With this five, we see the remaining "package" films made due to the war, and the return of classic Disney full-length films.
Fun and Fancy Free (1947) - Only two story segments this time, Bongo, the story of a circus bear who escapes to the wild, and a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk with Mickey, Donald and Goofy. Both are fun stories, with a good amount of music, including songs performed by Dinah Shore. The beanstalk segment is bookended by the live-action ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his puppets, which adds a surreal note to the ending.
Melody Time (1948) - A whopping seven short, musical segments featuring different popular performers. The segments include the Legend of Johnny Appleseed, Little Toot, and Pecos Bill (who has a counter-service restaurant named after him at Disney World.) These were enjoyable, although my kids watched this one over and over when they were small. Consequently, I hate the Johnny Appleseed song.
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949) - The final package film, consisting of two stories, Mr. Toad, taken from The Wind in the Willows, and the Adventures of Ichabod, based on The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. While both are enjoyable, Legend is clearly the better story, and a scary one to boot, great for kids on Halloween night. It's also fun to see a prototype of Gaston (Beauty and the Beast) in the Sleepy Hollow segment, an oaf named Brom Bones who competes with Ichabod Crane for the lovely Katrina.
Cinderella (1950) - And Disney returns to full length classics. The animation is beautiful, the villain selfish and cruel, but not over the top, the heroine smart and resourceful. What struck me most about this is how little the Prince is in this and how little agency he has. He appears, dances with Cinderella, and disappears until they're getting married. He's basically the prize for Cinderella being awesome.
Alice in Wonderland (1951) - An acid trip of a movie, I understand why Disney chose to do it, based on a classic children's novel, but man what a weird ride. Of course, that's the source material they were working with. Still, the animation is wonderful, the voice actors are fun and while there's no plot, it's enjoyable.
Probably the most fun part of watching Cinderella and Alice was that we set up an outdoor showing on our deck. I bought a $60 HD projector on Amazon and it worked quite well. I'm looking forward to doing it again this summer.
2 comments:
I must admit those images do look quite impressive (especially for movies made 70 years ago). Just imagine comparing them to live action movies that were being made at the same time, 9 times out of 10 they`d come across as a laughable out-moded joke, which just goes to show how far ahead of their time Walt Disneys films were!.
That's probably my biggest takeaway from watching these movies. They are amazing technical accomplishments and well-deserving of their status as classics.
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