is that Bongo does not purposefully escape the circus train in the original story, but there is an accident on the train which throws Bongo out of his cage and into the woods. Another is that Lulubelle’s character does not exist in the original story. Instead, a female bear called Silver Ear catches Bongo’s eye, however, she does not return his affections, choosing to be with the violent bear Lump Jaw. The bears don’t like Bongo in the original story and Silver Ear and the others drive him away, as they do not like how “un-bearlike” he is. Lewis’ story then has Bongo leave the woods and find a new circus to join, where the Ringmaster sees how well-trained he is and takes him in, so that he can live in his accustomed environment again, this time with the circus’ other trained bear – a female – for company. Walt Disney acquired the story rights to “Little Bear Bongo” in 1941. Bongo later became a headliner for Disney comic books and was the title character in one of the very first Disney Little Golden Books in 1948.

For Disney’s “Bongo”, early story notes suggested that this would be a follow up to the story of Dumbo (1941) and would have used the same circus and some of the elephants. The early designs of Bongo and Lulubelle, whose original name was Suzie, were very different, and Lumpjaw was designed wearing street clothes. Some additional characters who did not make it into the segment included a chimpanzee valet for Bongo. A rough script for the movie was agreed in 1941, around the same time as the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7^th December 1941. This set off a series of events, like the United States formally entered World War II, Disney artists being drafted into the military, and the Disney Studios being used to make military and propaganda films for the war effort. Because of this, the two planned films were paused.

Once the war was over, it was difficult for the Disney Studios to build themselves back up financially, and this took a number of years, with the “package features” of the 1940s being some help with this. This is because they were cheaper and quicker to make. The Disney Studios also looked at making live-action movies with some animated sequences mixed in, like Song of the South (1946), because live-action filming is cheaper than animation. They could not solely release live-action movies because of their contract with RKO, which stipulated that they could only distribute films from Disney that featured animation. In 1946, Make Mine Music became the first Disney animated movie to be released after World War II, and was similar in concept to Fantasia (1940), using short segments of animation set to music. Because of this new format, the ideas of “Bongo” and “Mickey and the Beanstalk” were revived and paired together, with both of the original story concepts being trimmed and live-action sequences being filmed to cut costs[7]. Many of Walt’s animators worked on these two stories, such as Ward Kimball, Fred Moore and Les Clark on “Bongo”, and Woolie Reitherman and John Lounsbery on “Mickey and the Beanstalk”.

RECEPTION

Fun and Fancy Free was theatrically released on 27^th September 1947, one week before a new Mickey Mouse short, Mickey’s Delayed Date, was released on 3^rd October 1947[8]. The movie received mixed reviews from critics, with some saying, though it was uninspiring and not on par with Disney Animation’s best work, it was a happy film that was cheerful enough to keep most viewers entertained; whilst others said it was mediocre and couldn’t be saved even with the names they had in the cast, like Edgar Bergen.  

Financially, Fun and Fancy Free had modest success at the box-office, gaining around $3 million, which was fine for this format of movie. Unfortunately, unlike some of the previous “package features”, there were not even successes from the movie’s songs. Even The Three Caballeros (1944) and Saludos Amigos (1942) had managed to popularise songs such as “You Belong to My Heart” and “Aquarela do Brasil”, but nothing from Fun and Fancy Free really stuck in the minds of audiences, though the title song was covered by some artists, such as The Dinning Sisters[9].

“Bongo” and “Mickey and the Beanstalk” were later released separately. Aside from one episode of the Disneyland television series in 1955 where Jiminy Cricket narrated “Bongo”; “Bongo” was released as a standalone featurette in January 1971. The arguably more favoured section of Fun and Fancy Free, “Mickey and the Beanstalk”, has been aired on television in different edits. For example, in 1955, it was edited and narrated by Sterling Holloway, original voice of Winnie the Pooh; this version was re-aired in 1980. Another edit first appeared in 1963 with Ludwig von Drake narrating the story, and this version has been used for most home video releases of the story.

Following on from the release of Fun and Fancy Free, a similar format of two animated stories being “packaged” together would be released in 1949 under the name The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, which adapted the tales of The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. It was originally planned for Jiminy Cricket to introduce the two stories, as he did in Fun and Fancy Free, but this never happened. Instead, Basil Rathbone narrates the first story, and Bing Crosby the second. This film was also originally developed under the name Two Fabulous Characters, but this was obviously later changed[10].

LEGACY

An animated feature-length film was in development at the Disney Studios in the 2010s; it was going to be titled Gigantic. This movie would have adapted the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale, and set it in Spain. It was meant to include songs by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, now known for their songs from Frozen (2013) and its sequel, and be directed by Nathan Greno, who directed Tangled (2010), and Meg LeFauve, who wrote the screenplay for Pixar’s Inside Out (2015), amongst others. Its original release date was November 2016, but this date continued to be pushed further and further out, even as far as November 2020. In October 2017, it was announced that Gigantic had been shelved and that Raya and the Last Dragon (2021) would be released in this 2020 slot instead. The mystery of why this film never came to be remains unknown.

Another random addition to the “legacy” of Fun and Fancy Free is that in July 2021, Funko Games released a board game inspired by “Mickey and the Beanstalk”. The aim is to collect food from the Giant’s table and rescue the Golden Harp, and then get back to Happy Valley without getting caught by the Giant. It’s for ages four and up, so is likely a simple enough game to play, but how strange that this was made 74 years after the film came out!

At the Disney theme parks, obviously you can meet Donald Duck, Goofy, and Mickey Mouse at all of them, though they will not be attired in their “Mickey and the Beanstalk” outfits. You will also likely be able to find Jiminy Cricket at most of the parks, if not all. For a time, Bongo and Lulubelle were even walkaround characters, at least at Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, until sometime in the 1990s. They are both visible briefly during The Muppets at Walt Disney World 1990 TV special, in a segment in Frontierland with Fozzie Bear, though they both looked quite different to how they appear in “Bongo”!

There is also a shop in Fantasyland at both Magic Kingdom and Disneyland Paris, which features a beanstalk. Disneyland Paris’ Sir Mickey’s Boutique does seem to feature the costumed Mickey as seen during “Mickey and the Beanstalk” balancing on the beanstalk as it grows through the shop, though you will also see Knight Goofy jousting at another end of the shop, which is not relevant to “Mickey and the Beanstalk”. Magic Kingdom’s Sir Mickey’s is actually meant to be based on Brave Little Tailor (1938) and not “Mickey and the Beanstalk”, which is why the Mickey statue seen here is not wearing his costume from “Mickey and the Beanstalk”. But if you look towards the ceiling in the shop, you should be able to see Willie the Giant starting to open up the roof of the shop, as he does in the final part of Fun and Fancy Free.

During the Wonderful World of Animation nighttime show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World Resort, in the central screen, almost at the very end of the show, within the compilation of scenes from various movies that follows the Encanto scene, you should be able to see a brief clip from Fun and Fancy Free. It shows Mickey trying to steal the key from Willie the Giant in “Mickey and the Beanstalk”.

Finally, since 2022 saw Fun and Fancy Free have its 75^th anniversary, though this was overshadowed by the much bigger celebrations of Walt Disney World’s 50^th anniversary and Disney100, a couple of pieces of merchandise were released to celebrate it. There were two pins released to the general public; one featuring Bongo, with Lulubelle hidden behind a moving piece on the pin, and a second of the Golden Harp, with Mickey and Donald beside her once this moving piece is moved. There was also a pin of Mickey, Donald and Goofy standing on the beanstalk, made to a limited edition of 1,000 and was exclusively released to D23 Gold Members for purchase.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Fun and Fancy Free was the fourth of the “package features” to be released during Disney’s Wartime Era, and, though I prefer the more musical ones which have lots of short sections instead of two longer stories, actually, Fun and Fancy Free isn’t that bad – even with my fear of ventriloquist dummies!

This movie may not be Disney Animation at its best, but it is no different to the other “package features” that the Disney Studios released during the 1940s, which were something cheap and quick to make that would be just enough for audiences who were still recovering from the horrors and hardships of war. They served a purpose, and allowed the Disney Studios to recover financially before making great hits like Cinderella (1950) in the years that followed.

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Fun and Fancy Free (1947), pp. 25-27.

[2] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Did You Know? 10 Fascinating Facts about Fun and Fancy Free’, D23.com, 27^th September 2017.

[3] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Did You Know? 10 Fascinating Facts about Fun and Fancy Free’, D23.com, 27^th September 2017.

[4] Credit: Stacia Martin, ‘Goofy: 9 Decades of Showing Us ‘How’ It’s Done!’, Disney Parks Blog, 26^th September 2022.

[5] Credit: Jim Fanning, The Disney Book: A Celebration of the World of Disney (2016), ‘The Mouse who Started it all’, pp. 24-25.

[6] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Did You Know? 10 Fascinating Facts about Fun and Fancy Free’, D23.com, 27^th September 2017.

[7] Credit: Disney, “The Story Behind Fun and Fancy Free (1997)”, from Fun and Fancy Free (1947) DVD (2002).

[8] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Did You Know? 10 Fascinating Facts about Fun and Fancy Free’, D23.com, 27^th September 2017.

[9] Credit: James Parten, ‘Covering “Fun And Fancy Free”, CartoonResearch.com, 5^th August 2018.

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

1. BACKGROUND
2. STORY #1: AVES RARAS/THE COLD-BLOODED PENGUIN
3. STORY #2: THE FLYING GAUCHITO
4. STORY #3: BAÍA
5. STORY #4: LAS POSADAS
6. STORY #5: MEXICO
7. STORY #6: YOU BELONG TO MY HEART
8. STORY #7: DONALD’S SURREAL REVERIE
9. PRODUCTION
10. RECEPTION
11. LEGACY
12. FINAL THOUGHTS
13. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

After the modest success that Saludos Amigos (1942) achieved in the United States, as well as its more enthusiastic response in South America, it was decided that the movie should have a sequel, to further cement relations between the Americas.

As only a few countries, namely Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil, were featured in Saludos Amigos (1942), by creating another movie with the same intentions and the same format, the Disney Studios could explore more Latin American countries. Thus, The Three Caballeros was created, with this movie having a major focus on Mexico, as well as returning to Argentina and Brazil, with some brief mentions of Venezuela, Uruguay etc.

During production on The Three Caballeros, the United States of America was formally involved in World War II, which made the film all the more important for overall relations between South, Central and North America.

The Three Caballeros is the first Disney Animated Classic to be a sequel, and also follows the “package feature” format, although not quite as much as Saludos Amigos (1942). Though it has more of a cohesive plot, as in more material linking the different sections together, The Three Caballeros can still be considered as seven separate sequences.

These seven sections are:

1. “Aves Raras/The Cold-Blooded Penguin”
2. “The Flying Gauchito”
3. “Baía”
4. “Las Posadas”
5. “Mexico: Pátzcuaro, Veracruz and Acapulco”
6. “You Belong to My Heart”
7. “Donald’s Surreal Reverie”

I did think I liked The Three Caballeros before re-watching, and I still do, for the most part. I will say that certain sections did run on too long for me, such as “Baía”, where it felt like the dancing was never going to stop! I also felt that the Mexico beach sequence, with Donald Duck chasing lots of women around, got a bit samey after a while. But I was very happy to find that there was not as much narration here as in Saludos Amigos (1942), and it also avoided using any of the travel footage that was abundant in the previous movie.

STORY #1: AVES RARAS/THE COLD-BLOODED PENGUIN

The Three Caballeros begins with the standard Opening Credits, showing concept art and sketches of characters and backgrounds which will appear in the upcoming animated sequences. A shortened version of the title song “The Three Caballeros” plays during the Opening Credits as well. It is performed by the Disney Chorus in this case, but will be performed later on in full by the actual Three Caballeros.

After this, we see that Donald has received a huge wrapped box. He reads the tag, written in Spanish, which basically says it is a present from his friends in Latin America for his birthday on Friday the 13^th. A month is not given, however, in the 1949 Disney short “Donald’s Happy Birthday”, Donald’s birthday is stated as 13^th March. The only Friday 13^th March around this time was in 1942, not 1944 or even 1945 when the movie was released in South America and the United States. It is supposedly meant to refer to the bad luck that Donald constantly encounters. But it doesn’t matter anyway, because later, Disney officially decided that Donald Duck’s birthday is on 9^th June, referencing his Disney debut in the short “The Wise Little Hen”, which was officially released on 9^th June 1934. Clarence Nash continues to reprise his voice role as Donald Duck in The Three Caballeros.

Anyway, Donald opens this big box and finds three wrapped presents inside. He opens the first one, which is a projector, a screen, and rolls of film. He assembles it together and a film called “Aves Raras”, which translates to “Strange Birds”, begins to play. The first part of this film tells the story of “The Cold-Blooded Penguin”. The narrator for “Aves Raras” passes over story-telling duties to “Professor” Holloway, or Sterling Holloway, voice of The Cheshire Cat and Winnie-the-Pooh amongst many others. This “cold-blooded” penguin is called Pablo, and unlike the other penguins in the South Pole, Pablo likes to stay warm and dreams of moving away and living on a beach somewhere. He keeps attempting to leave the South Pole, but never makes it very far, either because he’s gotten too cold or because his methods of staying warm on the journey melt the ice he’s walking on! In the end, Pablo makes a “boat”; he actually just cuts a boat shape out of the iceberg his igloo resides on – but it means he can keep all his belongings with him. He travels through the Straits of Magellan, past Robinson Crusoe’s Island, past Viña del Mar, on the coast of Chile, moves through Lima, Peru, and finally ends up at the Galápagos Islands, though his “boat” melts in the warmer waters, causing Pablo to use his bathtub to paddle over to land. Though Pablo seems to be in paradise, sometimes, he can’t stop thinking about home in the South Pole!

After this story, the “Aves Raras” film continues, which shows many more exceptional birds from areas such as Venezuela, Paraguay, and Colombia. The birds that are mentioned include toucans, flamingos, and the eccentric Aracuan bird, who comes out of the screen to shake Donald’s hand. He is so-named because of the peculiar song that he sings. The Aracuan bird is crazy and always up to mischief. Not only does he appear in The Three Caballeros, but he also appears in the short sequence “Blame It on the Samba”, featuring Donald Duck and José Carioca, in Melody Time (1948), as well as in the short Clown of the Jungle, released in 1947. The “voice” of the Aracuan bird is provided by Pinto Colvig, the original voice performer for Goofy. Frank Graham is the narrator in this section of the film; he had previously narrated numerous other shorts for Disney, such as Chicken Little (1943), as well as for other studios, like Warner Bros, during the 1940s.

STORY #2: THE FLYING GAUCHITO

After this, a different movie is played on the projector: “The Flying Gauchito”, which is narrated by Fred Shields, who narrated all of Saludos Amigos (1942). The story is told by the gauchito, who remains nameless, as an adult. The young boy likes to dress as a gaucho and go hunting for Condor birds in the Andes mountains. One day, he sees a nest, but as he waits for a bird to fly out, he is shocked to see a donkey fly out of it instead! The gauchito throws bolas at it, to try and capture it, but the donkey escapes. He eventually manages to catch it and rides on the back of the flying donkey. He decides to train the donkey to race and teaches him new tricks every day. It is soon Race Day in town, which is full of fiesta-spirit. Gauchito and Burrito get ready to race alongside the others, with the prize money standing at 1,000 pesos. After a very bad start, and a lack of speed, where the two trail further and further behind the others, Gauchito unties Burrito’s wings and they fly down the track so fast that they pass everyone. However, it is soon clear to the others that Gauchito has cheated by using a donkey that can fly, but before they can be punished, Burrito flies up high into the sky, with Gauchito still hanging on to him. The narrator says neither were ever seen again – but he’s laughing as he says it, so it can’t be a sinister end…I don’t think.

After returning from the South American tour in October 1941, one of the first stories to be developed was about a little gaucho, with a whole series about the character also being considered. The gaucho was originally going to be named Panchito, however, as the name “Panchito” was used for someone else, the gauchito ended up not having a name; he doesn’t even get to speak! Frank Thomas was the primary artist on Gauchito, having had much experience of drawing young boys for the feature film Pinocchio (1939). Many story ideas were devised for this gauchito segment, including one around an ostrich laying a golden egg, another about a singing horse, and another about magical bolas, however, as horse racing was big in the cities as well as the rural areas of the Pampas, they decided to base their “gauchito” story on that premise. A flying donkey added a twist to the story. The short was titled “The Winged Donkey” and was meant to appear in Saludos Amigos (1942), but it was developed further and added to The Three Caballeros. For the character of Burrito, the donkey, the animators found that the characters of the “Pastoral Symphony” segment of Fantasia (1940) were popular with the people of Argentina, as the Disney artists were asked to drew these characters for them. Burrito ended up being a combination of the baby Pegasus and the comic donkey unicorn in that Fantasia scene. Ollie Johnston and Eric Larson both animated scenes of the flying donkey[1].

Of the two projected films, I definitely like “The Cold-Blooded Penguin” the best; Pablo is a cute penguin and I agree that the South Pole is much too cold for him; it’s better to move somewhere warmer, away from all that ice and snow! I’m wasn’t too interested in “The Flying Gauchito”, but it thankfully wasn’t too long, so I didn’t get bored watching it.

STORY #3: BAÍA

Next, Donald’s second present begins to dance, so he opens it up quickly, to find a book about Brazil. The book opens up to find a sambaing José Carioca inside, reuniting the two from their earlier escapades in Saludos Amigos (1942).  Brazilian musician, José Oliviera, returns to reprise his voice role as José Carioca. After some brief introductions, and an appearance by the annoying Aracuan bird who rudely interrupts, José starts to tell Donald about Baía, or Bahia, one of the states of Brazil, situated on the Eastern Coast of the country. The segment moves into beautifully painted landscapes of the area, with some animated pieces of a boat and two doves flying, as the sun begins to set in the area, bathing everything in the colours of orange, purple and pink. This scene is accompanied by the calming song, “Baía”. The melody is based on the Brazilian song “Na Baixa do Sapateiro” written by Ary Barroso and first released in 1938. Another of Barroso’s songs, “Aquarela do Brasil”, featured in Saludos Amigos (1942). New English lyrics were written for “Baía” by Ray Gilbert, who contributed lyrics to many Disney songs, and co-wrote the Academy Award winning song “Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah” from Song of the South (1946). “Baía” was performed by Nestor Amaral. I really like this part of the sequence, especially the song.

José then begins to sing to Donald, telling him he must go with him to Baía, right now. The song “Have You Been to Bahia”, which was written by Dorival Caymmi and originally released in 1941, is used, translated into English for the most part, though some of it is sung in its original Portuguese. The book then opens to a small train. Donald and José board the train and reach Baía, after the Aracuan bird tries to mess with the journey by drawing additional train tracks, which splits up the train carriages, though they do reassemble themselves in the end. The book flips its pages to the streets of Baía; Donald and José step inside. The music “Pandeiro & Flute”, originally written by Benedito Lacerda, is played here. This train sequence was animated from concept art created by Mary Blair, known for her vivid, bright colour palettes and bold stylisation. She had been invited on the tour of South America alongside her husband[2].

On the streets of Baía, the duo hears a woman singing; she is called Yaya. The live-action woman dances and flirts with the musicians and dancers who appear and surround her, but she also interacts with Donald and José, teasing Donald with a kiss, after Donald become quite jealous of Yaya’s relationships with some of the musicians! Aurora Miranda, sister of well-known Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, performs as Yaya, also singing her song, “Os Quindins de Yayá”, which was again written by Ary Barroso. It was first released in 1941. The song was left in its original Portuguese. Though I enjoyed the dancing and seeing animated Donald and José’s interactions with the live-action Yaya, making this one of the first Disney theatrical releases to use this hybrid style, I felt the section went on for far too long; I lost interest for probably the last five minutes of it. I’m not a big fan of the song either.

After the dance, the book closes, leaving Donald and José to pull themselves out of it. They also have to magic themselves back to their normal sizes, as they shrunk down to get into the book. Finally, the third and final gift is opened – and what comes out of it?! A yelling, gun-shooting rooster! Yes, it’s Panchito. He gives José and Donald a sombrero each and begins to sing the title song, “The Three Caballeros”. It’s quite presumptuous really; he hasn’t even told the other two his name, it is never spoken in the film; they don’t know him and yet, he gets them to form a band with him – what if they didn’t want to? Well, I guess it didn’t matter, because the three look very happy together, dancing and singing, playing instruments, talking about women. This song bases its melody on the Mexican song “Ay, Jalisco, no te rajes!”, a Mexican song composed by Manuel Esperón. It was originally released in 1941 for the film of the same name. Walt Disney personally asked Esperón to participate in the movie. Ray Gilbert wrote new English lyrics for the song. It was performed, predominantly, by nightclub singer Joaquin Garay as Panchito Pistoles, the surname referring to Panchito’s love of guns, which he does not actually use again after his initial introductory scene. Joaquin Garay son’s played Paco in the 1980 Disney live-action film, Herbie Goes Bananas.

“The Three Caballeros” song is lots of fun, and is probably the best scene in the whole film; it’s quite an introduction to Panchito as well! Panchito’s full name is not just Panchito Pistoles, but is actually Panchito Romero Miguel Junipero Francisco Quintero González III. The incredibly long name is a reference to Spanish-speaking families who historically have very long names, as they seek to celebrate and honour their family history. According to Panchito’s song “My Name is Panchito”, which appears in the House of Mouse episode titled “Not So Goofy”, he does not only have relatives in Mexico, but also in Peru, Brazil, El Salvador and Dallas, Texas. As early as 1942, Walt Disney had the idea of a little Mexican rooster explaining the custom of “Las Posadas” in film. The bird was to be called Señor Gallito, but the character then became a much bigger, louder idea and morphed into Panchito, stealing his name from little Gauchito, who ended up nameless. Apparently, Alex Buelna, Head of the Mexican Department of Tourism, wrote to Walt Disney and asked for the rooster to be more manly to represent the “he-men” of Mexico, so I guess we can thank him for making Panchito the crazy, loud rooster that he is! Animator Ward Kimball handled the animation for Panchito and the staging of their song, which was a last-minute addition to the film, in order to have a song to represent the title of the film. Walt supposedly loved the scene, as did Ward Kimball, who particularly enjoyed the animation of José and Donald trying to distract or interrupt Panchito as he holds his long high note at the end of the song[3]!

STORY #4: LAS POSADAS

After this, a piñata appears, which Panchito tells Donald is full of surprises. Panchito tells the others of the custom of “Las Posadas” in Mexico, where in the nine days leading up to Christmas, children will recreate the journey of Mary and Joseph seeking shelter. The children plea for shelter at people’s houses, but always receive the reply of “no posada”, meaning “no shelter”. They finally reach a friendly house, which does provide shelter, where they celebrate with a feast and the breaking of a piñata. This scene is not animated, but shows artwork depicting this custom. It’s a short, but interesting, scene. This leads in to Donald trying to break his piñata, though he is tricked by José and Panchito who pull it up and down so Donald can’t find it! But eventually, he does and out spills confetti, pots, toys, including one very angry toy bull, and another book, this time all about Mexico.

STORY #5: MEXICO

Panchito tells a brief history of Mexico, its flag, and the building of Mexico City. Images and sketches of Mexico are then shown, accompanied by the song “México” sung by Colombian baritone Carlos Ramírez. It is the only song in the film to be completely original, and was composed by Charles Wolcott, who wrote and directed music for many of Disney’s 1940s film releases, with lyrics by Ray Gilbert. I quite like this song, not as much as “Baía”, but it is nice. The song was later used in the Pluto short, Pluto’s Blue Note (1947).

Then, the trio take a tour of Mexico via a magical sarape, or flying carpet. Some of the sarape work was animated from concept art designed by Mary Blair. They go into the book and traverse through live-action footage of the areas. At Pátzcuaro, we see fisherman on their boats, before seeing traditional Mexican dances. In Veracruz, we see more dancing, with Donald asking to dance with one of the local women, and then they get to Acapulco beach, where Donald precedes to ogle at and chase the local women in their swimsuits…which is fine, apparently, because Donald is a duck, and a Disney one at that, so what harm can he do? Though the aerial live-action shots of Acapulco beach were photographed, the scene of Donald chasing women on the beach was actually filmed on the Disney Studio parking lot, which was covered in sand, during January and February 1944[4]. This section is another one that gets a bit samey, lots of dancing and women yet again!

STORY #6: YOU BELONG TO MY HEART

Next, we move on to talk about the nightlife of Mexico City through the book again; an aerial shot of the city lit up at night is shown. Then, in a picture of stars, Mexican singer Dora Luz sings the song “You Belong to My Heart”. The song is based on the melody of Mexican song “Solamente una vez”, written by Agustín Lara, with new English lyrics written by Ray Gilbert. “You Belong to My Heart” was later used in the Pluto short, Pluto’s Blue Note (1947). It was also covered by other well-known singers such as Elvis Presley, Bing Crosby, and Engelbert Humperdinck. Donald goes crazy for this singer, and begins to dreamily dance over an animated sky. Animated lips kiss Donald as the song ends, leading to his “surreal reverie”, where he is “drunk on love”. This is a similar concept to the “Pink Elephants on Parade” sequence that appears in Dumbo (1941), though Dumbo is actually drunk.

STORY #7: DONALD’S SURREAL REVERIE

Donald starts to see José and Panchito and the singer in different forms, like flowers. Soon, more and more women start to enter this weird, trippy vision. As he begins to calm down, a new girl appears, dressed as a flower, then a cowgirl, and starts dancing. This woman is Mexican actress and dancer Carmen Molina. Lots of dancing cacti also randomly show up. “La Zandunga”, a traditional Mexican song believed to have originated in Andalusia, plays during the majority of this scene. It was arranged here by Charles Wolcott. The cacti dance scene uses the instrumental “Jesusita en Chihuahua”, written in 1916 by Quirino Mendoza y Cortés. These are definitely not my favourite songs; I don’t like how “La Zandunga” sounds at all, sounding quite tinny with its choice of instruments. Nor do I like the scene much; it’s far too weird and abstract for me!

Finally, the film ends as José and Panchito come out of a trumpet, shortly followed by Donald inside the toy bull from earlier. He is being teased by Panchito, as José lights up firecrackers which have been tied to the tail of the bull. The bull begins to light up and Donald is released from it. He then headbutts the bull, causing it to explode into a huge fireworks display. The Disney Chorus from earlier sings a reprise of “The Three Caballeros”, as the three new friends watch the display together.

PRODUCTION

After the US formally joined World War II at the end of 1941, the Disney Studios were asked by the government to make propaganda films for the military and the American public. These tended to be anti-German or anti-Japanese in nature, with one of the more infamous ones being Der Fuehrer’s Face (1943), which starred Donald Duck. Some animators had left the Studios at this time to join the Armed Forces. All of these things considered meant that “big budget” animation projects were temporarily off the table. But, as Saludos Amigos (1942) was popular enough, and since the war meant co-operation across the whole continent was still massively important to the US government, a sequel to it was pushed into production. This became The Three Caballeros. The movie is quite experimental in nature, with its mixture of live-action footage and animated material, and its incredibly surreal and abstract animation towards the end of the film. This is perhaps due to the fact that the Disney artists who remained at the studio were glad of an opportunity to work on something a bit more interesting than the same types of propaganda shorts!

Furthermore, this new movie looked to explore different countries that the Disney artists had seen during the tour of South America in 1941 but had not yet developed animation for. In actual fact, Brazil would once again feature heavily in The Three Caballeros, as it did in Saludos Amigos (1942), and the only “new” country to have much focus in this film is Mexico. Yet the Disney artists did also explore Ecuador, Uruguay, Chile and Guatemala, as can be seen in the travel documentary films South of the Border with Disney (1942) and Walt & El Grupo (2008). But they did visit Mexico, which was useful for The Three Caballeros. In Mexico, they saw the floating gardens of Mexico City with their boats covered in flowers. The Disney team also experienced Mariachi music, the food and colours of Mexico, as well as the art and pottery of Guadalajara and places like that[5]. The Disney Studio artists again visited Mexico from late 1942 to early 1943, in order to audition Mexican performers for the movie and make further sketches and artwork to use as reference material. A further trip was taken in July 1943.

RECEPTION

The Three Caballeros held its world premiere in Mexico City on 21^st December 1944, where Carmen Molina and Dora Luz appeared onstage. The movie was later released in the US on 3^rd February 1945[6]. The movie received mixed reviews on its release, with many confused by the more surreal, “flashy” animation at times, stating that it seemed to be a case of “style over substance”. Some even commented on Donald’s distasteful behaviour, of him running around after women, thinking it was suggestive and inappropriate for Disney. That still seems to be something that is discussed by those who have watched The Three Caballeros in contemporary times! But the abstract art is something that has been viewed more kindly by audiences of today, though it is not to my taste.

The Three Caballeros was later released as a television special called A Present for Donald, which aired on 22^nd December 1954. It was an edited version of The Three Caballeros, with some of the changes being that instead of the presents being for Donald’s birthday, they were actually Christmas presents, and instead of “The End” being spelled out in fireworks in the final shot, they spelled “Merry Christmas” for this special.

In 1977, The Three Caballeros was re-released in theatres, however, the runtime was cut from around seventy minutes to forty, meaning that it was edited significantly, with most of the segments of the film receiving cuts. The film was re-released due to its increased popularity and interest in its “psychedelic imagery” that appears mostly in “Donald’s Surreal Reverie”. Alice in Wonderland (1951) received similar attention from audiences around this time for similar reasons.

Some of the sections of the film were released either as standalone shorts, or released within compilation television episodes or VHS tapes, though it was more difficult to do this, unlike with other “package features”, like Saludos Amigos (1942) or Make Mine Music (1946), since The Three Caballeros has more of a cohesive plot and is much less “episodic” than the others. “The Flying Gauchito” was released as a standalone short in 1955, with “Las Posadas” being released on compilation VHS tapes of Christmas stories, and “The Cold-Blooded Penguin” appearing in television compilation episodes in the 1970s and 1980s, which included an episode of The Wonderful World of Disney (1969-79).

As is customary for the majority of Disney films, it was, of course, released on VHS and DVD for home viewing. It was first released on Blu-Ray for its 75^th Anniversary in 2018.

The Three Caballeros was also released on Disney+, however, as with certain older Disney films, a “negative depiction warning” was added to it; Saludos Amigos (1942) has one too. It warns viewers that the movie contains “negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures”. This same warning is on the likes of Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). In this case, it is likely to be around how Mexican and Brazilian cultures are depicted in the movie, which are more outdated than outright offensive, in my opinion. Many other viewers don’t see specifically how The Three Caballeros is problematic, whereas it is obvious within movies like Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955), but I guess it’s good to have this warning anyway, and means the movie can still be shown on Disney+[7].

LEGACY

There were plans for a third film in this Latin American-based movie set, to be named Cuban Carnival; obviously heavily based around Cuba. After the release of Saludos Amigos (1942), many complaints came in from the people of Cuba, Venezuela, and other countries that had not been represented in the movie via a dedicated cartoon, though some individual shorts inspired by other countries were released in the 1940s, such as Pluto and the Armadillo (1943) and The Pelican and the Snipe (1944), set in Uruguay. As Cuba was a very touristy spot for Americans during this time, with some areas under supervision of American mobsters, apparently – just think of Nucky Thompson in Season 5 of Boardwalk Empire (2009-14) here, though this was admittedly in the 1930s, not 40s – Disney decided that they would represent Cuba in their next Latin American-themed feature film. A short research trip to Cuba took place between September and October 1944.

Like Panchito represents Mexico, and José represents Brazil, they wanted to create a character to represent Cuba. They considered another bird, like a scrawny fighting rooster. No final design was ever approved, though an early sketch from animator Fred Moore of this concept has been released in recent years. The idea was that Donald and José would become friends with this Cuban bird, who owned a plantation and would’ve taken them on a tour of Cuba. Lots of smoking and animated tobacco leaves with traditional Cuban music made up the majority of the story ideas. Mary Blair created some concept art for the movie of carnivals and cockfights[8].

However, as The Three Caballeros was not a success, critically or financially, and lost money, this planned follow-up movie was scrapped, meaning we were never introduced to this fourth “caballero”. As World War II ended in 1945, the European markets also opened up again, and meant that the Disney Studios could try and get back to where they had been before the war began. Still, the history of this fourth “caballero” is quite interesting.

On screen, the Three Caballeros trio did appear on television shows, such as House of Mouse (2001-03) and Mickey and the Roadster Racers (2017-21). Panchito and José also featured within a few episodes of the animated television series reboot, DuckTales (2017-21), after the trio received their very own spin-off series, Legend of the Three Caballeros (2018), produced by Disney Interactive. The series sees the trio find they are descendants of great adventures known as the Three Caballeros, and must save the world from being destroyed by an evil sorcerer. I have not seen this thirteen-episode series; however, I believe it is available widely on Disney+.

The Three Caballeros have also featured in comic book form, with two sequels being written by comic book writer and illustrator Don Rosa, who designed many Disney comics stories. These are titled The Three Caballeros Ride Again (2000) and The Magnificent Seven (Minus 4) Caballeros (2005). A manga story from TokyoPop was also released in 2022, called Donald Duck Visits Japan! It saw the trio move from New York to Japan, an order from the president of the furniture business they work for, to learn all about Japanese culture. It was written and illustrated by Meru Okada[9].

Given the fact that the Disney animated “package features” aren’t generally talked about or remembered too much, you’d think The Three Caballeros wouldn’t have much of a presence within the Disney Parks. Well, in actual fact, the Three Caballeros are an incredibly popular trio, with the three characters prevalent at most of the Disney Parks across the world. The film as a whole is not referred to as much, though.

One of the most well-known references across all the Disney Parks, is The Three Caballeros-themed attraction Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros, which resides within the Mexico pavilion at Epcot in Walt Disney World. This boat ride began its life as the opening day attraction El Río del Tiempo, which translates to “The River of Time”. It took guests on a cruise through the history of Mexico. In 2007, this storyline was changed to Panchito and José frantically searching for Donald, who has gone sightseeing whilst the group are in Mexico, to ensure he is ready to perform at their reunion concert of the Three Caballeros in Mexico City that evening. The revision of the ride was directed by George Scribner, who directed the Mickey’s PhilarMagic attraction, with Eric Goldberg, who animated numerous beloved characters such as Genie from Aladdin (1992), being the animation director. They combined character animation overlaid onto live background footage, and refurbished and enhanced the props, lighting and sound systems throughout.

Gran Fiesta Tour opened on 6^th April 2007, where the final scene was a large screen showing animation of the Three Caballeros singing their well-known song. Theme Park Productions spent six weeks in Mexico to film footage of the area and cast the live-action actors who appear within the ride. There was also a lot of opportunity to include animated gags, such as Donald cliff-diving and climbing the Mayan pyramid, though images of José smoking and Panchito firing guns were not included so as not to disturb contemporary audiences. Some features from the original El Río del Tiempo were kept, such as the fiesta scene with all the dolls (my least favourite bit because I find dolls really creepy, though I have still always liked this attraction); the fibre-optic fireworks on the ceiling in the finale; and the overall track layout[10].

On 4^th December 2015, three animatronics of the characters were put into the finale scene instead of the screen. These animatronics had come from the Mickey Mouse Revue attraction, that opened with Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World on 1^st October 1971, before closing in September 1980 and being moved to Tokyo Disneyland, where it also opened with that park on 15^th April 1983. The Mickey Mouse Revue consisted of small animatronics of Disney characters performing songs from their movies, so the Three Caballeros naturally sang their one and only song! The attraction closed in Tokyo Disneyland in 2009 to make way for Mickey’s PhilarMagic; at Magic Kingdom, the same area that housed the Mickey Mouse Revue eventually became Mickey’s PhilarMagic in 2003. Epcot wanted these animatronics as soon as the Mickey Mouse Revue closed in 2009, and took delivery of them, however, there was insufficient budget to install them at Gran Fiesta Tour so they were stored backstage. They made their first public appearance after the move at D23’s Destination D: WDW 40^th in May 2011, and were finally installed into the ride on 4^th December 2015[11].

As excited as everyone was to see the animatronics of the Three Caballeros appear in Gran Fiesta Tour, their constant breakdowns were a source of amusement amongst fans in recent years, because in 2020, José Carioca vanished one day and was replaced by a vase of flowers. Once he returned, the same thing happened to Donald. In January 2021, all three were replaced with cardboard cutouts, whilst the animatronics were refurbished and restored. The animatronics were re-installed in May 2021.

Also at Walt Disney World, and at the Epcot Mexico pavilion, there is a permanent meet-and-greet for Donald outside the pyramid; he is wearing a poncho and sombrero. Panchito and José have been available for meet-and-greets with Donald previously, however, that doesn’t seem to have been any earlier than 2013 when the trio were spotted at the Limited Time Magic event. But it is possible they would return as a trio for Special Events in the future. Gauchito and Burrito, from “The Flying Gauchito”, and Yaya, from “Baía”, have also been spotted at Special Events, such as Disney Dreamers Everywhere, but not for many years. At Animal Kingdom, Panchito and José were spotted at the Discovery Island Carnivale Street Party in 2018. The two do appear regularly on the Adventure Friends Cavalcade final float with Mirabel at the Magic Kingdom, however, they do not then meet-and-greet guests. The two have also been announced as appearing at the Jollywood Nights event for the 2024 holiday season at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Also at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, during the Wonderful World of Animation nighttime show, the scene of the Three Caballeros singing in their film can be seen briefly on the middle screen of the Chinese Theater towards the end of the show. They also have a poster within the Mickey’s PhilarMagic queue, under the name “Festival de los Mariachis”. Finally, at the Mexican-themed Coronado Springs Resort, the hotel’s gift shop is named after Panchito, being called Panchito’s Gifts and Sundries, and a statue of the trio features in the centre of the main swimming pool at the All-Star Music Resort.

At Disneyland, small figures of the Three Caballeros can be seen in the South America section of the it’s a small world attraction. At Disney’s California Adventure, during the Festival of the Holidays event, specifically ¡Viva Navidad! and the Three Kings Day Celebration, the trio have previously had a meet-and-greet location, so it is possible that will appear again in the coming years. The three have been seen at the ¡Viva Navidad! Street Party in 2021 and 2022, and will also appear in 2023. Like Mickey’s PhilarMagic at the Magic Kingdom, Disney California Adventure’s PhilarMagic queue also features the same Three Caballeros poster. Mickey’s Soundsational Parade at Disneyland, which ran from 2011 to 2019, featured a Three Caballeros-themed float or “unit”, with Donald Duck standing on the float, and Panchito and José dancing in front of it. The music for this unit used snippets of the songs “The Three Caballeros”, “Saludos Amigos”, “Tico-Tico no Fubá”, and “Baía”, so two from The Three Caballeros and two from Saludos Amigos (1942).

At Tokyo Disneyland, as mentioned, the park was home to the original Mickey Mouse Revue from 1983 to 2009, which featured the animatronics of the Three Caballeros. Like Disneyland, small figures of the Three Caballeros can be seen in the South America section of the it’s a small world attraction here, as well as the same Three Caballeros poster within the queue of their Mickey’s PhilarMagic attraction. In terms of meet-and-greets, José and Panchito have been seen at Tokyo Disneyland as recently as at least 2022, but without Donald, with these two also having previously appeared in the Happy Halloween Amigos event at the park and the Happy Halloween Harvest Parade in 2013, though it doesn’t look like they will be appearing for Halloween in 2023.

At Disneyland Paris, there are no shows, or attractions, dedicated to The Three Caballeros or its characters, however, meet-and-greets for the characters have been available at Special Events. One of these was the Disney Dreamers Everywhere finale show in 2013, and another was FanDaze in 2018 where Yaya, Gauchito and Burrito were a meet-and-greet location. José and Panchito were seen in 2018 for Halloween here too.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, there do not seem to have been any meet-and-greets for The Three Caballeros’ characters recently, however, small figures of the Three Caballeros can be seen in the South America section of the it’s a small world attraction here, and the same Three Caballeros poster is on the wall at their Mickey’s PhilarMagic queue too.

At Shanghai Disneyland, there do not seem to have been any meet-and-greets for The Three Caballeros’ characters recently, but there are some different references to the movie at this park. Firstly, a billboard on one of the alleys along Mickey Avenue, Shanghai’s main entry land, their alternative to Main Street, U.S.A, shows Pablo the penguin from “The Cold-Blooded Penguin” segment of The Three Caballeros; it is an advertisement for his ice delivery service – which doesn’t make an awful lot of sense when you think about it, since Pablo hates the cold… Mickey & Pals Market Café, also in Mickey Avenue, is a quick-service restaurant, which has a vaguely The Three Caballeros-themed seating area. It is themed to look like a fruit warehouse, with instruments for the band being visible on a balcony, and clips from the film being shown on a screen in the room.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Given The Three Caballeros is one of the lesser known, and lesser appreciated, Disney “package features”, it might be a surprise to find that it has continued to be remembered over 75 years after its initial release. In 2020, the movie celebrated its 75^th anniversary, where Disney released an ornament of the Three Caballeros, and D23 organised special screenings of the film. But when you think about it, it is the trio of characters that are especially popular, since Donald has always been a beloved Disney character. Panchito and José’s friendship with him would make them famous by association, but they are also fun and uniquely representative of other countries, not just representative of Europe or the US, as many other popular Disney characters are.

The Three Caballeros continued to further the United States’ relations with South America, which was incredibly important during wartime. It also gave the Disney artists some freedom to experiment with the animated artform. It may have gone slightly too far at times, but The Three Caballeros is a fun, strange film – and that’s what makes it memorable.

---

REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Panchito, Little Gauchito, and Burrito’, MousePlanet.com, 25^th September 2013.

[2] Credit: Disney, “The Art of Mary Blair”, from Cinderella (1950) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD (2005).

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Panchito, Little Gauchito, and Burrito’, MousePlanet.com, 25^th September 2013.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Three Caballeros’, pp. 19-21.

[5] Credit: Disney, “South of the Border with Disney (1942)”, from Saludos Amigos (1942) 1-Disc DVD (2002).

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘The Three Caballeros’, pp. 19-21.

[7] Credit: Matt Singer, ‘Disney Plus Adds New Warning to Movies With ‘Negative Depictions’ of Race’, ScreenCrush.com, 16^th October 2020.

[8] Credit: Wade Sampson, ‘The Lost Caballero’, MousePlanet.com, 9^th August 2006.

[9] Credit: Samantha King, ‘Donald Duck’s Three Caballeros Head to Japan in New Disney Manga’, ScreenRant.com, 18^th January 2022.

[10] Credit: Wade Sampson, ‘The Three Caballeros Return’, MousePlanet.com, 10^th October 2007.

[11] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: The Three Caballeros’, YourFirstVisit.net, date unknown.

1. BACKGROUND
2. STORY #1: LAKE TITICACA
3. STORY #2: PEDRO
4. STORY #3: EL GAUCHO GOOFY
5. STORY #4: AQUARELO DO BRASIL
6. PRODUCTION
7. RECEPTION
8. LEGACY
9. FINAL THOUGHTS
10. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

Saludos Amigos, or, “Greetings, Friends”, as the phrase literally translates to from Spanish to English, was the first of the Disney Wartime Era of movies and the first “package feature” to be released by the Disney Studios. It is also the shortest of the Disney Animated Classics, with a runtime of only forty-odd minutes.

Unlike many of the “package features” that came after it, Saludos Amigos was not created from bits and pieces of previously abandoned or shelved concepts and ideas, but was specially created with a specific purpose.

Saludos Amigos was actually requested by the US Government as a way of fostering and improving relations between the US and the countries of Central and South America. At the time of initial production on the movie, the US had not yet entered World War II, but they still wanted South America to align themselves with the US and the Allies. By the time Saludos Amigos was released in 1942, the US had formally joined World War II, making the movie even more important for military efforts.

Saludos Amigos consists of four separate sequences.

These four sections are:

1. “Lake Titicaca”
2. “Pedro”
3. “El Gaucho Goofy”
4. “Aquarela do Brasil”

Previously, I thought I liked Saludos Amigos, with the short runtime being part of that reasoning, but going back to it this week, I didn’t enjoy it much at all! Don’t get me wrong, I did like the four shorts, however, the narrated live-action footage that came before each one began to grate on me quite early on. Whether that was just the mood I was in when I watched it, I don’t know, but for some reason the narration made me feel really agitated, so it took away my enjoyment of even the shorts, as he narrated three of those four. Luckily, the movie ends with the calming song “Aquarela do Brasil”, so I did at least like the final section.

STORY #1: LAKE TITICACA

Saludos Amigos begins with the usual Opening Credits, at least, usual for the earlier Disney animated releases. The Opening Credits aren’t the most exciting; the credits appear over the top of a section of map featuring Central and South America, where some familiar names, such as Mary Blair, Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, and Wooly Reitherman, are visible. A “thank you note” from Walt Disney, thanking South America for their hospitality, is shown on screen just before the movie begins.

The credits use the title song, “Saludos Amigos”, a relatively catchy and upbeat song to start the film. The song’s music was written by Charles Wolcott, also the Musical Director for Saludos Amigos, with lyrics by Ned Washington. Wolcott wrote music for other Disney productions, including The Reluctant Dragon (1941); The Three Caballeros (1944); and Make Mine Music (1946). Washington wrote the lyrics for such Disney songs as “When You Wish Upon a Star” from Pinocchio (1940), which happened to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1940, becoming the first Disney song to win an Oscar, and “Pink Elephants on Parade” and “Baby Mine” from Dumbo (1941), with the latter being nominated for Best Original Song at the 1942 Academy Awards.

We then move into the actual film, which begins with a clip of Disney Studios’ staff boarding a plane. The narrator explains that the staff are flying to South America to find new material and inspiration for further Disney projects, saying “It’s adiós, Hollywood, and Saludos, amigos”. This narrator is Fred Shields, who narrated some Disney shorts during the 1940s, as well as “The Flying Gauchito” segment in The Three Caballeros (1944), and was the uncredited voice of the Great Prince of the Forest in Bambi (1942). I did learn that the footage of Walt and the team boarding this plane was actually shot after returning from their trip as boarding of the plane had not been filmed at the time. To make it as authentic as possible, though, the group all wore the same outfits as they would’ve had on for that first boarding[1]! An animated plane then flies over an animated map of South America, detailing the countries that the Disney team explored, and ones that we will be viewing as part of the film. Then, we are shown real-life footage of Bolivia, such as their marketplaces, their musicians, their animals, and, of course, their people. This is supplemented with images of Disney artists’ concept art and sketches.

After this footage, the animated segment “Lake Titicaca” begins, with Donald Duck looking at Lake Titicaca, located on the Bolivian-Peruvian border, and being warned that because the lake is situated almost 13,000 feet above sea-level that Donald may experience some symptoms of altitude sickness. Donald is then told of the fishing boats made of reeds that are important to the locals’ lifestyle. The boats are controlled heavily by the wind, which surprises Donald, leading him to be thrown from the boat into a baker’s dough! The narrator tells the viewer about the terrain and the music of the area. We then see a llama’s movements being controlled by a pipe player; Donald asks to have a go, and after some time, seems to get the hang of it, riding the llama up the mountains and over a suspension bridge, high above the ground. Donald has some difficulty with this bridge when the planks begin to fall off and the ropes start to snap. Though the llama gets across safely, Donald falls, right on to the pottery market and bounces back into the lake. The llama character in this short is one of the more memorable in the film, and his interactions with Donald are funny. Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck, continues to reprise his role here.

For their inspiration, the Disney team viewed many interesting parts of Bolivia, Peru and Lake Titicaca. They enjoyed the colourful marketplaces, and the handmade garments, like hand-woven woollen hats. They saw many llamas who it turns out are only used to carry small, less heavy items as llamas are “too proud” to move anything too heavy, which the donkeys end up having to do! This gave the team the thought that a llama would have great screen value because of its attitude, and felt it would be a good opportunity to use the llama and the musical rhythm of the area together. The Disney staffers sailed over Lake Titicaca in reed-woven boats, and learnt the amount of skill needed to handle them in the wind. They made models of the boats and sketches, with this element also ending up in the short[2].

STORY #2: PEDRO

Saludos Amigos then moves into its second section, which is linked via footage from the Disney staffers on a plane to Santiago, Chile, in which they flew over the Andes. We see the team sketching the mountains and landscapes that they see from the aeroplane windows. They started to think about the pioneer mail planes that would’ve flown over these same areas, where a sketch of a small, young mail plane begins to take shape, which leads us into the animated short “Pedro”.

In a little airport near Santiago, Chile, there are three planes, a large plane which is the father, a middle-sized plane which is the mother, and a little boy plane called Pedro. He wants to grow up to be a big mail plane like his dad, who flies the Santiago to Mendoza route. Pedro goes to school where he learns about sky writing, reading, history, geography etc., ready to take over his father’s mail route when he is older. One day, his father is ill, and his mother cannot fly the route due to her high oil pressure, so Pedro must do it. After a difficult take-off, Pedro seems to be ok, and picks up the mail easily enough from Mendoza, though there is a snow storm and he has to calm himself when he first sees the terrifying rockface of the Aconcagua Mountain in the Andes. Soon, he is on his way home and ahead of schedule; Pedro is having so much fun, darting in and out of the clouds and chasing a condor, that he doesn’t realise he is right by Aconcagua, which is not only scary for its menacing rockface, but also for its reputation for having strong, sudden storms nearby. Pedro struggles against the strong winds and rain, even dropping the mail bag. He flies down to retrieve, despite the narrator telling him to save himself. Pedro flies high enough to get out of the storm clouds but runs out of gas, and starts to fall. Back at the airport in Santiago, his parents wait anxiously, but there is no sign of Pedro’s return. As they start to think he’s lost forever, Pedro crash-lands into the airport, but he’s ok, and he’s got the mail! Though it turns out this “important” mail was only a postcard, Pedro is still happy that he successfully completed his job. That postcard is addressed to Jorge Delano, the cartoonist who was the Disney group’s guide whilst in Santiago; it was from Juan Carlos, who hosted a party for Walt and the team in Mendoza before they flew to Santiago[3]. I do like “Pedro”; it’s a nice story and feels very much like a typical Disney short story.

The original idea for “Pedro” came from a draft short story concept about a small aeroplane that acted like a young boy, devised by Disney staff members Joe Grant and Dick Huemer. Their plane was called P.T. or “Petey”, with the narration to be provided by Sterling Holloway. It followed a mail plane taking over his father’s route, and having to go by “Old Thunderhead”, a tall, unfriendly mountain, with this “important” mail being revealed to only be a postcard. Concept art was created by Mary Blair and Hardie Gramatky, who wrote the children’s book, Little Toot, which was published in 1939 and was made into a short for the Disney “package feature” Melody Time (1948); it’s actual quite a similar story.

Disney story man Bill Cottrell worked on developing this story to become a part of Saludos Amigos, as he was also on the South American tour. The group only spent a week in Chile, a third of the time they’d spent in Brazil and Argentina, so they struggled to come up with a concept piece around Chile, but the plane ride they took over the Andes to Santiago was thrilling and they passed close to Aconcagua, the 22,500-foot-high mountain. They even saw a crashed plane on the mountainside nearby. Cottrell remembered the P.T. plane story and felt it could be reconfigured easily to fit into the Chilean area. Pedro became the new name for the plane, it being the Spanish equivalent of Pete, and Aconcagua replaced the fictional mountain. Some of Disney’s best animators worked on the short, with Ward Kimball animating Pedro’s encounter with the condor, and Bill Tytla animating the storm. Though many viewers liked “Pedro”, the Chilean audience didn’t feel that the story represented them at all, not how the other shorts represented their respective countries anyway. In response, a Chilean cartoonist by the name of Rene “Pepo” Rios created a comic strip about a small condor called Condorito, living in a small Chilean town. It mimicked Disney’s animation style, and showed just what Disney could’ve done for Chile[4].

From Chile, the movie moves over to Argentina, specifically Buenos Aires, where footage of the city and its landmarks are shown, including the Congress Building and the Kavanaugh Building, the tallest building in Latin America. Though the team liked the city, they were drawn to the grasslands of Argentina and the gauchos of the area. The group met gauchos and saw them handle their horses in person, and learnt of their way of life, including the equipment, music and dance, and the food, where they saw firsthand how food is traditionally cooked, via a barbeque or “asado”. Argentine painter F. Molino Campos told the team stories of gauchos and painted numerous scenes, becoming their artistic consultant.

STORY #3: EL GAUCHO GOOFY

From here, we go into the animated “El Gaucho Goofy”, where cowboy Goofy is flown from Texas to Argentina and dressed in the appropriate dress of the Argentine gaucho. Goofy meets his sassy, untrained horse, which Goofy tries to lasso, except he’s the one who is tied up, not the horse, in typical Goofy style. Goofy is then taught how to correctly saddle the horse, and how to barbecue and eat his traditional steak for dinner. Next, Goofy tries to capture an ostrich with bolas, but once again, clumsy Goofy does not succeed and instead flies off his horse, leading to Goofy, his horse, and the ostrich being tied up! Then, Goofy learns about traditional Argentine guitar music and dance moves, such as the “pala-pala”, before being flown back to his home of Texas. I found this short to be just ok; I’m not a big fan of the Disney “How-To” style of shorts, and unfortunately, Goofy is not my favourite Disney character – sorry, he’s too clumsy for me! Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Goofy, continues to reprise his role in this short.

STORY #4: AQUARELO DO BRASIL

For the final section of Saludos Amigos, we are taken to Brazil and Rio de Janeiro. We see footage of Sugarloaf Mountain and Copacabana beach, as well as views of the city streets, with its mosaic pavements, and the local people. Concept art and sketches by Disney artists are also shown, with one of those being a “papagaio”, or parrot, which becomes José, or Joe, Carioca, a new character who will encapsulate the Brazilian culture. They also learn about the samba and Brazil’s carnival, full of music, dancing, and laughter.

“Aquarelo do Brasil” begins with the opening of a book of sheet music, telling us about the song that will be used in the short, and the casting for it, much like how all of the shorts in other “package features” like Make Mine Music (1946) and Melody Time (1948) are introduced. We then see an animated paintbrush begin to paint a rainforest landscape, which comes alive; the same happens with flamingos and various plants and flowers. One of those flowers turns into Donald Duck, who returns to the film after his appearance in “Lake Titicaca”. Donald is introduced to the new character of José Carioco, a well-dressed green parrot; José is very excited to be meeting the famous Donald Duck from Hollywood! José decides to teach Donald how to dance the samba, and begins to play a tune on his umbrella, which has somehow become a flute, and Donald’s hat, which has become an accordion. They samba over to a bar, where Donald is given some very strong alcohol to drink! From Donald’s hiccupping, José begins to orchestra a new samba tune for them both to dance to, alongside a mysterious silhouetted woman. They dance the night away together.

This is my favourite short of the four, mostly because I like the song, but I do also like Donald and José together; it was a good introduction to the new character. The artistic style is more vibrant and expressive than the other three, so it feels more exciting and interesting to watch. The song “Aquarela do Brasil” was composed by Brazilian composer and pianist Ary Barroso in 1939, and became one of the most famous Brazilian songs ever after appearing in this film. Apparently, Walt Disney and his team listened to a band while having dinner one night during their stay in Brazil, and this song they played piqued Walt’s interest. Walt had the song personally performed for him again whilst in Rio de Janeiro by Ary Barroso and decided it must be used in Saludos Amigos[5]. The song was performed by Aloísio de Oliveira here. The piece of music heard at the end of the short is an instrumental version of “Tico-Tico no Fubá”, which was written by Brazilian musician Zequinha de Abreu. The voice of José Carioca is provided by José Oliviera, a Brazilian musician who directed Carmen Miranda’s orchestra for ten years. The word “Carioca” means native of Rio[6]. Clarence Nash, the original voice of Donald Duck, reprised his role again in this short.

PRODUCTION

As far back as 1890, the United States of America were trying to strengthen the understanding and friendship between all the countries within North, Central and South America. In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt promoted the importance of the USA’s relations with the countries south of it. In the years leading up to World War II, this became even more important as the US feared that as the Nazis gained more and more ground in Europe, that their propaganda would also take hold in Central and South America, with Argentina being of particular concern. The US wanted their own campaign to strength their support to South America, so that those countries would be on the side of the Allies. Therefore, a new agency, the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs, was formally established by President Roosevelt, with Nelson Rockefeller appointed as its head[7]. 

The Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs began this campaign in 1940 by asking Hollywood studios to visit Latin American countries and use their findings from the area and its people to come up with new movie ideas. Unfortunately, some of these films had the opposite effect, being so stereotypical to the South American people that instead of alleviating tensions between the areas of the Americas, they actually caused more conflict.

In Spring 1941, the Office looked to Walt Disney and his studios instead. Walt originally thought it was a diplomacy tour, and was reluctant to agree to it, as he “wasn’t good at just shaking hands”, but when it was suggested that he use the trip as a focus for research and new content for his next Disney projects, he agreed. World War II had cut off film profits from the Disney releases of the early 1940s in the European markets, and due to the Disney animators’ strike, which ended up lasting from May to September 1941, the Studios were struggling, as was Walt’s reputation with his workers.

So, it was decided: Walt would take himself plus 15 studio employees, and two wives, one of which was Lillian Disney, Walt’s wife, to South America for this “goodwill tour”. The group arrived in Rio de Janeiro in August 1941, though the group didn’t travel together all of the time; after visiting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, the team split into four groups, who went to different locations, with some heading to countries like Bolivia and Peru, and others exploring different parts of Argentina, to gather more material. The majority of the team reunited at the end of September 1941 in Santiago, Chile, with the whole group heading home on 4^th October 1941.

Though the press and the people loved Walt, including hordes of local children who would come to see him and ask for autographs, Walt had some difficulties during this tour. Whilst in Argentina, Roy O. Disney, Walt’s brother, told Walt that the animators’ strike had been settled but not in the studio’s favour. Walt’s father also passed away on 13^th September 1941, during the tour, however, Walt stayed in South America to continue with his commitments[8]. Furthermore, by December 1941, the US was fully engaged in World War II.

Whilst Saludos Amigos only details what the Disney employees experienced in the countries of Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, to link in with the background of the four shorts, there is actually much more behind-the-scenes footage of the Disney team visiting other countries, such as Uruguay, Ecuador, Guatemala, and Mexico. Ideas and research from these areas would be used for the “sequel” to Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros (1944), released two years later. This extra footage is detailed within the thirty-minute documentary, South of the Border with Disney (1942).

The film was originally meant to be twelve separately released shorts, with each short being dedicated to a specific country the Disney group had visited. Producer David O. Selznick felt that releasing one short based on one country would only make that short popular in that specific area, whereas by packaging a few together, it would make the movie as a whole more universally appealing. It also made sense to put shorts based on different cultures together to fit with the overall message of the goodwill tour; cooperation and understanding between all countries of the Americas.

RECEPTION

Saludos Amigos was the first Hollywood movie to premiere in all Latin American countries before it did in the US; it was released in South America in August 1942, with its premiere being held in Rio de Janeiro on 24^th August 1942. It was later released in the United States in February 1943. The movie was incredibly popular in South America. In the US, many critics also liked the film, with the colourful animation, the relatively authentic music, and fun-filled familiar cartoons being the highlights. Even new characters, such as the llama in “Lake Titicaca” and José Carioca were singled out as being plus points. It was a different type of film, due to the travel documentary footage, and was not deemed to be entirely factual, but it succeeded in showcasing the areas of South America, as it was intended to do, though negative critique of the film called it “self-interested”. Nowadays, parts of the film are considered to be culturally insensitive, with some of the narration standing out to me as being “not very P.C.”

But at the time, Saludos Amigos was so popular, both critically and commercially, that The Three Caballeros (1944), a sequel of sorts, was released two years later, with it using the same “package feature” format as Saludos Amigos, but basing their shorts on different South American countries. These two films were a good way for the Studios to produce new feature-length movies, as World War II had caused the studio to lose staff and at this point, the Disney staffers who remained were primarily creating training films for the military to keep the Studios afloat financially; they did not have the budget to make the “big“ movies they had been, like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940)[9].

Saludos Amigos was nominated at the 1943 Academy Awards for Best Score, Best Sound Recording, and Best Original Song for “Saludos Amigos”, but sadly, did not win any of these. It did, however, win the Best Documentary award at the 15^th National Board of Review Awards in 1943.

All four of the shorts featured within Saludos Amigos were released as standalone shorts in 1955, to be used on television shows and within compilation shows. It is worth mentioning that for many home releases of the film, including my 2002 UK DVD release, Goofy’s smoking is edited out of “El Gaucho Goofy”, which makes for a very strange cut if you watch the original version. Yet, later on in the film, during “Aquarela do Brasil”, Donald is seen lighting up José’s cigar after drinking some very strong alcohol; so that scene of smoking is apparently ok, as it was not cut or edited out, but seeing Goofy smoke isn’t ok? The unedited version returned to home releases from 2018, and is uncut on Disney+.

LEGACY

Apart from these two documentary films and The Three Caballeros (1944) sequel, there is very little else in the way of representation for Saludos Amigos, both on-screen and off-screen. At the Disney Parks, there are predominantly mentions of The Three Caballeros and its three main characters, not anything specific to Saludos Amigos. As this piece is about Saludos Amigos specifically, I will not be talking about rides and attractions that reference The Three Caballeros (1944), so there is not too much to talk about.

At Walt Disney World, the recently closed Epcot nighttime show, Harmonious, did use a snippet of the “Saludos Amigos” opening song within its soundtrack, during the Latin America section. It was played after “Remember Me” and before “The World Es Mi Familia”, both from Coco (2017). During Wonderful World of Animation projection show at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a scene from Saludos Amigos can be seen. It is from “El Gaucho Goofy” and shows him and his horse dancing; it is on the screen to the left of the Chinese Theater.

At Tokyo Disneyland, there is a meet-and-greet location for Duffy the Disney Bear at Tokyo DisneySea. It is called ¡Saludos Amigos! Greeting Dock, with stalls showcasing South American ornaments, instruments, etc. surrounding the bear, who is dressed in a small poncho and sombrero, with Latin American-inspired prints. Duffy is nicknamed “Sombrero Duffy” for this reason. South American-inspired music plays throughout the area. But even this area is not specific to Saludos Amigos, as the bunting that is strung across the ceiling depicts the faces of the Three Caballeros trio of characters.

In terms of meet-and-greets, you cannot see Donald and José without Panchito, as they clearly have more worth as the trio, the Three Caballeros, so I will not be mentioning those, nor can you meet Pedro or Gaucho Goofy, the other characters from Saludos Amigos.

The only other thing to mention is that, in 2023, to celebrate the film’s 80^th anniversary, Disney honoured the occasion by releasing an ornament of Donald Duck and José Carioca in the Brazilian rainforest.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Saludos Amigos is one of the lesser-known Disney animated feature films, partly for its age, partly for its “package feature” status, and partly because its popularity has been dwarfed by The Three Caballeros (1944). Yet Saludos Amigos was just as important to fostering good relations between the US and its neighbours to the south, even more so to some extent as the response to this film proved to be the first success within this campaign overseen by the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs. It allowed for The Three Caballeros (1944) to be created afterwards; if Saludos Amigos had not proved popular, then the sequel could not have existed.

Saludos Amigos will forever be known as being the movie that did more for cooperation between the countries of the Americas in just a few months than the Government had managed to achieve in decades – by using Disney for a vital strategic campaign, which ended up being fronted by none other than those great diplomats, Donald Duck and Goofy… Only Disney!

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Saludos Amigos’, pp. 16-18.

[2] Credit: Disney, “South of the Border with Disney (1942)”, from Saludos Amigos (1942) 1-Disc DVD (2002).

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Saludos Amigos’, pp. 16-18.

[4] Credit: Jim Korkis, ‘Pedro and Planes’, MousePlanet.com, 7^th August 2013.

[5] Credit: Keith Gluck, ‘Walt and the Goodwill Tour’, The Walt Disney Family Museum Blog, 8^th September 2016.

[6] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Saludos Amigos’, pp. 16-18.

[7] Credit: Melodie Sweeney, ‘Donald Duck: An American Diplomat?’, National Museum of American History Blog, 12^th April 2019.

[8] Credit Keith Gluck, ‘Walt and the Goodwill Tour’, The Walt Disney Family Museum Blog, 8^th September 2016.

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

1. BACKGROUND
2. STORY #1: ONCE UPON A WINTERTIME
3. STORY #2: BUMBLE BOOGIE
4. STORY #3: THE LEGEND OF JOHNNY APPLESEED
5. STORY #4: LITTLE TOOT
6. STORY #5: TREES
7. STORY #6: BLAME IT ON THE SAMBA
8. STORY #7: PECOS BILL
9. PRODUCTION
10. RECEPTION
11. LEGACY
12. FINAL THOUGHTS
13. REFERENCES

BACKGROUND

After an adequate start to post-war movies with the Disney animated release Make Mine Music (1946), the Studios continued to release “package features” through the rest of the 1940s.

Make Mine Music was followed in 1947 by Fun and Fancy Free, a feature consisting of just two longer animated stories, instead of the numerous but shorter segments that appeared in Make Mine Music.

However, in 1948, Melody Time was released, which was another movie just like Make Mine Music, in that it consisted of multiple unrelated animated sequences, loosely connected by the theme of music.

Melody Time was the last music-themed Disney “package feature” of the 1940s. It comprises seven separate sequences.

These seven sections are:

1. “Once Upon a Wintertime”
2. “Bumble Boogie”
3. “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed”
4. “Little Toot”
5. “Trees”
6. “Blame It on the Samba”
7. “Pecos Bill”

Melody Time is not one of the best Disney animated classics for me. I had only watched it once before this week and I didn’t think much of it then. This time round, it only confirmed my original opinion, and I can now say confidently that Make Mine Music is my “favourite” of these two Fantasia-like “package features”, although I did not completely like either of them; Make Mine Music just happens to have slightly more songs and animated sequences that I enjoy. I actually struggled to like any of the Melody Time shorts.

STORY #1: ONCE UPON A WINTERTIME

Melody Time begins with an Opening Credits sequence, which also features the title song of the film. All the upcoming artists and musicians are first credited, with their names written over the top of the animated sheet music for their specific section. We are also told that this time, unlike in Make Mine Music, we have a “Master of Ceremonies”: Buddy Clark. Buddy Clark was a popular singer within the Big Band era, specifically within the 1940s. He had multiple hit songs, including “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”, which he sang with Dinah Shore. Dinah Shore sung “Two Silhouettes” for a sequence within Disney’s Make Mine Music. Clark sadly died in a plane crash in 1949, shortly after recording a radio broadcast with The Andrews Sisters, who also performed songs for both Make Mine Music and Melody Time. The credits continue to be listed over animated sheet music, before moving across to see an animated paintbrush paint a theatre stage, as well as masks. The masks represent Buddy Clark and his background singers for the title song “Melody Time”. This song was written by George David Weiss and Bennie Benjamin. Benjamin and Weiss had also written for Fun and Fancy Free (1947), Disney’s film release before Melody Time. The curtains of the theatre are then pulled back and the show begins.

“Once Upon a Wintertime” is the first segment to be introduced. The short begins with a brief scene of a picture of a couple before seemingly going back in time to see the couple on a sleigh ride in the snow. The couple go ice-skating together on a frozen lake, and are soon joined by a rabbit couple who mimic the human couple. Both couples are so in love, even drawing love hearts in the ice. The girl is not so steady on her feet and struggles to skate alone, however, her partner is only too confident on his skates, racing away and coming back, skidding ice all over her. Naturally, she is annoyed and soon falls down on the ice, before skating away in a huff, as does the female rabbit. However, both are unaware that they are about to skate over thin ice, which begins to break away; the two girls float away on a block of ice, about to go over a waterfall. The men aren’t particularly useful at attempting to rescue their girls, and they end up being rescued by quick-thinking birds, squirrels and horses, which is odd. But the couples make up, and the humans get back in their sleigh and head home together.

As far as the story goes, it is a strange one; I don’t know why the man had to be so useless here, when we know in a real life-or-death situation that forest creatures are not going to be able to save you. It’s not much of a public service announcement on the dangers of skating on random patches of iced-over fresh water! But that’s not the main issue I have with “Once Upon a Wintertime”. That is actually with the animation, which is a difficult thing to admit, as the overall design of the short was developed from concept art by legendary Disney artist Mary Blair, who would go on to produce art for Disney movies, such as Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953), as well as attractions such as it’s a small world. I didn’t like the colour choices or the rounded, less realistic look of the humans, though I did like the look of the animals and the wintry landscapes. The short does also have a “Christmas card”-feel to it, which I believe was the aim. The song is just ok for me. It was written by Bobby Worth and Ray Gilbert who had both worked on previous Disney “package features” including both writing the song “Blue Bayou” for Make Mine Music (1946). The song is performed by Frances Langford, a popular singer, radio performer and actress in the 1930s and 1940s.

STORY #2: BUMBLE BOOGIE

The second short of Melody Time is “Bumble Boogie”, which follows a little bee just trying to get on with his day but finding himself being attacked and bullied by flowers, as well as a piano-looking snake-like creature. It is quite surreal animation, with the “animals” being designed after whichever instrument is featured in the music at that point. It mostly does consist of piano keys, but there are also trumpet-looking flowers which appear. In the end, the bee seems to win out over everything, but again, it wasn’t great. Luckily, it was only three minutes long, being the shortest of Melody Time’s seven pieces.

The music choice is an arrangement of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee”, arranged by Jack Fina, and performed by Fina on piano, along with Freddy Martin and His Orchestra, and is titled “Bumble Boogie”. It was a huge hit for Fina, who had previously joined Freddy Martin’s band, but formed his own band in 1946. Freddy Martin and His Orchestra were a band formed in 1930s, who continued to perform right up until the 1980s, when band leader Martin died in 1983.  “Flight of the Bumblebee” was considered for Fantasia (1940), when Disney planned to add in additional new material and re-release it, however, that plan did not come to pass[1]. I like the piece of music, so I did enjoy the arrangement, but, although I thought the bee in the animation was cute, it was all a bit of a mess of colour and noise, to be honest!

STORY #3: THE LEGEND OF JOHNNY APPLESEED

“The Legend of Johnny Appleseed”, the second-longest segment of Melody Time with a runtime of about eighteen minutes, is the third short. Buddy Clark begins by mentioning some of the symbols of great American pioneers, such as Paul Bunyan’s axe and Davy Crockett’s rifle, before getting to those of pioneer Chapman, which were a tin pot hat, a bag of apple seeds, and the Bible. The story is then passed over to the “Old Settler” to narrate the legend. The story shows Johnny happy and content growing apple trees at his home, singing and picking the apples from his trees. One day, he sees a group of settlers heading West. Johnny wants to join them but thinks that as all he knows is apple trees, he wouldn’t be any use over there. His angel comes to him and tells him that of course the pioneers will need apples, as they are a very versatile food. Johnny takes a tin pot hat, the Bible and his seeds, and heads out West with renewed confidence. After some time, Johnny comes across a good area of soil and begins planting. The animals of the area are not sure about Johnny, but they soon warm to him as they see he has no hunting equipment so they are not in danger. Many years later, Johnny’s trees have continued to grow, with those settlers now living by the orchards and having festivals in his honour, where they cook all sorts of foods using his apples. One day, an elderly Johnny takes a rest by a tree and dies, with his angel coming to take him to Heaven. Johnny doesn’t think his time on Earth should be coming to an end, but the angel encourages him to plant apples trees in Heaven, and Johnny goes willingly.

Although Johnny Appleseed is based on real-life early pioneer John Chapman (1774-1845), who planted apples trees over areas such as Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, Walt Disney asked that their version of his story be adapted from the legends surrounding him. Again, Mary Blair’s designs were translated onto the screen, this time they were of a folk-art style, which I quite liked. Disney animators Milt Kahl, Ollie Johnston and Eric Larson were directing animators for Johnny, and Winston Hibler wrote the narration. Hibler would go on to contribute lyrics to such songs as “Following the Leader” from Peter Pan (1953) and “I Wonder” from Sleeping Beauty (1959), alongside Ted Sears.

Dennis Day, the performer of this segment, actually provides the voices of the characters (Johnny Appleseed and Johnny’s Angel), as well as all the singing, and the narration. Dennis Day was known as “the singing star” on Jack Benny’s radio show from 1939. Verna Felton, legendary Disney voice artist, portrayed Dennis’ character’s mother on the programme. Day was a versatile voice actor, easily able to do accents and impressions well[2]. The music here was written by Kim Gannon and Walter Kent. The two co-wrote many songs together, including the holiday song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”. Kent also wrote the song “(There’ll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover”. I didn’t mind watching “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed”; it was alright.

STORY #4: LITTLE TOOT

Next up is “Little Toot”, a little tugboat who spends a lot of time messing about and playing around, despite the fact his antics constantly disrupt his dad working and that he continuously halts traffic around the harbour; Little Toot doesn’t seem to understand the importance of being a tugboat. Little Toot is told off by his father and tries to be good, even helping his dad bring in a large ship, however, he causes more harm than good, with the ship crashing onto dry land. Little Toot is taken away by the “harbour police” and exiled in the open ocean. On a very stormy night, whilst trying to stay upright in the waves, Little Toot sees a stranded ocean liner. He sends out an SOS call, which is heard by other boats, including his dad, but before they can even get there, Little Toot has attached himself to the ship and started tugging it to the harbour. He returns as a hero. I quite liked this story; it reminded me a lot of another short called “Pedro”, which appears in Disney’s Saludos Amigos (1942), except that story is about a little plane, instead of a little boat.

The story “Little Toot” was published in 1939 by former Disney animator, Hardie Gramatky, who worked for Disney between 1929 and 1936. The Disney short features The Andrews Sisters singing the story. The Andrews Sisters were a singing group who had previously sung the story of “Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet” for Make Mine Music (1946). Capitol Records produced a record of the “Little Toot” story and song which became the first children’s record to hit the one million sales mark on Billboard.

STORY #5: TREES

The fifth segment is called “Trees”. It is a sung version of Joyce Kilmer’s poem “Trees”, with the music being written by pianist and composer Oscar Rasbach. The animation consists of multiple drawings of trees, set in different types of weather and times of day. A few animals, like deer and squirrels, also make an appearance, but there is no story here; it is just meant to be nice to watch. Because of this, I lost interest in this segment quite quickly. Plus, due to the nature of singing through a poem, I could barely understand it at times. Though the poem may be popular, I feel like it should’ve been spoken through instead to ensure it was fully comprehensible to all. I also did not like the wailing singing voices trying to imitate the windy, stormy weather. Luckily, this segment is the second-shortest of the seven in Melody Time, at only four minutes, so I didn’t have to sit through it for long. “Trees” was also planned to be included in a new version of Fantasia (1940) like “Flight of the Bumblebee”.

STORY #6: BLAME IT ON THE SAMBA

“Blame It on the Samba” is the sixth short, and this time it features the familiar characters of Donald Duck and José Carioca. José Carioca first appeared in Saludos Amigos (1942) alongside Donald Duck. This short is quite psychedelic with its imagery, and has a very basic story: Donald and José are walking through the forest, looking quite glum, when they come across the Café Do Samba, and are treated to samba music to cheer them up by the Aracuan bird. The Aracuan bird was first introduced in The Three Caballeros (1944), where Donald and José also appeared. Pinto Colvig, who was the original voice of Grumpy and Goofy, provides the voice of the Aracuan bird, reprising his role from The Three Caballeros and the Disney short cartoon Clown of the Jungle (1947)[3]. Throughout the segment, the birds are dancing and mixing cocktails, but the animation is incredibly abstract as within one of those cocktails is Ethel Smith performing on an electric organ with Donald and José dancing on top of it. The animation is bizarre at times, but the music is fun, and it’s always good to see familiar characters within these types of films!

This segment was originally supposed to be part of a third “package feature” based on and within Latin America, as Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros had been. However, as that third film never happened, it was used in Melody Time instead. Organist Ethel Smith had even come in the Disney Studios to record the music in 1945, but then had to return to the Studios again in February 1947 to film the live-action portions that would feature in the new feature film, Melody Time[4]. The Dinning Sisters singing group perform the vocals to this song. They were very popular around the late 1940s, and were considered to be Capitol Records’ answer to The Andrews Sisters. The music was written by Brazilian composer and pianist Ernesto Nazareth and lyricist Ray Gilbert.

STORY #7: PECOS BILL

The final short, and longest of the film at around twenty minutes, is called “Pecos Bill”, the fictional cowboy from American folk stories. It begins with a typical animated desert landscape, complete with cacti and tumbleweeds. We then get to a live-action section, of cowboys sitting around a campfire. The song “Blue Shadows on the Trail” has been playing during this animation, and it turns out these cowboys have been singing it. The song was performed by Roy Rogers and The Sons of the Pioneers. The Sons of the Pioneers are a Western singing group, still performing today. They have appeared in movies as well as on the radio. Roy Rogers, then called Leonard Slye, Tim Spencer and Bob Nolan founded the group, however when Slye change his name to Roy Rogers, he left the group in 1937. Roy Rogers was a singer and actor. He appears in this segment alongside his horse, Trigger, who featured in many of Rogers’ films and television appearances. At this campfire, Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers tell the story of Pecos Bill to Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten, who have not heard the story. These two child stars appeared together in the Disney films Song of the South (1946) and So Dear to My Heart (1949)[5]. Driscoll would go on to star in Disney’s animated film Peter Pan (1953) as the title character.

We then move into the animated retelling of Pecos Bill’s story. After falling out of his family’s wagon into the Texas desert, he is raised by coyotes. Bill also starts to learn from all the other animals, such as jumping like a jack-rabbit and hissing like a snake. One day, a young Bill comes across a small, ill horse, and saves him from being eaten by vultures. Bill names his new horse Widowmaker and becomes one of the best cowboys ever, as it is a profession where he can work alongside his horse. We are then told of all the wonderful things that Bill did for Texas, such as bringing the rain from California into Texas to stop a drought and this is how the Gulf of Mexico came to be. He also needed water one day and dug the Rio Grande to get some! One day, he comes across a female cowboy, Slue Foot Sue and instantly falls in love with her. Widowmaker, Bill’s horse, is not impressed at being ignored while Bill “courts” Sue, and is even more annoyed, and jealous, when he finds that the two are getting married. As part of the wedding celebrations, Sue wanted a dress with a bustle and to ride to the ceremony on Bill’s horse, however, although she got the dress she wanted, Widowmaker was not happy to have Sue on his back and bucks her off him. Unfortunately, due to her bustle, Sue doesn’t just fall to the ground, but hits it and bounces up continuously, getting higher and higher each time. Bill calmly gets ready to use his lasso to get Sue down, but it misses – thanks to Widowmaker stepping on the end of the rope. Eventually, Sue bounces up so far that she ends up stuck on the moon. Bill went back to the coyotes, filled with sadness, but never forgot Sue. Every night, Bill mourned her by howling up at the moon, with the other coyotes joining in, and that is why coyotes howl at the moon, answering the question that Luana Patten asked during the campfire. The segment ends with another verse from “Blue Shadows on the Trail”, and that is the end of the film.

Both the song “Blue Shadows on the Trail”, as well as “Pecos Bill” were written by Eliot Daniel and Johnny Lange. Eliot Daniel went on to write the song “Lavender Blue” for So Dear to My Hear (1949), which was Oscar-nominated, and then compose the theme from I Love Lucy (1951-1957). Johnny Lange was a songwriter, whose song “Mule Train, was also Oscar-nominated and featured in the film Singing Guns (1950). I found this short to be very long, and didn’t feel like we needed the live-action segment before it, though I did like the song “Blue Shadows on the Trail”. The actual story of Pecos Bill wasn’t too bad, but I’m not a big fan of Westerns or stories about cowboys!

PRODUCTION

After Fantasia (1940) was released, Walt Disney, and the Studios, got some backlash to the movie, as, although the whole point of the film was to make it as close to a concert as you could see in a movie theatre, this approach was considered too “high-brow” for audiences and reviewers. So, when the Disney Studios decided to make Make Mine Music (1946), another “package feature” similar to Fantasia with heavy emphasis on its musical choices, they decided to use more popular genres and musicians to appeal to a wider audience. This is the same approach that was used for Melody Time[6].

The reason a “package film” was necessary was because the Disney Studios had suffered financially both because of World War II and its impact on both domestic and foreign markets, as well as the 1941 animators’ strike which affected the Disney Studios badly, both in terms of finances and their reputation. “Package features” were cheaper to make, as they weren’t overly focused on the animation design, and also quicker, which satisfied Disney’s distribution contract with RKO to release their animated features.

It was also good because though they had ideas for stories, these stories did not contain enough material to fill a full-length feature film, so by having multiple sections, or shorts, within one movie, they could still use these story ideas in and amongst other, potentially shorter subjects. For example, for Melody Time, Walt stated in a short essay that he wrote for the 1948-49 volume of Film Review, that they liked the idea of doing full animated features on the legendary Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed, but as they were both mostly based in legends, with little life-story or factual evidence to back up their deeds, there was not enough material for a full movie. By using these two stories within a film like Melody Time, it satisfied their want to tell these two specific tales that otherwise may have remained untold, at least in an animated medium. Walt did also make it clear, though, that these types of “multiple episode cartoon fantasy” would not replace Disney’s classic animated picture[7]. One more “package feature” would be released by Disney the year after Melody Time in 1949: The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, which did only feature two stories; one based on The Wind in the Willows novel by Kenneth Grahame and the other on the short story by Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. It was originally titled Two Fabulous Characters, with both that movie and Melody Time being announced by Disney as being in production in 1947.

Despite this optimism for the “package feature” format that was primarily used by Disney in the 1940s, it was not favoured by Walt Disney himself, as they aren’t particularly creative or inventive, and they lacked the usual Disney magic of story-telling. The 1940s was not an easy decade for anyone working at the Studios. In January 1947, a screening of the work-in-progress “Pecos Bill” short was being shown to Walt Disney in its pencil form. It had been worked on by Ward Kimball and Milt Kahl. According to Kimball’s family, even though the piece was not finished, Walt found the “Pecos Bill” piece uplifting, saying it was the most encouraging thing he’d seen at the Disney Studios for six years. It is believed Walt meant that he could still see the talent within the animators and had hope that in the future they would be able to make great things again[8].

RECEPTION

Melody Time premiered on 27^th May 1948 at the Astor Theatre in New York City’s Times Square. It was then released internationally over the next couple of years. Unfortunately, Melody Time received mixed reviews, much like the other “package films”, due to its variety of material and the natural fact that not every section would appeal to everyone. Within US critics, though, many did agree that “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed” and “Pecos Bill” were the two highlights of the movie, as they were both legendary heroic figures within American folklore. Some reviewers were not so kind, with Bosley Crowther of The New York Times writing that Melody Time was a “gaudy grab-bag” of shorts, with some good and some bad[9], though that is basically the standard response to this movie.

Many of the shorts within Melody Time were later released separately on different Disney media, like “Pecos Bill” was released as a stand-alone short in February 1954; “Once Upon a Wintertime” in September 1954; and “Johnny Appleseed” in December 1955. This gave the “better” pieces a wider audience and meant viewers did not have to watch the entire film to find them. Luckily, with the success of Cinderella (1950), the animated “package features” were no longer required; audiences had made it clear that they wanted a full story, not a mish-mash of short sequences, from Disney.

It would not be until 1998 when Melody Time was first released on home video in the US, despite the sequences within Melody Time having been available to watch on previous Disney compilations. When Melody Time was re-released on VHS and released for the first time on DVD, the US version of the movie was censored, much like Make Mine Music was. This censoring removed any and all cigarettes from Pecos Bill’s mouth within the whole short of “Pecos Bill”, which meant large portions of the short, such as those with the cyclone and the “painted Indians” were cut, as Bill had a cigarette dangling in his mouth throughout. The Indians scene perhaps should’ve been cut for other, more obvious reasons… Foreign releases were uncut[10]. However, despite this earlier censorship, the original, unaltered version of Melody Time was released on Blu-Ray in 2021, as well as on Disney+, where it begins with their negative depiction/stereotype warning.

LEGACY

Due to the style of movie that Melody Time is, it did not receive a sequel and it is highly unlikely that it will ever receive the “live-action” treatment from Disney. The only other movie that Melody Time helped create was 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 5^th 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 Melody Time, Music Land used these shorts: “Once Upon a Wintertime”, “Bumble Boogie”, “Trees”, “Blame It on the Samba” and “Pecos Bill”[12].

Surprisingly, some of the Disney theme parks do feature references to some of the sections of Melody Time, with the biggest one being the quick-service restaurant, Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe, which appears in Frontierland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom, as well as in Westernland within Tokyo Disneyland.

At Magic Kingdom, Pecos Bill Cafe opened in 1971, with two separate dining locations: the Cafe and the Mile Long Bar. In 1998, the two locations were combined into one restaurant, with it being renamed Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe. The location features many references to the Disney short “Pecos Bill” as well as the legends surrounding him and all the things he created for Texas, such as digging the Rio Grande. The Disney-created backstory of the restaurant states that Pecos Bill was convinced to open his own “watering hole” in 1876, with gifts being left by those who came here, which were later adorned on the walls of the restaurant. Some gifts include Paul Bunyan’s axe and Johnny Appleseed’s pot-hat. Bill’s long-lost love, Slue Foot Sue, even left her gloves to him, signed “To Bill, All My Love, Slue Foot Sue”; they can be found within a frame hanging on the wall.

Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe mostly served burgers, with a full toppings bar, until 2015, when the menu changed to serve “Tex-Mex”-style dishes, such as tacos, nachos and fajitas. I suppose this menu fits in better with the overall theming of the area, but I preferred when they had burgers! Posters advertising the restaurant can be seen within the queue for the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad attraction[13]. Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn & Cafe opened at Tokyo Disneyland on 15^th April 1983 when the park first opened. It also serves Mexican food.

Elsewhere within Magic Kingdom, an old-fashioned calliope, or steam organ, can be found outside the Pete’s Silly Sideshow character meet-and-greet location within Storybook Circus. It is inscribed with the words “Melody Time: Brass Horn Band”. It also says at the top “Toot, Plunk, Whistle, Boom”. This may appear to be another small reference to the movie Melody Time, as the word “Toot” could reference the specific short “Little Toot” from the movie, however, Disney released a short in 1953 titled Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom, so it is likely to be a nod to that short instead.

There is apparently a script of Melody Time that can be seen in one of the windows behind the bus stop queues at the All-Star Movies Resort at Walt Disney World, however, I have not found a picture of it online to confirm it, nor did I see it any of the numerous resort walkthroughs that I found on YouTube. I guess no-one thinks bus stops are interesting enough for their travel vlogs. Rude.

Finally, a very brief scene, literally a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment, from “Once Upon a Wintertime”, with the guy skating love hearts into the ice, 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 screen furthest left of The Chinese Theater – in case anyone wants to find this scene one day!

At Disneyland and at Tokyo Disneyland, another reference to the movie can be found within the queue line for Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, there is a poster detailing on audition for “toons only” on Tuesday for the “upcoming Disney pic MELODY TIME”.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Melody Time is not my favourite of the Disney’s 1940s movies; I didn’t find much of it that I really liked, which surprised me, as I thought there would have been at least one short that I did like. I guess “Blame It on the Samba” was ok, but the imagery was too abstract for me, so despite the familiarity of Donald and José, I wasn’t bothered when it finished! Most of it was just “alright” for me, but I know that other people may disagree with me, and in particular might love “Pecos Bill” or “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed”. As I’m not American, perhaps that folklore just doesn’t hit me in the same way.

Regardless of anyone’s feelings about Melody Time, this and its other “package film friends” were a necessity to keep the Disney Studios financially stable. It worked and it meant Disney could move on to better things from the 1950s onwards.

I don’t think Melody Time should put anyone off Disney “package features” as some of their other ones are much better and I do really like those. Sadly, Melody Time is just not one of those “other ones” for me. 

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REFERENCES

[1] Credit: Michael Lyons, ‘Music with Character: The 75^th Anniversary of “Melody Time”’, CartoonResearch.com, 28^th April 2023.

[2] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Did You Know? 10 Tuneful Facts About Walt Disney’s Melody Time’, D23.com, 24^th May 2018.

[3] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Melody Time’, pp. 28-30.

[4] Credit: Jim Fanning, ‘Did You Know? 10 Tuneful Facts About Walt Disney’s Melody Time’, D23.com, 24^th May 2018.

[5] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Melody Time’, pp. 28-30.

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

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

[8] Credit: Lucas O. Seastrom, ‘Hope for the Future – A Story about Walt Disney’s Melody Time’, The Walt Disney Family Museum Blog, 25^th July 2018.

[9] Credit: Bosley Crowther, ‘Disney’s Newest Cartoon Array, ‘Melody Time’, Opens at Astor – Seven Scenes Featured’, The New York Times (online), 28^th May 1948.

[10] Credit: Jim Korkis, Everything I Know I Learned from Disney Animated Feature Films (2015), ‘Melody Time’, pp. 28-30.

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

[13] Credit: Lydia Storks, ‘The Secrets You Didn’t Know About This Popular Disney World Restaurant’, AllEars.net, 26^th March 2021.

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 20^th September to 5^th 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 1^st 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 75^th 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 5^th 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 27^th 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.

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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, 2^nd 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), 22^nd 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, 20^th 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, 2^nd December 2015.

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