Cinderella (1950)

Finally, a return to form. I’m so excited to get back to the classics. This week, we had the pleasure to watch Cinderella. And I feel that this is a turning point for Disney. Up until this point, most of Disney’s works are shorts. Considering the last near decade Disney, it seems that Disney had firmly planted their flag in the ground of shorts and anthology films. With Cinderella, it becomes clear that they will also completely dominate the medium of the animated feature for a long time to come.

Original Poster sourced via IMDB

Summary: In case you somehow don’t know of the story of Cinderella, the story starts with our titular heroine who is forced to be a scullery maid for her abusive stepmother and stepsisters. A local prince holds a ball to find a wife. Cinderella wants to go, but is forbidden by her stepmother unless she fulfills some ridiculous conditions (finish an ever growing pile of work and make her own outfit.) Despite the hardship, she pulls through, only for her to be attacked and forbidden from attending anyway. With the help of her fairy godmother, she is able to attend. After enamoring the prince, she realizes that her magic will run out and flees the ball, only leaving a glass slipper. The prince searches the land for the woman which fits the slipper and, despite her step family doing their best to stop it, she is found, marries the prince and lives happily ever after.

Like some of the previous films, I didn’t hold this movie in high regard before this last viewing, primarily due to the amount of time since the last time I saw it. Like those previous movies, I was pleasantly surprised. This is a fun, whimsical experience. This movie was also a big breath of fresh air considering the preceding onslaught of anthology films. Even though there were some gems in the shorts and even though there was nothing truly awful, it’s so nice to get back to a form that you would expect. Even still, it seems that the period of shorts was something Disney needed to go through, as I’ll discuss in a bit.

In a lot of ways, Cinderella feels like a spiritual successor to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It returns to the traditional fairy tale setting; it focuses on “disgraced” female protagonist; there’s a clear, strong antagonist who happens to be the heroine’s stepmother. It isn’t just the thematic connection between the two; the animation also returns to the “realistic” human look. Cinderella, unlike Snow White, is able to animate realistic people while not appearing washed out and inhuman. I believe it comes down to the detail and color in the faces; whereas Snow White was pretty fuzzy, Cinderella better defined facial features.

Sourced via IMDB

Cinderella is also interesting in the way it handles other humanoid characters. Everyone seems to be on a sliding scale between a realistic human and a cartoon person. One the far side of realistic, we get Cinderella and the Prince and on the other side, we get the cartoony Drizella and Anastasia, who’s appearance seems to be a callback to the cartoony humans of some of the better shorts from the “package films.” In particular, they call back to “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed,” “Pecos Bill,” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Through the use of this dichotomy of humanoid depictions, the animators are able to convey characteristics through more than just speech or action. Drizella and Anastasia’s awkward nature is conveyed through through their goofy, cartoony appearance, whereas Cinderella’s grace and beauty is conveyed through her realistic depiction. What’s masterful is how the two styles don’t clash, primarily due to the other human characters depicting subtle transitions between these two extremes.

From a thematic standpoint, Cinderella has a couple of interesting things going on. To cover some of the lighter things, we can start with what Cinderella borrows from Snow White. Like Snow White, Cinderella makes a connection between the moral main character and their connection with nature. While not as explicit as Snow White, who’s fake death summons bolts of lighting to smite her enemies, Cinderella does have the same amount of animal helpers. Her animal helpers, in particular the rats, play a much more prominent role in the film, forming a sort of B-Story where they have to constantly outsmart this film’s “proto-Chesire Cat,” Lucifer, in their many missions to assist Cinderella. I feel it’s a great addition to this adaptation, lightening up what is, admittedly, a pretty dark story. It also adds a lot of drama and tension to the final scene, which would otherwise be a slightly boring and quickly resolved misunderstanding, where Cinderella would just show up and prove she’s the girl. As it stands, we now have a fun action scene to show her animal friends working to free her from confinement. Cinderella’s connection with nature reaches it’s strongest when her fairy godmother shows up to get her to the ball. She turns all these elements of nature into a temporary entourage, seemingly just because she’s a good person who has had bad things happen to her and nature wants to settle the score.

Sourced via IMDB

There also seems to be a theme of virtue being tied to hard work. Obviously, Cinderella is our virtuous example and she works hard, but this is also shown by the juxtaposition of her to her stepsisters. They don’t do anything, they always call for their mother’s help when anything happens and, when they’re getting ready to go to the ball, they demand that they get new clothes because their old clothes and accessories won’t due. On the opposite side, Cinderella plans on making her own dress after working hard. And even though the animals do it for her, they use the same discarded clothing to turn her dress into something that is more beautiful than either of the stepsisters can pull off. Snow White explores this theme a little on it’s own, with her cleaning the dwarf house on her own just because she notices it hasn’t been cleaned, but it isn’t as central to the movie is it is for Cinderella. Which leads to our biggest thematic element.

Cinderella and Snow White are tied in many ways, but their biggest connection is the central message of each film, which is “What is the ideal woman?” The central characters of both of these films are examples of what is valued in a woman for a wife. And, by living into these examples, our characters are shown to be virtuous, good and desirable by royalty. What’s interesting about juxtaposing these two is that we can see what is valued in the 30’s, when Snow White was made, versus the 50’s, when Cinderella was made. For Snow White, her primary virtues are shown to be that she’s innocent, fair and has the ability to raise a family, as shown by her taking care of the dwarfs and making sure they live cleanly and that they’re taking care of. She does fulfill domestic duties, but that isn’t shown as a particular hardship. On the flip side, Cinderella is shown to exemplify the dualistic nature of a woman, the domestic and the noble. She works hard to take care of the house and fulfill her domestic duties. The story specifically points out that this work is hard. Whereas things get done for Snow White because she is virtuous, Cinderella is shown to be virtuous because she makes things get done; a subtle distinction. Besides being a hard worker, though, she is also shown to have a side that is, in some way, regal or noble. As soon as she is freed from her chores, she is immediately able to get herself ready for a ball. When she shows up, she is able to dance and enamor the Prince with no no effort or previous experience. If she were just the domestic without the noble, she would be some unknown scullery maid, cleaning some house. If she were just the noble without the domestic, she would be Anastasia or Drizella. By successfully being in both realms, she is the ideal woman.

While I knew that I would like this movie, just because it wasn’t another anthology film, I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. The animation was refreshing and shows a clear life of development from old Disney to the new age of Disney that comes after this movie. Thematically, the movie is interesting, exploring a woman’s role in society. The movie is able to provide tension, even for a story I already know. Overall, I feel that it was a good movie and well worth the watch. Join us next week for Alice in Wonderland.

-CJ

Sourced via IMDB

Cinderella wasn’t my favorite movie growing up, but I would watch it often enough when over at my grandmothers house growing up. It was a pretty regular occurrence that we’d watch a Disney movie then read the original story it was based on and discuss similarities and differences between the two. That being said, it’s been about eighteen or so years since I last laid eyes on this movie.

Overall, Cinderella feels like a better done Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We see a return of the humanized faces, but this time it’s incredibly limited. We only see the humanized faces on Cinderella and the Prince, and this works extremely well. We’re not overloaded by rotoscoping this time, and there’s a nice mash up of simplistic and detailed cartooned characters. One thing that I was really thrilled about is that, even though we had humanized faces again, there’s more detail in them. The faces have realistic proportions, the eyes are outlined and brightly colored and, there’s little lines in the nose to show if it’s being scrunched up. All together there’s a really nice feel to the quality of the animation, and unlike Snow White, there’s a good wall between the animation and the uncanny valley.

Sourced via IMDB

Lighting and shadowing have been brought back in a huge way here. I would assume this would mainly be due to Disney having a proper staff and budget for a film this time. This is one thing I’ve really missed from films like Bambi and Pinocchio, so I’m really glad that we’re seeing it again. Everything gets a bit of high light and low light treatment, and this causes the characters to fit in much better with their environments overall, something that’s been missed from almost all of the bundle films.

That being said the one thing that does bug me about Cinderella are the out-of-place styles. Styles seem to be all out of place in this film. Hair Styles and dresses feel like they’re out of the 1940’s, while the outlaying buildings and interiors look like old estate homes and castles out of the 1800’s. Disney manages to make everything fit in it’s own way, and it’s not to distracting if you aren’t actively looking for it. However, once it is noticed it can make for a strange feeling for the overall movie. It feels like these characters shouldn’t be in this time frame, and I wish they’d done some more work on fitting everything in one specific time.

Form and movement is fantastically done in film, and it’s really the first movie where I’ve felt like Disney hit the nail right on the head. Form and movement are the two main ingredients to creating the illusion of life. That’s not to say that prior Disney films haven’t used these factors well, but Cinderella is the first film to really make me step back and notice it in detail.

Sourced via IMDB

Let’s take Cinderella and The Prince for example. As stated earlier, Cinderella and the Prince are the only two with humanized faces. They are also the most graceful of the entire cast of characters we’re given. Their movement is the most human of all the characters, and I believe this is one of the main reasons it’s easy to relate to them. They look like us, they move like us, they even have little bits of additional body language in them, that other characters lack. Along with these traits, the voices are also closer to our own. Instead of the stepsisters whiny and nasally voices, Cinderella’s is smooth and soothing. The princes is soft, yet has an air of authority.

Stepping back from Cinderella and the Prince, let’s look at the supporting characters and the step-sisters, Drizella and Anastasia. Almost all of the background support characters have design hold overs from shorts such as “The Legend of Johnny Apple Seed” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” They’re faces and bodies are super exaggerated, as are their movements. They’re close to walking slapstick characters, but that works for this movie. If everyone had looked like Cinderella and The Prince then this film would be one gigantic muddled mess of rotoscoping, and it would just feel like watching an hour of uncanny valley footage. Having cartoonish characters in a world with more realistic ones makes for a much better overall viewing experience, and it injects the film with some great subtle comedy.

Sourced via IMDB

In a league of of her own comes the evil stepmother, Lady Tremain. I’d forgotten just how intimidating and how ruthless Lady Tremain is. Her design borders on realism, but the lines in her face, and bright green eyes keep her more centered cartoon wise. That being said, one of the reasons she’s so frighting is her form and posture. Every time we see her on screen, she cuts a tall imposing figure. She’s always stiff, her head is tilted back so she can look down at Cinderella and the viewer. Her voice is sharp, and matches her character in every way possible. But even with all of that behind her, she moves with mechanical grace. Everyone of her movements is sharp, clean cut, and precise, and it’s absolutely amazing just how much you can dislike her from just watching her movements. Her voice actress Eleanor Audley (who would go on to play and model for Malificent in Sleeping Beauty) was a perfect fit for this role and she adds another incredible layer into making us really hate and despise Lady Tremain.

Unlike prior films, Cinderella is one of the first films where we hit some memorable songs, such as “A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes,” and “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo!” The songs do feel a bit lacking for a feature length Disney film, but I really don’t mind that. The movie has a well done score to accompany it, and I feel that this is all the movie really needs.

Pacing is another field where Cinderella hits it’s mark. There’s some fluff with the animal side-kicks around the start of the film, but at least it’s enjoyable enough to watch. There’s plenty of time to develop a bond with Cinderella and to really develop a dislike for the rest of her family. We’re even given some time to bond with The King and The Grand Duke. The little bits of interaction really help flesh this movie out and make it more engaging to watch. Everything else is well placed and balanced as far as events in the movie go. The waltz at the ball doesn’t feel dragged out and the chase from the castle brings back some elements of the headless horseman chase from Sleepy Hollow. Personally, I feel that the end build up of this film is actually one of the better conclusions in any Disney film I’ve seen up to this point.

Sourced via IMDB

Lady Tremain finally realizes that Cinderella was the one dancing with the prince the night before, and does her best to sabotage any attempts for Cinderella to fit the glass slipper. There’s some great footage of Lady Tremain locking Cinderella away, we’re given a glimpse of Cinderella doing her hair in the mirror and from behind her we can see Lady Tremain come up the stairs behind her. We see her put a key in Cinderellas lock and as Cinderella realizes what’s happening she turns just in time to see the door close behind her. There’s something about that specific scene that catches my attention. Maybe it’s the look of shock and horror on Cinderellas face or maybe it’s just the way the scene is set and shot, but it really does stick with me.

The build up from here is great, the mice have to get the key from Lady Tremain and free Cinderella before The Grand Duke can leave with the glass slipper. Once the mice get the key, they’re faced with having to haul it up several flights of stairs, and once they make it, they’re then harassed by Lucifer the cat. Things look hopeless until Cinderellas dog Bruno comes to the rescue and even that takes it’s sweet time, which helps the tension all the more. Cinderella is finally freed and makes her way to try on the slipper, when she’s dealt one last blow by Lady Tremain who trips the man holding the slipper causing it to break. There’s a short moment of hopelessness until Cinderella pulls out the second slipper from behind her back.

Sourced via IMDB

From here we’re graced with a look of horror from Lady Tremain to see that all of her plotting and scheming was for nothing. While the shot only lasts for a few seconds it’s enough to really get in a sense of triumph, and to say “NOT TODAY YOU OLD HAG!” It really just makes you want to cheer at the end of the film and it’s a great closing segment.

Overall, this movie is superb. It’s a huge leap from the bundled films we’ve been subjected to, and it’s nice to see some classic Disney I know. I really find it hard to find anything wrong with this film. It does skim the uncanny valley for a few seconds on some close ups of Cinderella and The Prince, but other than that, everything is very solid. I really think Disney hit it out of the ballpark with this film, and I’m looking forward to diving into the rest of the golden age Disney films from here. Next week, we’ll be looking at one of CJ’s favorite films Alice in Wonderland. See you then.

-AJ

Sourced via IMDB

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)

This movie was just a pleasure to watch. Today’s feature is The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. While technically the last of the “package” films, the change in quality and tone is really apparent. This was a fun movie and this feels, in general, like a return to the Disney I used to know. With this entry, it actually feels like we’ve passed a dark time. From here on out, we’ll basically be hitting what people consider “Disney classics” for, at least, a long time.

Original Poster Sourced via IMDB

Summary: Like Fun and Fancy Free, this is a collection of two longer shorts. The first of which is The Wind in the Willows, which is based on the novel of the same name. It covers some of the story of the book, following Mr. Toad getting into trouble with a car that he traded his estate for, getting arrested, escaping prison, clearing his name and getting his estate back. The other half of this movie is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, which is based off of the short story of the same name. While a bit more lighthearted than the original story, it actually covers the content of the story pretty well. For those that don’t know, the story follows Ichabod Crane, the new schoolmaster of Sleepy Hollow. He soon falls in love with a Katrina van Tassel, but has to compete against Brom Bones for her affection. At first, Ichabod seems to be doing really well. During a party that they both attend, Brom tells the legend of the Headless Horseman, who chases people through the wood. Later, as Ichabod is going home, he is chased by the headless horseman, which scares him enough to leave town. With that, Brom becomes the victor for Katrina’s attention and marries her.

The Wind in the Willows:

To start off, this is a great short. The art and color has this muted tone, which fits with the rural, English setting. The actual animation has a feeling similar to Robin Hood, but cleaner. There are also some hints toward the styling of The Great Mouse Detective, particularly the design of Mr. Toad’s friend, Ratty. It seems that they took Ratty’s design, removed his mustache and cleaned him up a little bit to make Basil from The Great Mouse Detective. Then, the mustache seemed to make it’s way to Dr. Dawson from that same movie. Fun Fact: This short is narrated by Basil Rathbone, who was famous for playing Sherlock Holmes and, as such, is the namesake for Basil of Baker Street.

Back to “The Wind in the Willows,” the whole short makes me incredibly sad, because of the “behind-the-scenes” drama that went on with it. Much like Alice in Wonderland, Disney had been planning to make a feature length film based on The Wind in the Willows since the time of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The project had a rocky production, going through long periods of pauses in the production. After World War II, the production resumed, but Walt Disney ordered that it be shortened down to 25 minutes. Based on the short we did get, I’d have really like a full length feature of “The Wind in the Willows.”

I had a great time watching this short. Mr. Toad is such a cheeky cad. It’s just fun to watch such a lovable scamp. The scene where Mr. Toad escapes from prison and the scene where the gang steals Toad Hollow’s deed back are really great cartoon action scenes. The short also has some great comedy scenes, such as the court scene. My only concern with this short is that the combination of the stronger accents and the middling quality audio recording, makes it a bit difficult to follow some of the conversations that happen. Eventually, though, you get used to it. Overall, just a great short, definitely worth the watch, either on its own or with the next short.

From cheers...

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:

This next short is narrated by Bing Crosby and, as you’d expect, it’s a lot more musical. The songs are pretty good, especially the Legend of the Headless Horseman song that Brom sings at the party. Whereas the animation in “The Wind in the Willows” feels like animation from a feature film, the animation in this short is much more reminiscent of the shorts we’ve watched prior, particularly “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed” and “Pecos Bill.” I find it fitting, as this is another distinctly American story. At the party scene, the animation noticeably improves and things start to look more similar to what we’ll see in Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland.

This is probably to showcase what is the most memorable scene of this entire movie, the chase scene. Seriously, this chase scene is just a great bit of animation. The design of the horseman is actually pretty terrifying, though the scene stays lighthearted with some slapstick. This scene was also a huge influence in one of my favorite animated shorts, “Chicken Man and Red Neck” from Robot Carnival, which is basically a technological combination of this scene and “Night on Bald Mountain.” One day, we might do that movie. My only problem with the scene is that I wanted much more of it.

My only concern from this short is the thematic dissonance that is present within. When the short starts, our narrator talks about Ichabod Crane as if he’s some sort of folk hero. But throughout the short, we’re shown that he’s anything but. He’s a weirdo, with strange, lanky proportions. He is a bit of a glutton, stealing and eating any food around him. Though we are shown that he does love Katrina, the story explicitly shows that he’s interested in her fortune, hardly a noble endeavor. As we aren’t shown Brom’s perspective, we are only left to assume that his feels light be genuine. The worst problem he has, however, is that he is a coward. Craven. Now, don’t get me wrong here. Being chased by a headless ghost on a horse who wants your head is enough to terrify any person. But, by leaving town, never to be heard from again, he shows that he wasn’t worthy of the favor of Katrina. While Brom is not a good guy either, being a bit of a psychopath in his plan to get rid of Ichabod, he is shown as successful. And besides the mental trauma he gives Ichabod, he seems to be a pretty decent guy. I guess we’re just supposed to dislike him from the beginning, because he’s handsome and successful, but that’s a theme we’ll get back to in much more detail for Beauty and the Beast.

Overall, this movie is great and a definite return to form. Both shorts are good enough that they could’ve been full features in their own right. This was just a really fun watch and I would recommend anyone who hasn’t seen it to go out of their way to watch The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Next week, we return to something very memorable with Cinderella.

-CJ

ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNOTOAD!

This week we finished off our last of the bundled films with The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. I went into this film mostly blind to it. As a kid I caught bits and pieces of this movie, but I’d never seen the whole thing through, so I was excited to look into this. I was a bit apprehensive about how this would play out, I didn’t think it was wise placing English and American stories side by side, but after viewing this, I think it works out really well, both story-wise and animation-wise.

The Wind in the Willows

Mr. Toad’s animation is really spot on, and is a really great opener for this film. The cuts we get from this are actually from a scrapped Wind in the Willows film that Disney had planned before the war, and their workers strike all but killed it. The quality of this piece reminds me of a cleaned and more detailed Dumbo. Similar to Dumbo, all the animals have a cartoony style, but there’s better definition, and better facial expressions going on here. There’s also fantastic work on how the lip syncing on the characters lines up with the heavy accents that are used.

There’s also a great deal of improvement here where characters fit into the backgrounds. Usually when cells are painted and put over the backgrounds, there’s a very bright and noticeable color change. Here, shadows and highlights play a more role, and the whole thing brings an extra sense of life to the entire feature.

Along with the grade A animation, the rest of this feature is fantastic. Basil Rathbone does a fantastic job of narrating the story. The plot is engaging, and it moves along at just the right pace. The characters are fun and empathetic. In the end, I just wish this could’ve been it’s own feature length film. It’s still nice to see what survived and, after viewing this portion, I wish there was more to it.

The only thing that does feel off about this is that there’s parts where it feels like a song is incoming, but nothing happens. Characters will start recalling events and we’ll get some background music that feels like it’s leading somewhere, only to keep going until there’s a break. It leaves the viewer a bit wanting and I could imagine that this may have had music in it at some time, but that it was scrapped.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

It’s pretty easy to see here where the animation takes a hard turn from the movie quality we saw in Mr. Toad, to something out of Melody Time. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” does have the stylistic art of “Johnny Appleseed” from Melody Time, but the animation is really cleaned up and, unlike “Johnny Appleseed,” the art style all matches up. The animation feels fairly sub-standard for the first half of the feature and takes a turn for the better half way through. Specifically, with the chase between Ichabod and The Headless Horseman.

... to beers!

The first half of the film is pretty one-note as far as animation and story goes. It does enough to keep you interested and there’s some parts where Ichabod's superstitious nature is foreshadowed. Ichabod and Brom Bone’s feud is the main center of the story and it plays out well enough. It feels like there could’ve been a bit more here, but it’s something I could either take or leave. When the feud for Katrina reaches a head, we get Bones telling Ichabod about The Headless Horseman in the form of a very catchy song. Afterwards, we view Ichabod riding home on possibly the laziest horse in all existence when things take a turn for the worst.

This is where I really found myself liking this film. We’re back to the haunted woods that Disney does so well and I’d say this puts up a decent fight to the woods from Snow White. All the little details here, from the broken reeds howling out Ichabod's name to the highlights on the trees that turn them into ghosts, everything about this scene is fantastic. Imagination runs wild through these few minutes of animation and it’s perfect. Something I really took notice of after the film and another nice touch is how well Ichabod and his horse go together. They’re both overly lanky in appearance, have enormous noses, and very expressive eyes. Their movements are over exaggerated and their walk and run cycles are very cartoonish. Meanwhile, those with standard appearances all have very realistic and detailed movements.

After our few moments in the woods with Ichabod and the horse, we’re met with The Headless Horseman. This character's movement and how he carries himself provides part of the horror here. The other part is the color usage we’re suddenly subjected to. The Headless Horseman is clad in these bright blood reds, purples, and oranges, while Ichabod is cast in blues, and yellow greens that paint him as a coward. The two run through the woods, and we’re again met with all sorts of contrasting colors. There’s a good amount of detail in the backgrounds and the highlights and shadows in this lend a great amount of contrast. This chase scene is easily one of my favorite Disney moments. Its got horror and comedy, and it keeps a good pace through the entirety of the film. The only thing I have to say is that I wish it was longer.

I genuinely have no complaints regarding this part of the film. I can see it being a bit boring for kids, but I also feel that there’s enough slapstick humor to keep things going. This feature fixed all of the artistic issues that “Johnny Appleseed” had and it really managed to improve on things. It even has a sense of film quality at the end and I wonder if that wasn’t an intentional decision made by Disney.

Overall, this was my favorite of all the bundle films. There’s not much to complain about, and even the small complaints that I do have can largely be ignored. I wasn’t sure how I initially felt about there being both an English and American story side by side, but in the end I think it worked out very well. Both Basil Rathbone, and Bing Crosby’s narrations add extra life to these films,and I’m quite happy that Disney made that choice. I would easily place this along side Dumbo, or maybe slightly ahead of it as far as our list of films go. This does it for the bundle films, and I’m glad to say it ended on a good note, instead of a multicolored nightmare filled with Donald Duck and human faces. Next week, we get back into feature length films with Cinderella.

-AJ

Time to get spooky

Melody Time (1948)

This week, we’ve got yet another “package film,” Melody Time. In a way, Melody Time is a bit of a sister film to Make Mine Music. At least, in my eyes. Yet again, we have a film that tries to be a new Fantasia with more modern/pop type music. While there are some legitimately great shorts here, I felt that this movie just isn’t as good as Make Mine Music. That isn’t to say that it is bad, just that it didn’t succeed in as many places as Make Mine Music.

Original Poster Sourced via IMDB

Summary: As with Make Mine Music, there’s no frame story here. It’s just a collection of shorts set with music. Like previous anthology films, I’ll review each section independently.

Once Upon a Wintertime:

In general, this was on okay short. The basic story is just a love story set in wintertime, we the date of a boy and a girl is also reflected between two rabbits. At first, the lady rebuffs the advances of the boy, but then she is endangered. With a little help from the carriage horses, the boy and his rabbit counterpart save their respective dates. Its a cute little short, but the energy is a little low. I wouldn’t have picked this as an opener. I would also say that the animation is a bit strange, as it is a bit incongruent. Certain parts of the animation, particularly in the main characters, don’t match with the backgrounds. It isn’t so distracting that it ruins the short, but it can be a little off putting. Overall, just a decent little piece.

Bumble Boogie:

This ended up being the “All the Cats Join In” of this film, for me. I didn’t know what to expect when it started, but the jazzy music and interesting animation drew me in and kept me interested. This is basically just an animation of a bee buzzing around over a jazzy version of “Flight of the Bumblebee.” Simple, engaging and fun, this ended up being one of my favorite shorts of the film.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed:

This is a musical rendition of the famous American Folklore tale. I’m not really sure how I felt about this. Like “Once Upon a Wintertime,” the animation is a little janky, with the characters quality at odds with background quality. I also don’t think this was a particularly compelling rendition of this story. John Chapman was a real person and the folklore version of Johnny Appleseed is good material to craft a fun story around, but I feel this short just dilly-dallys. I don’t know. I just wasn’t interested.

Little Toot:

I’m glad we get to hear the vocal stylings of the Andrews sisters again. They did the music for the “Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet” bit in Make Mine Music. This is the story of little tugboat, the eponymous Little Toot, who likes to mess around in the harbor, instead of tugging boats. He causes a big ocean liner to crash into the city, so he is banished from the city. In his banishment, he saves another ocean liner from a really bad situation and is welcomed into the harbor again. In a way, this story reminds me of “Pedro” from Saludos Amigos. The animation is good, giving me glimpses of what Disney will be able to do in the future in either Peter Pan or Alice in Wonderland. Overall, it’s a pretty good short. Not great, but definitely worth the watch.

Trees:

The sort of spiritual successor to “Without You” or “Two Silhouettes” from Make Mine Music. As such, it’s hard to say much about it. Just pretty visuals of abstracted trees set to some music. Unfortunately, the last of anything happening in this short makes it a bit forgettable.

Blame It on the Samba:

While I am glad to see Donald Duck and José Carioca again, I really didn’t want to be reminded of The Three Caballeros. This just feels like another trippy part of that movie that didn’t make the cut then. With this showing back up, I really wonder if that movie was just particularly well received and successful. I don’t see it, honestly. As for this short, it's just a remind of what might end up being my least favorite Disney movie.

Pecos Bill:

Like the Johnny Appleseed bit before, this is a musical rendition of the popular American Folklore character. Unlike the previous short, however, this one is fun. A lot of fun. Whereas the Johnny Appleseed short took itself a little too seriously, “Pecos Bill” tells the story of the rootinest-tootinest cowboy in all of Texas and his exploits which shaped the very land itself. What is a little concerning is that the version we have, and the version currently commercially available, apparently censors a lot of this short due to Pecos Bill smoking. Because of this, the part about Pecos Bills most well known exploit, lassoing a tornado, has been cut out. It's just a shame, really. It also ends on a bit of a downer. Considering this is the last part of the movie, it means the whole movie ends on a bit of a downer. Take that for what you will. All in all, a really good short; well worth the watch.

As for the whole movie, I felt it was good, but not as good as Make Mine Music. Some of the shorts are really good, and some of them are really bad. There’s a lot of good ideas for what could potentially be a good, well-themed movie, but they aren’t developed enough. For example, if you made a whole movie of shorts of American Folklore characters, that’d really be something. Or, at least, if you took all the good shorts from this and Make Mine Music, you’d have a really good movie. Unfortunately, what we have is two halves of this good movie with some filler in between.

And with that, we’ve only got one more “package” film to go, but I think we’re through the woods here. I’m looking forward to writing next week about The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

-CJ

We’re finally at the second to last packaged film. Going into Melody Time, I had hopes that it would take some of the aspects from Fun and Fancy Free and Make Mine Music to make a film of shorts that belonged together. However that doesn’t seem to be the case. After reviewing Melody Time, I’d say this movie just falls apart before it really takes it’s first step. I will say, it’s not a bad film, but it just doesn’t come together very well. Lets take a dive into this.

Once Upon a Wintertime

I want to know why Disney chose this piece to open up on. It’s not particularly great on it’s own, and it feels strange to open up on a winter theme. I may have understood if this film opened in Nov, Dec, or Jan, but this released in May. It feels like it would’ve fit in later on, but it just feels strange and out of place here, and the animation doesn’t help in any way. Both the humans and animals lack any of the classic Disney feeling. They’re overly simplified, and the stylistic choice really harms this film in areas. There are areas where noses, or other small details are gone completely, and it’s pretty noticeable. The story is standard for a Disney short. Two sweethearts are out skating, and the ice breaks underneath them. The guy saves the gal, and everyone is happy. This opening sequence just left me disappointed, and I really wasn’t looking forward to the rest of the film, but it mostly turned around from here.

Bumble Boogie

This is what I may have expected Disney to open up on. “Bumble Boogie” is a jazzed up rendition of Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumble Bee.” While there’s not really a plot here, the level of imagination is cranked up here. We get a bee running through a hectic mishmash of musical notes, score pieces, and musical insects. One of my favorite parts of this short was actually a large caterpillar, or centipede made of piano keys. The way it moves, and acts really gives it a feeling of life, and you can see the danger that it poses to the bee. While this is a shorter clip, it’s probably one of my favorites.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed

This is one of the few shorts I’ve seen from this movie on it’s own. We’re back to some of the low cut animation here, though the quality seems better than “Once Upon a Wintertime.” That being said, the animation feels all over the place here. Back grounds are very simplistic, some animals are detailed, while others turn into strange blobs. Johnny is really the most detailed character throughout the entire clip. While I don’t really like the animation, I do appreciate that they chose to include this section. The story is good, and the music works very well with this.

Little Toot

Now we’re back to full on traditional Disney short animation. We’re presented with a bit of a “Little Engine that Could” type story, sung by the Andrew Sisters. We’re presented with a young tug boat that keeps getting into trouble. Eventually he gets kicked out of his harbor, and redeems himself by helping another boat get to safety. I cant say much about this style wise. The animation is standard affair, and nothing really sticks out, other than we go from a happy cartoon, to boat hell. When Toot is cast out we get rough stormy waters, and buoys that boo him. With the exception of the next clip, I’d say this is one of the forgettable pieces of this movie.

Trees

Trees is a very forgettable short. It takes the 1913 poem “Tree” by Joyce Kilmer, and puts it to music over a setting of changing trees through the seasons. It comes off feeling like cut stock from Bambi, and just feels boring all around. Looking into this short, there were some changes being made to the cells in the animation directly. Pastels were being used on the cells, then laminated in clear lacquers to protect them before being photographed. This does lend a very unique feeling of the animation when you look deeply enough at the artwork. However, when it moves so quickly, and the main focus is being pulled away by the swirling leaves, you happen to miss much of the background work.

Blame It on the Samba.

I thought we were done with this kind of stuff when we finished The Three Caballeros, but apparently not… “Blame It on the Samba” looks like it was directly cut from The Three Caballeros. All the way down to the awful live action that plagued that movie. Again, we’re met with classic Disney animation, however everything here seems incredibly washed out. I could see this just being age, and the fact that cells may have degraded, but it’s pretty off putting. “Blame It on the Samba” faces many of the same issues that plagued The Three Caballeros, it’s just a mess of bright colors dispersed with some samba music. I will say, I do actually dig this song; it’s catchy and it’s been rattling in my head for the last few days. I don’t really mind this short on it’s own, but it feels strange that they’d just throw it in here. The music doesn’t really seem to flow with the other tunes we’re given, and it ends up feeling pretty out of place.

Pecos Bill

Our last short Pecos Bill, was probably my most favorite. Some parts of this short have been cut (Disney's attempt to censor smoking), and I really wish everything had been left in. That being said, this short has it all. Good animation, fantastic story, and a really catchy song. It goes over Pecos Bill and how he changed Texas by digging the Rio Grand, and lassoing storm clouds form California to stop droughts. After seeing this and Johnny Appleseed, I really wished that they’d just made a movie of American Folklore, especially since “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was either finished or in the works for release the next year.

My overall thoughts on this is that is has decent ideas, but none are overly well executed with the exceptions of “Pecos Bill”, and “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed.” Art styles are all over the place here, and the music doesn’t particularly fit together. I really wish they’d just kept this as a folklore piece, or had made some type of effort to make this fit together. I’d even take some kind of over-arcing narration, or some kind overlaying story that would explain why these shorts are being shown. However, the lack of any kind of attempt to fit these shorts, prevent me from really appreciating this film. I’d tie this with Saludos Amigos for one of my least favorite Disney films.

-AJ