Mike Mine Music (1946)

Today we finish up the last of the package films, starting with Make Mine Music.

A Note on the Package Films:

Before we jump in, let's look at a few common threads in the package films.  First, they can be categorized in pairs.  Two of them, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros, are a direct result of the US Government's desire to reach out to the nations of Latin America and are sort of presented as edutainment.  Two of them, Fun and Fancy Free and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, are pairs of fairly lengthy shorts that were originally considered individually for full-length productions that were shortened and paired off.  And two of them, Make Mine Music and Melody Time, are just a serious of various shorts featuring music, a la Fantasia, but less high art and more (for the time) modern music.

Also, to varying degrees, all six are considered to have a mix of animation and live-action, though not all equally.  Saludos Amigos is about half straight-up live-action.  The Three Caballeros has several significant scenes of one inserted into the other.  Mike Mine Music is almost entirely animated except for a the two silhouettes in the segment of that name.  Fun and Fancy Free uses live-action as the framing device for the second segment.  Melody Time inserts live-action performers into the beginning and end of the final segment.  And The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad has live-action shots of the library books, but that's about it.

Finally, many people have seen the various segments of all the package films, but possibly not in their original presentation.  Pretty much all the segments from these movies were split up and aired on Disney's television show and used in other anthologies.

The Movie:

Make Mine Music is the 8th movie in the Disney Animated Canon and the 3rd of the Package Film Era.  During WWII, many Disney artist were either working on wartime propaganda or were drafted in the war, so this film was produced to give the remaining artists work and help keep the studio afloat.

Like Fantasia, Make Mine Music is a collection of various segments related to music.  However, the music in Make Mine Music is largely more contemporary.  Also, unlike Fantasia, there is no narrated introduction to the segments.  Each one is only introduced with a title card.  Following the opening titles (with the title song), there are ten segments:

1. The Martins and the Coys - This segment depicts a feud between two families that wipe each other out, with the only survivors being a woman from one and the man from another.  The King's Men sing the title song.  This segment is cut from US video releases due to "comic gunplay."

2. Blue Bayou - Using the animation from a cut Fantasia segment (that originally used Debussy's Clair de Lune), this segment shows two egrets at night in the Everglades.  The new music is the title song sung by the Ken Darby Singers.

3. All Cats Join In - A pencil draws scenes of teenagers caught up the music of the day.  The song is performed by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra.  This segment also notably was given a minor edit in current release to eliminate a couple brief moments of side boob.

4. Without You - Andy Russell sings a love song with abstract visuals.

5. Casey at the Bat - Ernest Thayer's poem is recited by Jerry Colonna with a few alterations and added music.  It's the famous story of the title baseball player's shot at game-winning glory.

6. Two Silhouettes - Live-action ballet dancers David Lichine and Tania Riabouchinskaya are rotoscoped and rendered as silhouettes against an animated background while Dinah Shore sings.

7. Peter and the Wolf - Sterling Holloway narrates a modified version of Sergei Prokofiev's work about a boy and his animal friends that go hunting for a wolf.

8. After You've Gone - Another segment featuring Benny Goodman and his Orchestra, this time with anthropomorphized instruments.

9. Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet - The Andrews Sisters sing the tale of two department store hats that fall in love and attempt to reunite after each is sold to different people.

10. The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met - Exactly what it says on the tin.  Nelson Eddy narrates and sings all parts in this story about Willie, a whale who can sing tenor, baritone, and bass - simultaneously.  It features short snippets of arias from different operas. 

Again, it's hard to judge the package films as movies, as there is no narrative, and even though this film is compared to Fantasia, it's not intended to function at the same level.  The three most memorable segments, both for me and for the general public, are Casey at the Bat, Peter and the Wolf, and The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met.  (Notably, these are also the three longest.)  Being a clarinetist myself, I'm also partial to the two Benny Goodman segments, in particular All Cats Join In.  I wouldn't call any of the segments bad, but several of the shorter ones, despite some great visuals, aren't quite as memorable.  Blue Bayou might be the weakest segment, but it really does fit the Debussy music they originally intended better.

Before we move on, since it will be a recurring theme today, let's address the censorship elements.  While I'm not going to argue you should never censor something (even though it will lead you down a slippery slope), I do want to mention Disney's inconsistency in it.  For the most part, Disney's censorship in these older films comes down to four areas - racism, nudity, guns, and smoking.  I think we all agree that the first can be problematic in many ways while the others can be viewed as problematic in movies that will be widely viewed by younger audiences.  However, let's look at how each has been approached.

As to racism, one of the earliest examples of censorship was in Fantasia, when as early as the 1960s Disney reframed scenes in The Pastoral Symphony segment to remove Sunflower, an obvious racist caricature.  And of course, as we've already mentioned, they haven't released Song of the South on video since the 1980s.  However, nothing is done with prominent examples of racism against Native Americans, including the Pecos Bill segment in Melody Time and Peter Pan.

As mentioned above, Make Mine Music has a couple of brief examples of side boob erased.  However, go back to the Fantasia segment of The Pastoral Symphony, and you get a more prominent front shot of a topless centaurette (albeit with no nipples).  And Night on Bald Mountain has naked harpies, nipples and all.

Make Mine Music excised an entire segment for guns, and that segment even showed that as a result almost everyone died.  Yet for just two examples in the Package Era alone, both Panchito Pistoles in The Three Caballeros and Pecos Bill in Melody Time wildly shoot guns with reckless abandon and no consequence.

Smoking, however, was deemed unacceptable for Pecos Bill, leading to the loss of the entire sequence of him riding the tornado, possibly the most famous part of the original legend.  Gaucho Goofy also loses his cigarette in Saludos Amigos, while smoking is still prominent in movies like Pinocchio and One Hundred and One Dalmatians.  Now you could argue that it's ok in those movies because it's the villains (or a moral lesson for the hero), but in the later film Roger prominently uses a pipe.

Now, once again, don't think I'm advocating for the additional censorship of these other elements.  I just am curious about the logical inconsistencies on what's ok and what isn't.  End sidebar.

Presence in the Parks:

This movie does get a couple of subtle nods at the parks.  Willie the Whale is featured on one of the posters in the queue of Mickey's Philharmagic, while the Magic Kingdom's Main Street USA has the restaurant Casey's Corner, featuring hot dogs and frozen lemonade.  The patio area is also a great place to watch parades and the nighttime castle shows.

Main Street Electric Parade as viewed from the entrance of Casey's Corner

Magic Kingdom, May 2015