9 – Fun and Fancy Free
I am really looking forward to getting
through these package movies. It's not even that this was bad or
anything but I'm getting kind of sick of these super shallow movies.
Fun and Fancy Free luckily
only contains two segments so they were able to explore storytelling
a bit more. Unfortunately, the second segment is kind of filled with
unnecessary elements that detract from it. Also, Jiminy Cricket is in
it...so there's that. He doesn't do too much.
Bongo
I really liked the
first segment. While it's still shallow and slapstick, they at least
tried to make you like the main character, Bongo. We first see that
he's a performer in a circus but he's treated very badly and yearns
to escape. When he finally does he realizes that he has trouble
living like a normal bear. That is until he meets Lulubelle, a female
bear that makes him feel happy again. He then has to fight a bigger
bear, Lumpjaw, for her affections while learning to be a real bear.
This segment was
pretty cool overall. It had some really good narration from Dinah
Shore that really enhanced the story. She was there just enough that
it never felt intrusive or annoying. She said just enough then got
out of the way to let the story tell itself. That already is a huge
improvement over the narration I've seen before.
The musical
sequences were also nice. They helped establish Bongo and how he
interacts with his new environment. I especially liked the second
sequence where he meets Lulubelle and they get to know each other,
ending with Bongo teaching her how to unicycle. They all felt like
they had points to them. I think this has a lot to do with how much I
wanted Bongo to succeed. First, I wanted him to escape the circus
because I saw how badly he was treated and how sad he was. Then, I
wanted him to be accepted by Lulubelle because he seemed to be having
such a hard time adjusting. I was happy when he finally learned how
to be a bear at the end and overcame his conflict with Lumpjaw.
Making you like a
character goes a long way when you want to tell a story like this.
Mickey and the Beanstalk
I was much less of
a fan of this one. It's basically just a retelling of that story
everyone knows of Jack and the Beanstalk, except with Mickey, Donald
and Goofy. It's interesting that the story is basically being told by
Edgar Bergen to Luana Patten at her birthday party. I really liked
that style and thought it fit the “fairy tale” vibe of the story
very well.
I did not, however,
like how his puppets kept interjecting with stupid jokes. They really
got old fast and didn't serve any purpose. They would also keep going
back to the live action birthday party to add in more stupid jokes
that just didn't work. I liked the idea of them going back and
discussing plot points but it was clearly just a vehicle to let the
actors have more screen time and get more jokes in.
It was also really
clear that they didn't intend to make you like any of the characters
because they were famous Disney characters that you should already
like. This was just really lazy storytelling. When people usually
tell this story they really make you feel for Jack and want him to
succeed.
At least the
animation was good. The scene of the beanstalk growing was actually
pretty cool and had some funny moments.
So with this one
down, I have 2 more of these movies. I'm betting that tomorrow's is
going to feel a bit like deja vu.
9 down. 44 to go.
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