The One That Produced Something Similar But Better.
By the mid 40s, Walt was DESPERATE to get back to full length animation. Despite the fact that WW2 was well and truly over and life was returning to some semblance of normality, Walt was almost $3 million in debt and the studio was sinking. But, Walt was already planning a new, dazzling fairy tale to reestablish his brand as the king of family friendly entertainment. Mercifully, he’d have to wait just three years longer.
So, while the company swam for their lives, Walt continued with the inexpensive package films as a means of survival and after the relative failure of Make Mine Music, he commissioned another collection of shorts combining varied musical genres and equally varied animation styles. After the Allied victory in WW2, American patriotism was at an all time high, so Walt wanted his next feature to include a few well - known icons of American folklore.
The final anthology film of the era, Melody Time had seven segments, each with popular & folk music of the 40s. Unlike the last one, though, Melody Time didn’t have any theme or framing to link the segments. Instead it was another jumble of narrative shorts and abstract art in another, but much better, attempt to recreate Fantasia.
THE PLOT
It starts with old time crooner Buddy Clarke playing an anthropomorphic stagemask, who invites you to “hitch your wagon to a song, 'cuz a song’s the one & only thing that’ll take you over the rainbow to the land where music is king” and promises “something here for everyone”. And that “you’ll find rhythm & romance, reason & rhyme. Something ridiculous, something SUBLIME”.
The first short is called “Once Upon A Wintertime”, in which Frances Langford's Judy Garland - esque singing tells the story of two young lovers on a blissful sleigh ride, who then go ice skating with a pair of rabbit mirroring their relationship and their every move. Then there’s near tragedy involving thin ice that ends in a daring rescue. The music and the animation are both incredible, if mismatched at times. But Langford’s singing is an almost perfect contrast to the playful, slapstick humour of the short.
Then we have Bumble Boogie, set to the Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov and originally set for use in Fantasia. It’s an odd little surrealist piece in which a bumblebee fights valiantly against a collection of musical instruments set to destroy him. As the music becomes more and more frenetic, the visuals become more hectic with the bee trying to escape this psychotic keyboard…. this short is weird.
Then we have the Legend of Johnny Appleseed, a tribute to a hero of (white) American folklore named John Chapman, who spent his days planting apple trees throughout the American Midwest. Narrated and sung by Dennis Day, this sequence is overtly religious and more than a bit preachy with John’s theme tune being “the Lord is good to me” and him constantly proclaiming the benefits of a life spent following the Bible. I think he’s trying too hard to sell it, myself. I gave up religion when I was 12 and my life is fine. Unlike most of the shorts in this film, this one is 17 minutes long and tells a definitive narrative. The animation is terrific and it’s an interesting story that few outside the USA would be at all familiar with. But the blatant Christian theology and awkward angels and afterlife ending make it stick out like Fred Phelps at the Mardi Gras parade. While religious ideology isn’t exactly new territory for Disney, the Ave Maria sequence in Fantasia comes to mind, but considering Disney is known to be pretty secular, this seems a bit odd.
In a swift move away from anything religious, the next short, Little Toot, tells of a mischeivous tugboat known to get into lots of trouble on a regular basis. Like blowing smoke at ocean liners and splashing other boats. But he soon realizes, after one or two brushes with the naval authorities, that he’ll have to grow up and be more like his father. It’s a sweet little short with a happy ending, plus it has the Andrews Sisters on backing vocals, which is always a plus.
Then we move back into abstract territory with Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians reading/singing Joyce Kilmer’s 1913 poem “Trees” with accompanying, exquisite and groundbreaking animation from Ken O’ Connor, who used pastels to portray the changing of the seasons in rural USA, which had never yet been done until now. And the poem itself is lovely to listen to as well. It’s very evocative.
Then we get to the strangest part of the film, Blame It On the Rhythm of the Samba. Taking us back to Brasil, where Donald Duck & Josè Carioca are literally feeling blue. They plod into a bar with the Aracuan as their waiter… and he puts them both into a large cocktail glass where organist Ethel Smith plays the 1914 polka song Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho by Ernesto Nazareth. And from here the guys dance the samba to a jazz song in an animated bubble... I told you it’s strange. And the rest of it is actually too strange for me to properly describe it, so you’ll have to actually watch the film to get it all.
Finally, we have Pecos Bill, a 22 minute retelling of the life of the Texan hero raised by coyotes, who grew up to be the greatest cowboy on Earth. Which, if not for Johnny Appleseed, would be my favourite part of the whole film. The sequence is introduced by the King of the Cowboys himself, Roy Rogers, his horse Trigger, and Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten. Plus the famous country choir, the Sons of the Pioneers. Roy and the Sons narrate the story of Pecos Bill’s life including how he dug the Rio Grande with a stick, named the Painted Desert by shooting up a Native American pow wow, created the Gulf of Mexico by bringing rain from California to drought - ridden Texas, and created the Texas emblem by sitting on a cloud and shooting out the stars. Because of course he did all that. Plus his ill - fated romance with one Slue Foot Sue.
If you find this film on Disney+ it’s going to have a disclaimer for outdated cultural depictions, some say this is because there’s a scene of Bill smoking a cigarette, personally I choose to believe it’s for the outdated depiction of Native Americans. Only lasts for a second but it’s there.
MY VERDICT
Pecos Bill is the climax to a decently entertaining film. I do think now, what with the aforementioned all time high level of American patriotism at the time, that this could have been an opportunity to make an entire movie full of American folklore hero shorts, but what we got was pretty damn good nonetheless. And there are American folklore hero shorts available for viewing online anyway. Which will all hopefully go on Disney+ soon.
Is Melody Time a Disney Classic? As with all the package films, Melody time lacks the content and consistency to be a Disney Classic, There are several great moments, but not quite enough to be considred a Disney Classic.
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