Make Mine Music (1946)

An omnibus of short song segments, climaxed by an extended fantasy with Nelson Eddy in which the singer voices for a whale. This is indeed the highlight of the movie, with Eddy running through "Shortnin' Bread", "Largo al Factotum" from Rossini's Barber of Seville, the sextette (yes, the sextette, with Eddy singing all the voices) from Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, "Vesti la giubba" from Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, and arias from Boito's Mephistoles, Wagner's Tristan and Isolde, von Flotow's Martha. Jazz fans will revel in a couple of numbers performed by Benny Goodman, the first, "All the Cats Join In", with his orchestra and The Pied Pipers; the second, "After You've Gone", with a quartet comprising himself, Cozy Cole, Teddy Wilson and Sid Weiss. The King's Men sing "The Martins and the Coys"; the Ken Darby Chorus, "Blue Bayou" (the accompanying animation was originally executed for Fantasia where it was set to the music of Debussy's "Clair de Lune" which of course it suits much more happily); Andy Russell, "Without You"; Jerry Colonna narrates and sings "Casey at the Bat"; Dinah Shore sings "Two Silhouettes"; the Andrews Sisters, "Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet"; Sterling Holloway narrates "Peter and the Wolf" by Serge Prokofiev.COMMENT: A very mixed bag indeed. And not only musically. The drawings also vary wildly, from the imaginatively surrealistic "After You've Gone" to the pretty-pretty picture postcard "Blue Bayou", from the frantically cartoon-like "Casey at the Bat" to the inventively view-pointed "Johnny Fedora". Naturally some sequences come across with greater impact than others, but even the more innocuous valleys serve an overall purpose. In all, I thought the movie well up to Disney's usual superlative standards of artistry and entertainment — and so did MMA's very enthusiastic audience of university students and the like, who had previously seen little (if any) animation of such craftsmanship. Unlike most other Disney cartoon features, "Make Mine Music" has, to my knowledge, never been theatrically re-released in its original form. All ten segments were re-issued as shorts, and this is the format in which they are usually aired on television. Fortunately, the good news is that the Disney DVD has restored the film to its original brilliance.

In 1946 the war was over, but Disney was still forced to tide things over because they hadn't had any chances to produce new material during the war years. And thus we get a string of short film collections, of which this is arguably the first. And arguably also the worst.There are some good segments. Mostly the ones with a story. All the Cats Join In is a great, brief segment with some really great jazz tunes and lively animation style. Peter and the Wolf is a classic that has since been re-released numerous times, and for a reason. The animation style is great, the story lovable and as a whole it's a tight package. The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met, the finishing segment, is also great in its own bombastic way. Personally I find it perhaps a bit unambitious, but it's a fun idea done well.There are also couple story segments that don't really grab you, like Casey at the Bat, a baseball story, and Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet, a hat love story, which are both animated well but lack a captivating storyline. And then there's The Martins and the Coys, where two hillbilly families duke it out until love enters the picture... and even then there's some roughhousing. Originally the opening segment, it has since been censored from many versions. Which is a shame, because it's easily the funniest of the segments.But then there are the music segments, which make up about half of the segments, which basically just try to copy Fantasia, but lack the right music and animation talent. Instead they're meandering, boring and overly long in every way.Make Mine Music is an interesting film to watch once, but it's not a movie I would see myself watching again. It has some good segments, though none which I'd call great, but on the average it's lacking in direction and vision.

Make mine music is a compilation of a few short videos to music. If you liked the syncronisation of music to video that you saw in films like fantasia, you will adore this film.In 1940 the animation industry was booming, due to the increased skill in the market and better tools available. This was the time the classic Disney figures were being born. But it was also the time of experimentation, we finally had the ability to display the wonderful stories that music tells to us.It takes you on a journey through different genres and emotions, and gives you a small window into the 40s. In my opinion it is far better than many films that are out today in regards to emotional involvement (strangely). I don't always want to wait hours into a film to get involved with a character who is frankly just another john smith. By giving you a selection of shorts, Disney has avoided the problem of making your involvement with a film focused on a specific character and situation. As such the ideas represented can spur thoughts and ideas in many different directions.Well worth watching.

Most Disney fans are not too familiar with some of the Disney Animated Classics such as this one. I am not one of those. "Make Mine Music" just shows us more of what the master himself, Walt Disney, has created. I have heard from a few people that the "Martins and the Coys" segment has been removed from the newly released DVD version. Why that segment was removed, I don't know (probably because of the amount of violence). Other than that, the other segments are very memorable. Segments like "Peter and the Wolf", "Casey at the Bat" and "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" are amusing, catchy, and fun to watch. My favorite segment of the movie would have to be "Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet", which I had completely forgotten was part of this movie. All segments of "Make Mine Music" have been shown on various Disney videos and Disney TV specials. This is just a great movie; it's just as good as all the other Disney Animated Classics. I'm sure that kids of all ages will enjoy it.