In the mid 40s, Much of Disney’s staff was either drafted or
called by the government to make training and propaganda films. The studio
began releasing package film to keep the feature film division alive. As a
result,
Make Mine Music was released
April 20, 1946. Made up of unrelated segments set to music, it starred The King’s
Men, Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore, Benny Goodman, The Andrews Sister, Jerry
Colonna, Sterling Holloway, Andy Russell, David LIchine, Tania Riabouchnskaya,
The Pied Pipers, and The Ken Darby Chorus. The film was also entered into the
1946 Cannes Film Festival.
The film has ten segments:
The Martins and the Coys features the radio group, King’s
Men singing about a feud similar to the Hatfields and the McCoys. The feud is
broken up with two young people from each side fall in love.
Blue Bayou, originally intended for Fantasia, uses Debussy’s Clair de Lune. Two egrets fly through the
everglades on a moonlit night.
All the Cats Join In, where a pencil draws the action as it happens
when 1940s teens are swept away by popular music.
Without You, which is a ballad of lost love.
Casey at the Bat, where Jerry Colonna recites the poem by
Ernest Thayer.
Two Silhouettes, featuring ballet dancers moving in
silhouette with animation backgrounds.
Peter and the Wolf, dramatizing the Prokofiev composition,
with narration by Sterling Holloway. A Russian boy named Peter sets off into
the forest to hunt a wolf with his animal friends. Each character is
represented with a specific musical accompaniment.
After You’ve Gone, featuring Benny Goodman and the Goodman
Octet. Eight instruments parade through a musical playgrond.
Johnnie Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet, which is a romantic
story of two hats who fall in in love in a department store. Alice is sold and
Johnnie devotes himself to finding her again. They eventually do.
The Whale Who Wanted to Sjng at the Met, about a sperm whale
with incredible musical talent and dreams of singing Grand Opera. The impresario
Tetti-Tatti believes the whale has swallowed an opera singer and seeks to
destroy the whale. He finds them and upon hearing him sing, Tetti-Tatti
believes he swallowed three singers. He chases the whale with a harpoon and
eventually manages to fire it. The whale is killed, but still sings in heaven.
Nelson Eddy narrates and provided all the voices in the segment.
Fantasia Lite.
That’s pretty much what Make Mine Music is.
Not only are the shorts enjoyable to watch, but the music is also fun to listen
to. It’s also an hour shorter than Fantasia.
On the other hand, where Fantasia
at least had a connected plot of there being an orchestra performing a
concert, Make Mine Music has no
interconnected plot.
Final Call: While there is no connected plot, it’s enjoyable
to watch. It will become #5
Melody Time was
Disney’s 10th fully animated feature and was released May 27, 1948.
Starring Roy Rogers, Trigger, Mel Blanc, Thurl Ravenscroft and a host of
singers, Melody Time was another
package film and was a disaster on its initial theatrical release. 
