Musica maestro

Make Mine Music finds Walt Disney in the midst of the transitional period between his first five animated features (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi) and the post-war revival begun with Cinderella (1950).

The idea of a casual variant of Fantasia featuring popular music was a good one. Even though the segments which comprise the film vary in quality, the film as a whole is a bright, colorful and amusing light entertainment which fit wartime needs ideally.

Highlights include two spirited Benny Goodman swing numbers ("All The Cats Join In" and "After You've Gone") and the unforgettable finale, "Willie the Operatic Whale", narrated and sung by Nelson Eddy. The animation is generally first-rate and the Technicolor film will dazzle any viewer not expecting a genuine masterwork.

Make Mine Music was successful enough to warrant a considerably better follow-up, Melody Time (1948).

The undistinguished but harmless "Martins and the Coys" segment, concerning the gun-feuding backwoods families of American folklore, has idiotically been removed from current editions, evidently for PC reasons. It's scary that Disney may start altering their classics to meet artificial modern standards. (If they had cut anything from Make Mine Music, it should have been the tasteless "Two Silhouettes" ballet, all doilies and valentines and icky fake sentiment.)

Make Mine Music:

What a great collection of stories! I watched it fairly recently with my Dad and some other family at his house in Pinon Hills. I still cry at the "Johnny Fedora" and "Willie The Whale" stories. I grew up watching these and so many Disney cartoons and movies on our old 16 millimeter projector. We still have it, but it needs a bulb. My nephew Kurt brought this cartoon up on DVD. It was great to see my Dad's "name up in lights," so to speak, at least for animation credits. He loved seeing it again, altho' his eyes aren't so good now at age 92. But he is still hanging in there.

Animated anthology movie from Disney. They made several of these during and after World War II. It's a fun movie with cartoons of varying quality but none are bad. Many of these cartoons were released later as theatrical shorts. There are ten segments. The most popular of them is probably "Casey at the Bat," a recitation by Jerry Colonna of the famous poem. It's a funny, wacky baseball cartoon that was one of my favorites as a kid (seen on a compilation video). Other well-known parts include the Disney version of "Peter and the Wolf," "The Martins and the Coys," which is now considered politically incorrect by those who make such determinations, and "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met," featuring Nelson Eddy. These are all fine cartoons, though the last one has a surprisingly downbeat ending. The 'worst' shorts are the ones that have no real story, just offer a few minutes of animation to some song, almost like a music video of sorts. "Blue Bayou," "Without You," and "Two Silhouettes," for example. They aren't bad shorts, just slight. They feel like time filler. My two favorite shorts in the whole movie are "All the Cats Join In" and "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet." 'Cats' is an energetic big band number with Benny Goodman music playing while a pencil draws the action as it happens. It's creative and cute with a surprisingly sexy part. You'll have to watch it to see what I mean. 'Fedora' is a sweet story about two hats (yes, hats) falling in love and becoming separated. This is narrated through song by the great Andrews Sisters. Overall, some nice little shorts that should please old-school Disney fans. Good animation and music. A very pleasant movie that will leave you with a smile on your face.

One of Walt's early package films and not bad at that! Some segments are cloyingly hokey, of course, but most shorts are surprisingly playful and charming. The highlights: "The Martins and the Coys" is full of stereotyping and comic gunplay and simply fun to watch; "Casey at the Bat" is a whirlwind of poem recitation; the two Benny Goodman segments feature nice tunes and "Peter and the Wolf" and, particularly, "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At the Met" are two of Disney's best cartoons.

Just skip the padding and enjoy this compilation!

7 out of 10 triple-voiced Nelson Eddys

The segments included in this anthology film are very good. I just think it's ridiculous that Disney would release a movie with the first chunk missing. The way it was done made it seem like they thought people wouldn't notice. I have to admit, I'm glad they released it even in part on DVD so we could enjoy the rest, but on the Walt Disney Treasures collection they have released several short subject cartoons on DVD with a disclaimer from Leonard Maltin beforehand. I think they could re-release 'Make Mine Music' in it's entirety with such a disclaimer because the segment is actually very entertaining. I remember seeing it as a kid and it left no impression whatsoever that I should grab a gun and start shooting. Maybe because I had smart parents that had a greater influence on me than what I saw on TV.