All the Cats Join In

All right, Goodman was Big Band and not jazz and except for a few small pieces within, his music was rigorously orchestrated. But the thought of improvisation flows through this movie, from the hot, hot score to the fact that the characters and backgrounding are drawn just instants before they go into action -- sometimes to humorous effect when a girl is drawn at first with heavy thighs and sometimes with a tremendous amount of sexuality -- yes, this is a cartoon -- when the teenager comes out of the shower just as the towel on the towel rack is being drawn.

It would all vanish within few years as the classically trained musicians who made jazz into Big Band got slammed by rising costs and then the rise of rock and roll. Enjoy the remnants here.

Featured memorably in "Make Mine Music" this is one cool and jazzy cartoon. The animation is clever and sophisticated, with nice backgrounds and excellent movements. The story is good, even if it is really an example of a combination cartoon, but it works effectively.

What makes this cartoon though is the wonderful soundtrack. I like this sort of jazz, there have been times when I have not liked it, but jazz like all the forms of music is like marmite you either love it or hate it. As I've said I loved it here, it sticks in your head even after a long while.

Overall, this is a cool, jazzy(and catty)cartoon. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Originally part of the movie Make Mine Music, this cartoon was released later on its own as a theatrical short. This was a sheer delight from start to finish. It's a creative, energetic cartoon with great Benny Goodman music. The gist of it is that we watch as a pencil draws some 1940s teens gathering together at a malt shop to dance to big band music. It's a very fun short that put a big smile on my face. Surprisingly, it's even got some sex appeal as the shapely teenage girl undresses in silhouette, showers, and towels off with her bare back to us. Pretty risqué stuff for a cartoon made in 1946. It's one of my favorite parts of Make Mine Music. See the entire movie if you can. If not, seek this particular short out and smile a few minutes of your life away.

A Walt Disney Cartoon.

When the Benny Goodman Orchestra swings out a tune, ALL THE CATS JOIN IN.

Originally, along with AFTER YOU'VE GONE, part of TWO FOR THE RECORD, which was Goodman's contribution to Disney's MAKE MINE MUSIC (1946), this fast moving five-minute cartoon charts the arrival of a jalopy full of bobbysoxers at the local malt shop for some real jumpin' & jivin'. The Goodman Orchestra never lets the pace sag and the Disney animators add just the right touch with their line drawings come to life.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & 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 comic 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 storm of naysayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

All the Cats Join In is a "cool" animated short with "hip" music! It shows how kids and/or cats used to interact back in the old days (being that this animated short was released in 1946). The music and the animation in "All the Cats Join In" will add a smile to any kids face. I therefore would highly recommend this "short" for kids and disney fans. You will see this cartoon on the Disney channel or by renting or purchasing Make Mine Music. So be a "cool cat" and watch "All the Cats Join In"!