Bumble Boogie

This is the second short that was used to make up the full-length film from Disney, "Melody Time". Following WWII, Disney Studio was a mess--a terrible strike and the war (where many of the workers were drafted and many more were assigned to wartime animation work) decimated the studio and many of the old animators were gone. As a result, Disney did not get back to making traditional animated feature films for several years. In the meantime, their 'full-length' films were really odd compilations of shorts--and of a rather lackluster quality compared to earlier and later work. "Make Mine Music", "Saludos Amigos", "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" and the like were the norm from 1946-1950 for Disney.

This is an extremely simple cartoon with VERY splashy animation. But, because of its creative style and great music, it still is a dandy little short. After all, what could be better than a boogie-woogie version of "Flight of the Bumblebee"?! It's hard to adequately describe the look of the short--it's just a very creative music video that you can't help but enjoy. And, as a result, it's one of the best shorts from "Melody Time". Adorable, well-animated and clever.

Expressionist images and impressionist bees and musical instruments form the visual basis of this Disney short, while Freddy Martin's orchestra does the music based on Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee."

Disney's FANTASIA hadn't been the financial succeess he had hoped for. That didn't mean he gave up on the form. With his studio in shambles after the Second World War and a crippling strike, he filled in the demand for animated features with compilation efforts like SALUDOS AMIGOS and MAKE MINE MUSIC. He also decided to go down market a bit in any further musical compilations: no more Stravinsky; Martin was classy enough.

I believe Disney was influenced by the competition in this. In particular the other Walt, Lantz, who said he's where people went when they could no longer work with Disney. He had had great succeed with his "Swing Symphony" series like ABOU BEN BOOGIE and THE GREATEST MAN IN SIAM. Every Walt took note.

A Walt Disney Cartoon.

A hapless bee becomes a BUMBLE BOOGIE when it's caught in a bizarre world of Daliesque proportions.

Wild & wonderful, this little extract from MELODY TIME (1948) allowed the Disney animators free rein to go wherever their imaginations carried them. Very fast moving. The music is a swing version of "The Flight of the Bumblebee" by Nicolai Rimski-Korsakov.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

This cartoon was originally part of Melody Time, an animated anthology of musical cartoons made by Disney. It's a slight little number. It does have some very nice animation. It's my least favorite of all the cartoons from Melody Time, to be honest. It's cute, though. I do like it. It's basically a little animated music video with a bee being attacked by musical notes and stuff, all to the tune of a boogie-woogie version of "Flight of the Bumblebee." It's only a few minutes out of your life so really what's the harm in trying it out? If possible, I'd recommend watching it in Melody Time as you get to see many other musical cartoons as well.

When I heard this featured "Flight of the Bumble Bee" by Nicolai Rimsky Korsakov but jazzed up I was intrigued. This sort of thing either works or it doesn't you see. Watching it for myself I was impressed, while a little too short and rushed it is very entertaining. The bumble bee is cute and endearing, the animation was very well done very colourful and bright and the jazz arrangement of the piece in question was actually quite clever.(I am not sure what Rimsky Korsakov would think of it though, he was always very particular when it came to orchestration).

Overall, despite its scant running time, this is quite impressive, better than I thought it would be. One of my personal favourites of the segments featured on "Melody Time" along with "Johnny Appleseed" and "Once Upon a Wintertime". 9/10 Bethany Cox