Make Mine Music! - Make Mine Music

8 – Make Mine Music

This movie is another one of those package movies that Disney made in the early to mid 40s that no one seems to know much about. I know I hadn't seen any of these shorts except for the Peter and the Wolf segment in what must have been 3^rd grade to learn about the different instruments. This movie, unlike the two before it, don't really have an overarching theme that ties it all together so I had pretty different reactions to each one.

I did, however, come up with a theory. I think that when you have shorts like this the animation must support the music or the music must support the animation. This means that if the music is telling a clear story the animation has to be able to enhance that story. This is true the other way around as well. If the animation is telling a story the music must be able to enhance that story. This lead me to seeing that when both the music and animation are trying to tell a clear story, neither one really enhances the other. It's the same if neither are trying to tell a story (or at least provide a clear theme).

Blue Bayou

The first short (in the NTSC version) is a pretty simple short showing two egrets by the everglades at night. The scenery itself is very beautiful and fits the tone of the music very well. The animation, on the other hand, doesn't do much to match the music. I felt like things kept happening in the music or in the animation that wasn't reflected in the other medium. Otherwise the tone was perfect and it was short enough that I never felt like it overstayed it's welcome, unlike many Fantasia shorts.

All the Cats Join In

Now this short was really cool. Unlike the last short, the animation fit the music perfectly. As the jazzy music was upbeat, so were the characters and movements. Everything matched up much better. On top of that there was a really cool pencil drawing motif that reminded me a bit of the watercolor segment in Saludos Amigos. Though there wasn't really a story, the theme was enough to carry it. The animation and music really enhanced that theme. I feel like with a bigger budget and a bit more going on this would really fit into a Jazz themed Fantasia short.

Without You

I really liked this short too. The music clearly told a simple story about lost love and the animation enhanced that by showing scenes and colors that made the theme even clearer. The animation really captured the themes and moods of the song. I really think that the simple ideas and simple execution helped make it much easier to watch than the often confusing shorts in Fantasia. It feels a bit more focused. It feels like it had more heart.

Casey at the Bat

This short, strangely didn't really utilize the music it was given. All of it was told with pretty traditional cartoon storytelling. It really feels out of place in this compilation. I really would have liked for the music to tell the story here rather than the characters. The story itself is just some fluff about an arrogant baseball player. Really not up to the standard set before it.

Two Silhouettes

This segment is another great example of what I mentioned before. This is music with great support from the animation to make the theme clearer. I really liked the live action dancers in silhouette. I thought that was a really cool effect. I really liked that they interacted a bit with animation though I wish they had done more with it. The animation they did include fit the theme perfectly. The backgrounds were a bit barebones but I'm sure this didn't have as big a budget as it could have.

Peter and the Wolf

This is the one short out of all of this that I'm sure I saw as a kid. I think my favorite part was right at the beginning where the narrator explains that each character has their own instrument to represent them. I really liked how the instruments, sounds and notes would morph into their characters. I thought it was a really interesting way to explain what this piece is about. After this it gets into the story but the narrator sticks around. I understand that the real performance of this piece also has a narrator but, in this case, we have animation to tell the story for us. I really would have liked for the narrator to just go away at this point and let the story tell itself. The animation perfectly told the story for the music to enhance it. It really didn't need the extra explanation.

After You've Gone

This short was another great short with a strong theme to support the music. I really liked how they showed us artistically what we were seeing. If we hear a piano we can see rows and rows of piano keys. There's no story to speak of but the way the music is represented works really well. At one point a duet with call and response style is shown by the two instruments in a boxing ring. A sudden drum solo comes crashing out chasing the other instruments around. It's a really simple idea but it captures the feel of the music really well. Again, I think that simplicity works the best for these kinds of things.

Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet

This short was a cute little story about a fedora who falls in love with a blue bonnet who gets bought and taken away from him. After this he searches for her and hopes that he will one day be reunited with her. I really liked the story here and the music fit well but there was one big issue. Since both the music and the animation were telling the story I felt like neither one was really enhancing the other. I think that this would have been much cooler to let the music tell the story and have a bit more of an abstract look at the animation to make the story work better. They could still use some more literal stuff but they didn't really think too outside the box with this one so I felt like the animation didn't really tell us anything we didn't already know from the music.

The Whale Who Want to Sing at the Met

This story suffers a bit from the same problem as the last short. The music tells a story that the animation also does. In this case it works a bit better as one of the characters, Willy the Whale, sings a good chunk of it. It's a pretty simple story about a Whale who wants to sing opera and an impresario who thinks that he swallowed some opera singers so he goes out to hunt him. I liked a part near the end where we get to see Willy perform various roles in some famous opera. It's a nice little love letter to Opera and I appreciated it.

Overall, I really liked Make Mine Music. I didn't really know what to expect but it was pretty good. It took some simple ideas and did some creative stuff with them. One thing I didn't mention much was how great most of the music was. I really like all the tunes and while they're not Fantasia caliber, they were much easier to listen to (especially if you haven't grown up with classical music). I have 3 more of these movies to watch so I really hope the next ones can build on what this one has started.

8 down. 45 to go.