In 1940, Walt Disney Productions released Fantasia, originally known as The Concert Feature. The idea behind Fantasia was to create an animated concert experience where animation would mix with classical and orchestral pieces to provide a unique entertainment experience, especially with the advent of surround sound in theaters (which Disney financed with participating theaters).
The ultimate goal, which went unfulfilled for many years, was for Fantasia to be a living experience, changing at every re-release. With every new release in theaters some new animated segments would be tied with old pieces or replace them to create a new and vibrant animated concert. Unfortunately, World War 2 and the audiences lukewarm reception to Fantasia left this idea of "the living animated concert" on the cutting-room floor (though in 2000 Disney would release a sequel film Fantasia 2000).
If Fantasia's living concert idea failed, the idea of an anthology film combining animation and music was far more prevalent, particularly with 1946's Make Mine Music (which provided content at a time when most of Disney's writers and animators were focused on the war effort) and the focus of today's review Melody Time, released in 1948.
But where Fantasia focused on combining classical music with animation, Melody Time is decidedly more "contemporary" (at least for the late 1940s). Does this modernity provide a unique feel or date the film?
Let's find out.
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- Produced by Walt Disney Productions
- Directed by Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson, Hamilton Luske, and Jack Kinney
- Running Time: 75 Minutes
- MPAA Rating: G
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SUMMARY
An anthology animated musical in the style of Fantasia but with a focus on contemporary musical pieces and musical shorts. Melody Time is comprised of seven vignettes; Once Upon a Wintertime, Bumble Boogie, The Legend of Johnny Appleseed, Little Toot, Trees, Blame It On the Samba, and Pecos Bill.
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REVIEW
Due to the anthological nature of Melody Time, I feel the best way to approach this review will be to dedicate a specific segment to each vignette individually. These introductory paragraphs will focus largely on the opening sequence which more or less introduces us to the concept behind Melody Time, as the film doesn't really possess any sort of connective element to it like 1947's Fun and Fancy Free's Jiminy Cricket sequences or Fantasia musical introductions performed by Deems Taylor.
The title sequence introduces us to a singing theater mask voiced by Buddy Clark, the legendary Big Band Crooner, he introduces us to Melody Time as a concept alongside his backup singers as they introduce the first segment Once Upon a Wintertime. After each segment, Buddy will then narrate a short little rhyming cadence as he introduces the next vignette in the sequence before turning things over to the performing artists.
These segments are nice and do their job but they have little to no presence outside of the vignettes. I nearly forgot they were even in the movie. But they ultimately serve their purpose in getting us smoothly from one vignette to the next.
Once Upon a Wintertime
Sung by the late Frances Langford, known as the GI Nightingale to many World War 2 veterans, Once Upon a Wintertime tells the story of a winter date between two young lovers, Joe and Jenny, in the late 1800s. Deciding to go ice-skating, the two have fun with various animal friends before an embarrassing accident causes Jenny to run off in anger. When she accidentally wanders onto thin ice (that gets broken by one of the funny animal companions), its up to Joe and the rest of the animals to save Jenny and reconcile the two lovers.
Langford's voice gives this segment a very timeless feel. It's sweet and a perfect holiday-themed short. I could easily see you watching this segment on its own during the Christmas season, especially as the music definitely has something of a carol-like feel, particularly during the beginning and ending segments. I also think that the animation, while simple, is wonderful with regards to the character animation. I may or not have had something of a childhood crush on Jenny when I was younger. Also the two rabbit characters are just a treat and their actions directly lead to most of the conflict within the short. Though Joe's showboating also may have had something to do with that as well. If I have any complaint, its ironically that I feel it could've been a little longer, but unfortunately the song Once Upon a Wintertime is only about seven and a half minutes long, so preserving the concept of the entire movie is more important than my desire for a little more story.
Ultimately, its a charming, if short, vignette that I think is the perfect introduction as to what Melody Time is supposed to be. A series of musically-focused animated shorts utilizing more contemporary music as opposed to classical works. Though the next entry in the series seems to shake that up just a tad.
Bumble Boogie
One of the shorter vignettes but also one of my favorites, Bumble Boogie is the segment that most feels like it was something left on the cutting room floor when Disney was making Fantasia. Set to a swing variation of Rimsky-Korsakov's famous Flight of the Bumblebee performed by Freddy Martina and his Orchestra (with Jack Fina on piano), the cartoon follows a simple bee as it tries to survive a surrealist battle with a bundle of flowers which transform into the various instruments of the band.
The concept is simple, the animation feels like something of a precursor to the surreal whimsy of Alice in Wonderland and the music is fast-paced and energetic as only Flight of the Bumblebee can be. Martin's band and Fina do an amazing job and I think that this segment may have been one of the inspirations for my own love of music. It's short but its effective and I absolutely could've seen this get released as a segment of a Fantasia sequel, if Disney ever had the courage to try another one.
The Legend of Johnny Appleseed
Probably the most famous segment of Melody Time, The Legend of Johnny Appleseed is also (alongside Pecos Bill) the absolute strangest entry on this list, being very much unlike everything else on the list. For you see, The Legend of Johnny Appleseed, while definitely a musical, is not solely music-oriented like the Fantasia segments. In essence, its just a normal Disney cartoon, albeit a very high-quality and almost legendary one.
The cartoon, as one can tell from the title, tells a dramatized rendition of the life and adventures of John Chapman, an real life American pioneer who traveled throughout the American midwest during the early 1800s planting apple groves to help prepare the land for settlers and spreading his faith to the new pioneers just following the American Revolution. Johnny Appleseed is probably the most famous American mythic character (alongside Paul Bunyan, and John Henry) and for very good reason. As the cartoon states, Johnny Appleseed traveled the American frontier (of his age, meaning Ohio and Indiana) for nearly 40 years with no weapons and simply relying on the goodwill of his fellow man.
It makes for an inspiring story, and the cartoon portrays it well, though the heavy dialogue elements do leave this feeling very much removed from the "Music forward" nature of the initial concept. Don't get me wrong, Dennis Day basically plays the role of every major character, leaving it very much like someone is reading you the story of Johnny Appleseed as opposed to us simply watching the story. Its refreshing and innocently charming in a way only a children's fairy tale can be, so Disney got the tone very well. And the music is very religious-forward, which I think works very well as John Chapman was a famous missionary in his time, so the focus on faith is incredibly essential to get write without coming off as preachy. Which the short definitely balances well, as it seems far more focused on preaching the virtues of apples to Christianity. The apple song is amazing and the various foodstuffs shown I recall making me quite hungry as a child (even if, historically, John Chapman's apples were largely used to make alcoholic cider).
I ultimately think this cartoon works far better as its own standalone segment or as part of a compendium of other American folk heroes, like in the 2001 anthology film Disney's American Legends (which I also adored as a child) then as a segment in a music-oriented anthology. As it is, while the short is good, the musical segments are fine and well interspersed but certainly not the focus, leaving the story feeling like a strange tonal shift from the animated segments before and after it. Especially given that, at 17 minutes in length, its the second longest segment in the entire film.
Little Toot
Performed by the Andrews Sisters, Little Toot is a musical adaptation of the 1939 children's book of the same name. Little Toot is the story a little tugboat by the same name who lives in New York City. Desperate to prove himself as capable as his father, Big Toot, Little Toot tries to help but ends up getting in trouble and banished from the harbor. However, when a cruise ship finds itself lost at sea during a storm, Little Toot will have to step up and come to the rescue.
The whole short is performed in song, very similar to Once Upon a Wintertime, though the short has a decidedly different and more childish tone. The Andrews Sisters perform it well and I can still find myself humming the catchy tune as I write this. Little Toot as a character is innocently charming and you really understand the well-meaning little screw-up quickly. I think it would be very interesting to see how modern adaptations would approach this story, but I think this will probably, rightfully, go down as the quintessential version. The short is quite charming and whimsical and a much needed bit of palette cleanser compared to the weightier The Legend of Johnny Appleseed which preceded it.
Trees
So, I'll be totally honest with you. In preparation for this review, I probably watched Melody Time over a dozen times. Even with all that viewing, I couldn't tell you much about this segment, as I constantly found myself forgetting about it. A recitation of a 1913 poem by Joyce Kilmer, accompanied with music composed by the late Oscar Rasbach and performed by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians, this is essentially just a poem reading with various pastoral scenes of trees and nature as the seasons change. The short used animation techniques that had never been used before, so that's really cool from a historical perspective, but I personally cannot get over just how fundamentally forgettable this segment.
So beautiful but I just can never find myself thinking about it, especially compared to the next vignette in the list. So let's just move on.
Blame It On the Samba
If Bumble Boogie felt like it had been left on the cutting room floor of Fantasia, then Blame It On the Samba feels like it might've been found in an earlier version of The Three Caballeros or Saludos Amigos. The segment includes Donald Duck and José Carioca as they meet the Arucuan Bird (introduced in The Three Caballeros) who then introduces them to the joys of samba music, with the help of the Dinning Sisters and Ethel Smith, as they perform Apanhei-te, cavaquinho, a Brazilian polka piece, by Ernesto Nazareth.
As a massive fan of Donald Duck, this is easily my favorite segment of the film as I just find myself thoroughly enthralled by the humor of Donald and José. The overall tone really does make it seem like this was a leftover segment from The Three Caballeros, but more than likely what actually happened is that Disney had assets left over after making The Three Caballeros and Saludos Amigos and decided to keep using them for Melody Time, as World War 2 had just ended and Disney was desperate to get back to making cartoons and movies like they had before the war.
History is what it is, but I feel like this was the last piece of the wartime Disney giving itself a last hurrah (and one of the last cartoons to feature José Carioca in any piece of Disney media for decades). And in that context, I can't help but appreciate this whimsical and heartfelt tribute to a style of music not all that appreciated in America.
Pecos Bill
The final and longest segment of Melody Time, Pecos Bill is also the most peculiar and, unfortunately, dated piece in the entire film. Introduced by Roy Rogers and including musical performances by the Sons of the Pioneers, Pecos Bill tells the story of the legendary cowboy of the same name. Showing how he was raised and all the fantastic deeds he performed until he falls in love Slue-Foot Sue and retires upon losing her in an accident at their wedding.
The musical segments are entertaining, if very dated and filled with incredibly offensive elements towards Native Americans, which unfortunately is not all that uncommon with the Western genre at this era in American media history. Another unfortunate element of this segment is that, like Fun and Fancy Free, is very much dependent on your knowledge of certain characters or persons which were very famous in the 1940s and 50s but are basically unknowns nowadays. Roy Rogers is fairly well-remembered, but the focus on Trigger (his horse) and the focus on the children Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten leaves the film feeling very much a product of its time.
And unfortunately, because of the length of Pecos Bill and its placement at the very end, it leaves this entire segment feeling completely disconnected from the rest of Melody Time. It's almost like an entirely different movie took over right at the end. At least with The Legend of Johnny Appleseed, they basically maintain the narrator elements that have persisted from the beginning of the film, but even the narrator is almost glossed over in favor of Roy Rogers introducing Pecos Bill.
I want to like this segment, but compared to all the pieces (except Trees), I just find myself not all that excited. It feels very much like a product of its generation of cartoons rather than a more timeless tale, which thankfully the rest of the movie manages to achieve. It takes forever to get going, and then it just blazes through like its embarrassed to actually be telling Pecos Bill's story.
Conclusion
Ultimately, I see Melody Time as the last entry of an era of Disney that is not always well-looked upon, the Wartime Disney era. During and immediately following World War 2, Disney was forced to transition into war propaganda and used to promote American interests in Latin America. The studios were hemorrhaging for new ideas and with many animators and workers either serving on propaganda or in the war itself, Disney couldn't do what had made them famous. So they made what few shorts they could and began to release a series of anthology films, like Fun and Fancy Free, Make Mine Music, and Melody Time. Especially as the war ended and the need to "get back to normal" started to become more appealing (especially in the wake of the 1941 Disney animators' strike).
Melody Time would be followed by Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 1949, which was a somewhat similar anthology film, but just two years later, Cinderella would release, forming the Disney formula that has now become the hallmark of Disney magic. But for Disney to get Cinderella, it needed the breathing room that Melody Time gave them after the war. And for that, I can't help but appreciate it.
Warts and all.
VISUALS
- 6/10
SOUNDTRACK
- 6/10
CHARACTERS
- 6/10
STORY
- 6/10
FINAL SCORE - 6/10
***
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