Make Mine Music

      A collection of ten shorts, which are hit or miss for me, there's some classics and some that you'll forget just after watching. The classics being Casey at bat, Peter and the Wolf, The Whale that wanted to sing at the MET and Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet. The others are just to me kinda glorified Silly Symphonies added in to give the movie in between the bigger stories a little meat. Again we're at the odd point in the studios history the films were actually called "Packaged Films" because of their containing all short stories. The four "Package Films" being Make Mine Music, Fun And Fancy Free, Melody Time, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. Again this was because of the war which left the studios with a number of unfinished works and ideas that were too long to be considered shorts and too short to be considered features. Digging into the history, the first short Blue Bayou was actually originally intended for a Claire De Lune sequence of Fantasia but was cut out of the feature and re purposed and originally there was an eleventh cartoon "The Martins and the McCoys" , a version of the Hatfields and McCoys, which was deemed to violent for modern audiences when it was released on home video due to guns and people being shot so it was edited out of the film.
     Believe it or not there are parts of this that have made it into the parks. Casey at bat has ties into Casey's Corner at the Magic Kingdom and also if you wander the Philharmagic queue you'll find a poster advertising Willie the whale, also didn't mention it last post you'll find The Three Caballeros poster in the queue as well. So it goes to show that even the smallest of cartoons can be found around the resort.

Saludos Amigos / The Three Caballeros

  

   This post will be a little awkward as I am going to blog about both movies at one time because they are so similar and created with the same intent. Many don't realize how these movies came about and it was because of the war, the government was taking over the studios for basically propaganda films. These films were created to improve ties with South America and educate Americans of our neighbors to the south. I don't really put these in personally with the list of the actual feature animation, because they are basically travelogues especially 'Saludos Amigos', they are part live action and each is just basically several shorts strung together. To me with the live action, I don't understand how these sit on the feature animation list, where movies like 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit?', 'Mary Poppins', and 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks', all similar but are considered live action films. Out of the two 'Saludos Amigos' is probably the least favorite of the two, it's only 42 minutes long and is more of a documentary on South America than entertaining as 'Three Caballeros' was. Plus 'The Three Caballeros' contained a bunch of really toe tapping songs, which gave it more of a Disney Animation feel to it. 'Saludos Amigos' also stands out because its the only animated film to open in South America before North America and 'The Three Caballeros' had its world premiere in Mexico City. This time in the Studios history is really odd, stupid war, I mean you go from Bambi to these shorts movies to Cinderella. You have these two great movies bordering on these five films that kinda are like the odd men out. You may not see Panchito and Jose that frequently or used that much, but I really think this was a huge boost for Donald Duck. Like 'Pinocchio' this movie would not get passed the censors with Jose always smoking a cigar in a kids cartoon and its nice to see that at one point in time people weren't so dumb, as to see a smoking bird and say "Gee I want to be like him and smoke." So be that as it may, I don't see why they make the main list, but I do still like them, and I think they did play an important role in Disney's history and even when you look at it American history for its bringing together two countries. I don't think now a days, had they had the need for films like this (basically educating people on current affairs), they couldn't do it. I think Walt had that know-how, that story-telling ability and people skills needed to pull of films such as these.
     For you park goers 'The Three Caballeros' has been getting more and more presence in the parks over the years. They are centrally located in the pool at All-Star Music, Panchito has his own gift shop at Coronado Springs, and they are also the stars of the re-imagined Mexico Pavilion boat ride now named "Grand Fiesta Tour". You'll often find them many times in topiary form by Mexico or during Flower and Garden Festival and Donald now has a well themed meet and greet next to the Mexico Pavilion. I must say they were well incorporated into the boat ride, its hard to think back to the old ride and not hearing the theme song and music playing in the background. You know one thing I've noticed since I started on this little pet project with Disney Animation is that the films really are important to WDW, so far every film in some way has a tie into Walt Disney World, and again its the animation, not the live action movies that play the part. Also since I've started watching, I have noticed that I catch my self paying more attention to detail in the parks and really piecing together how epic Disney is as a whole and how much of its history as a company plays a role still today.

Bambi

    

      Walt Disney Feature Animations fifth movie and I have to say it probably is one of my least favorites of the Disney movies and that is Bambi. Bambi is the story of a young deer and basically follows him through his life cycle until he grows up and becomes a parent himself. He's aided in his story by a couple friends, those being Thumper the rabbit, Flower the skunk, and Owl, well the owl. There are some hiccups along the way in the story and those would be revolving around man's use of hunting and destroying the forest. It's pretty much giving us a glimpse into Bambi's experiences growing up from learning to stand and walk, learning to talk, learning about the change of seasons, and about being "Twitterpated" especially with his girlfriend Faline. For me there just wasn't enough in the way of actual story, so much as being more of a nature cartoon and like I said it just doesn't connect with me the way alot of the other Disney films do. But, story aside you do have some of the more beloved Disney characters and I think that's in large part to them being animals and most of the film being very young animals at that. I do have to say though probably my favorite part of Bambi is not in the story and the characters, but in the background art, I think Disney did a wonderful job of giving that real forest look but with a slightly lighter airy feel. For many people though, Bambi, isn't always the most loved movie, but the saddest movie. Those of you have seen it or know about it will realize I'm referencing to the scene with Bambi's mother (Not to give to much away for those having not seen it). To me looking back I think that's the first time an audience was and is able to connect on an emotional level with the characters their watching on the screen. That's what I think Walt did well when he was alive and involved in his films, he knew audiences, he knew the story he wanted to tell and he knew what it would take to pull you  into these fantasy worlds he was creating. Walt Disney didn't want you to be just watching an animated tale, he wanted you to feel like you were a fly on the wall watching everything happen before you and include you in what is happening. Bambi also includes two classic Disney songs "Love is a song" and "Little April Showers", both of which blend so easily into the movie and just add to the tone and feel of being in this forest and watching the animals and plant life going through phases. Walt wanted this movie to display such realism, that it went through production from 1936 to 1941, it was suppose to be his second animated film, but creating this realism took longer and allowed three other movies to come between it and Snow White. This would also be the last full-length animated film until Cinderella. The movies in-between from Saludos Amigos to The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, are all movies composed of smaller short stories strung together. Those however are stories for another blog.
    Your gonna be hard pressed to find many references to this film at all in Walt Disney World. Outside of some topiaries here and there and a presence at Epcot's International Flower and Garden Festival, there's not alot of love for Bambi in the parks. I did hear rumors that this years Flower and Garden Festival will feature "Bambi's Butterfly House", replacing the usual one over towards Test Track, this one would be larger and located on the pathways to Imagination pavilion. You do have to wonder why the Bambi characters aren't worked into the parks a little more. I feel there's some missed opportunities, especially at like Rafiki's Planet Watch, Fort Wilderness, and even Wilderness Lodge. When you think about it though, outside of doing some topiaries and murals, its a little harder to work in a film like this, especially when you can't really bring the characters to life for like Meet/Greets, I do think Disney has the technology now with projection systems and other technologies that could be used to bring them to life by other means than as a topiary. If you look smaller though you'll Bambi and Thumper like to grace alot of pins, especially any related to spring or seasons change. Also what better characters to base plush toys on then animals, you'll see many a child in the parks toting a Bambi or Thumper around, for some reason I guess carrying a skunk around doesn't seem to go over to big (sorry, Flower).