Make Mine Music (1946)

Directed by Jack Kinney, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Joshua Meador and Robert Cormack
Written by James Bordrero, Homer Brightman, Erwin Graham, Eric Gurney, T. Hee, Sylvia Holland, Dick Huemer, Dick Kelsey, Jesse Marsh, Tom Oreb, Cap Palmer, Erdman Penner, Harry Reeves, Dick Shaw, John Walbridge, and Roy Williams
Premiered April 20, 1946
75 minutes
Rated G

Synopsis
Different styles and genres of music are presented through ten animated segments.

Note: With the segmented films, I will be going further into plot points in my mötley müsings.

Before We Begin
We'll call it Fantasia Lite. Animated sequences set to contemporary music. Shorter segments pandering to a lower common denominator. Disney was not ready to give up on the idea of marrying music and animation. Frankly, I think it's a great idea and I'm glad they continued with it. Even though Make Mine Music came before Melody Time, it is more successful with the formula. The segments explore all (or at least more) corners of music giving us a nice slice of the 40s music scene. It works more than it doesn't.

Make Mine Music was the very last Disney Animated Feature to ever be released on home video...in 2000. That's how unimportant and unmarketable it seemed to the company. (It didn't have the classic characters like Fun and Fancy Free and Melody Time to feature on its cover.) Never mind us Disneyphiles who must own every single film on the canon...

Mötley Müsings
• We begin with fanfare! We are going to a concert hall! Just like in Fantasia! But this time, I swear it's gonna be more fun. Honest, you guys. For realsies.

• "Make music music and my heart will sing! Make mine music and it's always spring!"

• Segment #1 -- "The Martins and the Coys (A Rustic Ballad)" performed by The King's Men
The opening segment from Make Mine Music is cut from the first (and only) home video release for "comic gun play". This is ridiculous considering all the "comic gun play" brought to us by Panchito in The Three Caballeros and Pecos Bill in Melody Time.

• So what gives? Well, the VHS/DVD was released on June 6, 2000, a year and change after Columbine. So perhaps Disney, caught up in the moral panic of the day, feared that another school shooting would occur but instead of finding Marilyn Manson CDs in the shooters' room, they would find a Make Mine Music DVD. (I don't know if this is the real reason. But it seems very hypocritical to cut this segment while keeping others that make light of guns.)

• But you can watch "The Martins and the Coys" thanks to the powers of the internet!

• It's basically Romeo and Juliet with hillbillies. All but Grace Martin and Henry Coy have been shot to death and they fall in love despite their family history.

• The "plot" is based on the real life Hatfields and McCoys, two feuding families in 19th century Appalachia. Although if anyone fell in love I don't know.

• Is it still okay to make fun of "sons of the soil"? Or is this politically incorrect?

• Er, domestic abuse is the moral of the story...

• Segment #2 -- "Blue Bayou (A Tone Poem)" performed by The Ken Darby Singers. This one was cut from Fantasia because Fantasia was already a bloated beast. The scene shows a lovely bayou and a stork flying around. Originally it was set to "Clair de Lune" but here we get a new, sleepier song.

• This is a horrible way to open a movie! They needed the comic gunplay of The Martins and the Coys! Even though the "Toccato and Fugue" portion of Fantasia is pretty meh visually, that is some famous music. This...is...sleepy.

• Very pretty, very dull.

• Sha la la la la la

Don’t be scared

You got the mood prepared

Go on and kiss the girl

• Another stork! Two storks! Double the fun!

• Segment #3 -- "All the Cats Join In (A Jazz Interlude)" performed by Benny Goodman and his Orchestra. Yes! This one is fun! A pencil draws the action of a bunch of teens jitterbugging down at the malt shop. Very Archie comics. The dawn of teen culture!

• I want a milkshake.

• A chick drawn with a big booty gets mad at the pencil and then it erases her big butt and draws a slimmer one. How the times have changed.

• 20s music! That's for squares! Get outta here!

• Segment #4 -- "Without You (A Ballad in Blue)" performed by Andy Russell. Back to boring. This one is symbolic of loneliness and heartbreak. We see a Dear John letter and a rainy window, sad trees, etc.

• This is what I think they call a "torch song".

• Whatever happened to crooners?

• Segment #5 -- "Casey at the Bat (A Musical Recitation)" performed by Jerry Colonna

• The classic American short story of anti-climax about a famed baseball star who strikes out

• It's kind of musical, I guess.

• This is perfect for Disney.

• They made a sequel to this segment featuring Casey's nine daughters who make up their own baseball team. If I recall, they win their big game.

• Pride comes before the fall. #nojoyinmudville

• Segment #6 -- "Two Silhouettes (Ballade Ballet)" performed by Dinah Shore. You know what's not that technically impressive? Rotoscoped silhouettes. Here are two ballet dancers dancing over what appears to be a cache of valentine cards

• Hey, Dinah Shore. I forgot you were in this. I guess we'll get the female version of the torch song now.

• Um, I admit to not having paid attention to the lyrics of this song before:
Two silhouettes together in the afterglow,
Two silhouettes become as one when lights are low

• Hey, cherubim from Fantasia.

• Segment #7 -- "Peter and the Wolf (A Fairy Tale with Music)" narrated by Sterling Holloway. This is probably the most well known segment from Make Mine Music. It certainly includes the most well known music. The story is...not really a story. A boy named Peter goes hunting for a wolf along with his duck, bird, and cat friends. The boy is no match for the wolf (obvi) and he is saved by some hunters.

• These short, famous stories are perfect for the Disney treatment.

• I like Ivan the cat. Disney needs more cats.

• The duck really dies in the real version.

• Those hunters sure are unnecessarily firing their guns for comic effect.

• The moral is, don't go hunting if you don't know what you're doing.

• Segment #8 -- "After You've Gone" performed by the Goodman Quartet Jazz! Surrealism! Anthropomorphic instruments in a musical wonderland!

• It ain't boring. And it's not too long.

• Segment #9 -- "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet (A Love Story)" performed by The Andrews Sisters. Where do I begin to tell the story of how great a love can be, the sweet love story that is older than the sea... This is about hats! Two hats that fall in love in the department store window but a separated when the she-hat is sold!

• My favorite segment from Make Mine Music. Second favorite in any package film behind Pablo. Awesome, awesome, awesome. Adorable!

• Although, why is Johnnie spelled that way?

• Turn of the century fashions.

• They're in New York City.

• Johnnie escapes his owner to chase after Alice and ends up getting picked up by a bum who takes him to a saloon.

• Johnnie goes on an odyssey all to earn a permanent job as a horse's hat. Alice is on the other horse and one can't help but wonder what she went through to get there...

• I redact my earlier statement: "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet" is my favorite package film segment, ever.

• Segment #10 -- "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met (Opera Pathetique)" performed by Nelson Eddy. The grand finale. A whale who can sing opera longs to become a star, but he is murdered by a impresario who thinks he swallowed three opera singers. The whole thing is performed by one man.

• Mammy's little baby loves shortnin' bread...

• No one is denying that opera is impressive, but it's not really popular any more.

• Seagulls at the opera! Audience members with programs on their heads protecting them from poop! HA.

• Yes, that is Nelson Eddy singing the soprano's part too.

• Tetti-Tatti, you are a prick.

• Bittersweet ending, but leaves us with the feeling that this whole movie wasn't just some light fluff.

Final Thoughts
Look, I have a soft spot for Make Mine Music, just like with all the forgotten and dismissed DAFs. I had not heard of it until I decided to study Disney, which is truly a shame. This movie deserves its spot on the canon, more than others (cough, Dinosaur, cough, cough!). Variety is the spice of life which is why I rank this one so high among the package films. Nothing drags out too long, nothing is gratingly annoying. If you don't like one segment, just wait a few minutes and you're onto the next. And let's not forget that more than 50% of the shorts are actually good.

Watching Make Mine Music for probably the tenth time (or so), I am struck with the thought that it would have been awesome if Disney continued making this type of film with a new installment every decade. We could then see the evolution of popular music and the visual trends as well. Imagine the prog rock stuff in '76! Something grungy in '96! Ah, wasted opportunity.

Favorite Character

Johnnie Fedora

Favorite Moment -- "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet"
Favorite Song -- "Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet" performed by The Andrews Sisters