Melody Time (1948)
Walt Disney’s fifth and (technically) final package feature
of the 1940s delivers audiences hints of the artistic merit reminiscent of 1940’s
Fantasia, but ultimately concludes as
yet another potpourri of shorts assembled together. With a common theme of musically
driven story elements, Melody Time
was yet another Disney production completed on a lighter budget than the
studio’s most celebrated feature films with intention of netting profits for future
features for the animation studio. With segments based on classic works,
contemporary stories, and American folklore, the film succeeded in the box
office, failed as a complete feature, and yet continued to push forward the
most well-known cartoon studio in popular culture.
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| Pecos Bill |
Melody Time is an
animated package motion picture with moments of hybrid live action material
featuring various segments hosted by celebrity narrators and/or musicians under
the common theme of story through music. Loosely tied under the narration of Buddy
Clark, audiences are taken on the musical and visual journey through the
features seven short subjects. In these shorts we observe a young romantic
couple on a winter excursion that nearly turns to tragedy, a jazzy take on “The
Flight of the Bumblebee” with stylized visuals of a bee being chased by musical
notes, and a fanciful adaption of the American pioneer John Chapman, better known
as Johnny Appleseed. The film continues with a story of a cartoon tugboat that
learns to grow up and becomes a hero, a musical reading of the poem “Trees” set
to beautiful impressionable artwork, and a short where dreary Donald Duck and
Jose Carioca are rejuvenated by the Latin sounds of samba music. The finale of
the picture features Roy Rogers narrating the tall tale of Pecos Bill as he
carves out legends of the old west.
Like the Disney package movie preceding it, most similarly
1946’s Make Mine Music, this
particular motion picture falls in the line of an admirable gathering of new
Disney short subjects or different styles, but a loose similar theme, but lacks
the fulfilling nature of being considered a full fledged feature film. The
segments range from as short as just a couple of minutes to the more lengthy
22-minute “Pecos Bill” section, from Fantasia-like
artistic to the common Silly Symphony in quality. No short can be called bad
and no subject is intertwined with one another, allowing them to exist
individually. For this reason the film as a collective demonstrates as a less
complete product. Any series of Disney shorts teamed together forming a 75
minute running time with even the loosest of themes could possibly have done
just as well at the box office in at that time in my opinion.
Perhaps the list of celebrity singers and musicians who lent
their talents to the project might have given the feature the slightest bump in
draw in 1948, but with time these names would be less of a draw as their social
standings mean very little to contemporary audiences. Clearly the feature is
attached with various names manifesting they were of high regard from their
time with supposed box office appeal, otherwise Disney would not have utilized
them.
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| Blame it on the Samba |
The film is narrated by then famed crooner Buddy Clark who
spouts off a few lines between each subject. Famed singer/entertainer of the
early days of radio, Frances Langford, lends her vocal talents to “Once Upon a
Wintertime.” Freddy Martin and his orchestra perform the jazzy tune for the
segment “Bumble Boogie,” a subject once considered, but cut from Fantasia, here with a bit of modern
twist. Entertainer Dennis Day sings narrates, performs, and sings in the Disney
take n a piece of American folklore in “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed.” The Andrew Sisters reunite with the talents
as Disney in singing the story of “Little Toot,” the tug boat. Band leader and
singer Fred Waring and his group, The Pennsylvanians, accompany the beautiful
animation in the short “The Trees.” Organist Ethel Smith performs in live action
alongside the animated characters of Donald and Jose Carioca, a reprisal of
there friendship in Saludos Amigos
and The Three Caballeros, in a number
featuring the vocal talents of the Dinning Sisters in “Blame it on the Samba.”
The biggest name on the card of talent would have to go to
Roy Rogers, billed alongside his famed horse Trigger, as he tells the tale of
Pecos Bill. One can easily tell this subject received the most attention as it shares
an opening and closing segment of live action featuring Rogers and his vocal accompaniment
from the western singing group Sons of the Pioneers. Here he spins the tail
tale to two little ones played by Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten, both
recently of Song of the South,
sharing the musical stories of how Bill battled Native Americans, the wilderness,
and romance, all in somewhat politically incorrect ways, that formed legends of
the old west. Later releases of “Pecos Bill” would see edits due to Disney’s
family focused nature, removing various moments of Bill smoking as to not
promote the habit with the young, very impressionable children how tend to
favor this part of the film.
What the film succeeds in is delivering the quality that
audiences had come to expect from Disney, even though it falls short of the
features of Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs, Pinocchio, or Bambi in artistry. The feature found box
office profits, the primary goal from the studio working their way back from
the finically strapped days since the onset of World War II, in the studio’s
primary expensive medium. Mixed reviews generally favored the picture, but
remained critical of the animation quality falling below the bar Disney set
when it first began producing feature films. Now was a time of good for Disney,
but not great; perfectly entertaining and enjoyable, but nothing new or ground
breaking.
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| Once Upon a Wintertime |
Walt Disney created his own downfall during the later half
of the 1940s, generating the best known and highest quality animation studio in
the business. Audiences and critics struggled with what they wanted with what
they received. With their early features they got darker and more serious, motion
picture art from a medium general audiences before considered simply as
cartoons. Disney delivered art, and general audiences wanted a little more
lightheartedness at times. Now in the late 1940s they got fun, high energy,
sometimes silly products, but very good quality, yet with the lack of the depth
from minimal use technology Disney used years earlier and production on shorter
deadlines and smaller budgets, audiences and critics found a way to gripe that
the pictures were now not artistic enough.
With this mix of critical results it appeared Disney could
not win. However the studio did win in
the box office as the movie made a good profit. In truth Walt Disney animated
features contained much less Walt by this time as the man had become far less
interested in the medium that made him a famed producer. His impact in the
industry came with his intricate care for every animated cell in Snow White, Pinocchio, and Fantasia,
as well as a heavy influence on Bambi
and Dumbo. However, following an ugly
animator strike in the early 1940s and the business being handcuffed during
WWII Walt lost interest in his animation studio. In a time where the studio was
a struggling to keep afloat, Walt was not interested in profits, but rather
creativity and innovated ways to share stories.
This was a time where quality was compromised by business and
Walt became jaded, searching for his next stroke of creative inspiration while
his studio ran less need of Walt’s input. One more animated feature was still
in the works containing two featurettes eventually becoming The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad,
but shortly after that, with the studio’s new profits in hand animation would
return to a new high point in the 1950s. The decade would also include Walt discovering
his new creative outlet beyond motion pictures in the form of his theme park.
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| Little Toot |
In time the various shorts of Melody Time would discover a mixed future legacy. While “Bubble
Boogie” and “Trees” can be observed for having roots in Fantasia, their originality, beauty, and creativity lacked the
amusing nature audicnes wanted, becoming the most forgettable shorts of the
feature. “Once Upon a Wintertime” at best would see its snowy and festive animation
recycled in future holiday material in children’s home videos decades later,
replacing it audio track with Christmas music. “Little Toot,” whose source from
a children’s book, found some standing apart from the feature, as did “Blame it
on the Smaba,” which was a practical cousin to the Latin American package films
from earlier in the decade. “The Legend of Johnny Appleseed” and “Pecos Bill”
manifested Disney’s attachment to American folklore and would remain somewhat
popular with American youths in various compilation materials since the film’s
release. Unfortunate for the movie, shorts divided had more staying power than
the feature as a whole.
Melody Time as
with Make Mine Music and Fun and Fancy Free remain the most
forgettable of the Walt Disney animated features. All in all they did their
jobs of keeping the studio working, bringing in profits and keeping the Disney
name on the top of the marquee from time to time. Soon Disney would regain its
prominence as a major motion picture player with a new generation of high end
animated features. Melody Time
remains a nostalgic look at animation for Disney in a period where they evolved
from the early 1940s into the 1950s, and despite not being their best work it entertains
and reminds us of how enjoyable the creative talents at Disney were during a
down period.
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