Fun and Fancy Free

September 27, 1947 saw the release of the fourth package film by Disney. Fun and Fancy Free featured two shorts framed by Jiminy Cricket. Starring Cliff Edwards, Edgar Bergen, Luana Patten, Walt Disney, Clarence Nash, Pinto Colvig, Billy Gilbert, Anita Gordon, Dinah Shore, Sterling Holloway and Dennis Day, the film would be the last time Disney voiced Mickey Mouse, replacing himself with Jimmy MacDonald.

The film begins as Jiminy Cricket first appears inside a large plant in a house. Exploring it while singing, he comes across a doll, a teddy bear, a record player and some records. He sets it up to play the story of Bongo

The first segment, Bongo, based on Sinclair Lewis’ “Little Bear Bongo,” features a circus bear named Bongo who wants to be free in the wild. He breaks free and takes about a day before the idealism is met with harsh conditions. The next morning, he meets a female bear named Lulubelle. They fall in love, but an enormous bear named Lumpjaw cuts in. Bongo fails to interpret Lulubelle slapping him as a sign of affection and she accidentally slaps Lumpjaw, causing him to claim her for himself. He forces the bears into a celebration for them. Bongo comes to understand the meaning of slapping one another among bears and challenges Lumpjaw. Bongo is able to outwit Lumpjaw, but the two go over a waterfall. Lumpjaw is swept away and Bongo is able to claim Lulubelle.

Between Bongo and the second short, Jiminy finds a birthday party going on where Edgar Bergen is entertaining Luana Patten and… living ventriloquist dummies.  Bergen sets up the second short, Mickey and the Beanstalk.

An adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are peasants living in a place called Happy Valley, which was plagued by drought after a golden harp was stolen from a nearby castle. After Donald tries to kill their cow with an axe, Mickey trades the cow. However, when he comes back, he reveals he traded the cow for beans instead of money. Donald throws tem through a hole in the floor and a beanstalk sprouts overnight. It carries the house to a gigantic kingdom and the three enter the castle. They help themselves to the food, but Willie the Giant spots them. Willie is able to transform himself in to anything and Mickey asks him to turn into a fly when he spots a fly swatter. However, Willie turns into a pink bunny but when he spots them with the swatter, he captures them and locks them in a box. Mickey escapes to find the key and finds the golden harp. He frees the others and takes the harp to her rightful place in Happy Valley, which is returned to normal. They then kill Willie by chopping down the beanstalk.

Actually Willie survives and is looking for Mickey Mouse in Hollywood.

While I have to commend the framing of Jiminy Cricket being in the position to start up the stories, it’s not much of a frame story. It seems like Disney was trying to find a way to force these two stories together and thought the character of Jiminy was the perfect idea. In actuality, the inclusion of Jiminy makes it feel even more forced. And the living ventriloquist dummies? They don’t seem out of place, but seem downright bizarre and disturbing in context of Edgar Bergen entertaining Luana Patten at a party. I realize they wanted some sort of comic relief in the scene, but couldn’t that have been done with actual people? Especially since the dummies eventually just snarked over Bergen’s narration of the beanstalk short.

That’s not to say the shorts aren’t good. Bongo is interesting and Mickey and the Beanstalk is rather enjoyable. But they would have been better had they been released as individual shorts.

Final Call: entertaining shorts, but has an odd frame that feels forced. I did like it better than Make Mine Music though, which makes Fun and Fancy Free my new #6