Watchin' Disney #08: Make Mine Music

You might be wondering why it has been so long since the last Watchin' Disney. I'm willing to bet you aren't, but it has indeed been far too long since the last one. That's partially because I watched not one but TWO movies that featured Donald Duck and both times neglected to call this blog "unca donald's movie." It's also partially because these movies aren't a whole lot to get excited about. During this era in Disney history, Disney ran out of money due to the war, but still had to keep cranking out feature films. So this movie, like the Walt Disney Appreciates Latin American Culture Two-Parter before it and the next few movies after it, is a bunch of short films put together to make up a feature film. Make Mine Music, the film of today, has been described as a "poor man's Fantasia," and I don't even like REGULAR Fantasia, so I've been putting this off. Oh, also: the main reason it's been so long since the last Watchin' Disney is because I owe the library some late fees and was trying to figure out a way to rent this DVD for free without paying it. The solution: just not pay the late fees! They didn't ask about it, and what am I going to do, offer?

Previous relationship with movie: I think a preview for it was on one of the old Disney Singalong VHS tapes I used to have.

So I watched it: First of all, the censorship NAZIS at Di$ney have done it again, and the first segment of this movie is removed from the version of the DVD that I saw. It was called The Martians and the Coys and was removed due to gun violence and I guess Leonard Maltin was too busy to come record a disclaimer so they had no choice but to delete it. It's unfortunate because it causes this movie to start out with a deathly boring sequence called Blue Bayou, which is about storks flying around. A stork flies around, meets another stork, and they fly around together as actual lullaby music plays. It's the most boring possible thing. I was afraid the whole movie was going to be like this, and I was sure I would die watching it. I honestly stopped the movie after this for 40 minutes and then came back, I couldn't possibly take it.

But then, let me tell you, THEN this movie hits a home run with a sequence called All the Cats Join In. I knew I was in for a treat when the subtitle says "a caricature" WITH CAT HIGHLIGHTED. Almost unimaginably, the whole sequence goes by without one cat, AND IT STILL RULES. It's a fun, breezy animated sequence set to jazz music about teenagers in the '40s doing things like riding convertibles, going to a malt shoppe, and having a sock hop. Holy cow, I love this sequence. It's fun, funny, stylish, cartoony and legitimately hip even by today's standards. All throughout the sequence there are pencils drawing the action as it happens, such as a part where A PENCIL DRAWS A GIRL WITH A BIG ASS AND A BOY WON'T DANCE WITH HER. THE GIRL GETS MAD, AND THE PENCIL ERASES THE ASS. I was laughing too hard to call the boy a fool. An A+ sequence, 10/10, look it up on youtube (yeah right!). Even if that sequence was the only thing I liked about this movie Make Mine Music would still be worth watching.

Which is fortunate, because it pretty much is. Well that's not fair, nothing in this movie is particularly bad, it's just that most of it was very obviously made as a stand-alone short and not as a segment of an anthology movie. Such as the sequence Casey at the Bat, which is probably the most famous segment of this movie (I mean at least, I've heard of it) is more dialogue-driven than music-driven. Also, Casey at the Bat has shockingly bad pitching and bat-swinging animation. Not terrible or anything but much worse than you'd expect from Disney. Even Mike Judge was able to make more lifelike baseball animation back when he had three dollars and a frog to his name. Also there's the Peter and the Wolf segment, which is not terribly interesting, but is the screenshot for this article. How do you like it?

Oh yeah, another thing I kind of want to bring up, this movie has no framing device between segments at all. The title cards are in the same font and that's it. Totally amateur, Disney.

Best part of the movie: In the teenager sequence I loved so much, when the older sister is getting ready for the night of teenage debauchery and she takes a shower. That's my favorite part that can possibly be in a movie, btw.

Up next: Fun and Fancy Free. Mickey Mouse is on the DVD cover so let's hope for the best.

Cos + Effect and Chevy Chase: TV Star: The Criterion Collections

DVD covers for the two videos I made:





This blog needs more art on it huh.

Chevy Chase: TV Star

Another video I made:

Watchin' Disney #07: The Three Caballeros

Lord that post about Saludos Amigos stinks. The thing is is that Saludos Amigos is just a collection of shorts about Latin America, and there isn't a whole lot to write about something like that. The movie of today, The Three Caballeros, is also a collection of shorts about Latin America, so just go ahead and skip this post; it will suck.

Previous relationship with movie: Owned it on VHS as a kid, have had "THE THREE CABALLEROS, THEY SAY WE ARE BIRDS OF A FEATHAAAHHHH" running through my head for about 16 years.

So I watched it: This movie is pretty great. Our old pal Donald Duck is the star, the movie starts out with Donald Duck receiving a package from his Latin American friends. The package is some films that are, much like the content of Saludos Amigos, a bunch of short cartoons that have to do with Latin America. Soon enough, Donald's pal and my new favorite Disney Character Joe Carioca comes and sings songs and does dances with Donald and eventually their other friend Panchito comes and, again, more singing and dancing. The whole like last half of the movie is basically just many different scenes of Donald dancing with live action Latinas.

Oh, also there's a really cool rude bird called the Aracuan, he might be my favorite character instead of Joe Carioca actually (trust me he's great).

Anyway, despite my snark, this movie rules.

Best part of the movie: New feature of Watchin' Disney! The best part of this movie is when Donald Duck throws his sombrero in the air and it turns into a sailor hat and falls on his head.

Up next: Make Mine Music, how bout that.

Watchin' Disney #06: Saludos Amigos

It's been too long since the last time I've watched Disney, but I haven't forgotten about this blog feature (making me the only one alive who hasn't forgotten about my own blog's blog feature). The reason for the delay: I'm up to Saludos Amigos, which proved kind of hard to find a library that had it on DVD to rent. I ended up getting it on loan from a library from Martin Luther King Dallas Library (who knew Texas had a Martin Luther King Library? I kinda expected a Chuck Norris Library or Alamo Library or something). Anyways, I got the DVD, I watched it, and now I'ma blog about it.

Previous relationship with movie: Never even heard of it! I didn't even know it was a movie (it kind of isn't, it's 42 minutes long).

So I watched it: I like it! It's pretty much one of those movies where Walt tries to teach you stuff; in this instance, he tries to teach you about Latin America. It's basically four shorts put together with some footage of the Disney animators going to Mexico and learning about the culture and drawing cartoons of it, and then you watch the cartoons they draw! Cool!

The shorts are all pretty good. The first three are a Donald Duck cartoon, a cartoon about an anthropomorphic plane with a mom plane and a dad plane, and a Goofy cartoon. They're all pretty basic Disney cartoons, except they happen to take place in Mexico. The last cartoon is Donald Duck meeting rude parrot Jose Carioca, in a watercolor painting of Brazil. I don't have much to say about them really. They're just cool cartoons, I recommend this movie.

Man this is a terrible blog post. The thing is I'm rushing it because this DVD is due soon and I'm gonna rack up mad fines if it's late seeing as how it needs to be shipped back to Dallas.

Up next: The Three Caballeros; more Jose Carioca, I can't wait.

COS + EFFECT

I made this:

Watchin' Disney #05: Bambi

Hey it's Bambi, you guys know that movie. Let's go watch some Disney.

Previous relationship with movie: I don't really have any strong memories of watching Bambi. I'm sure I've seen it before, because I own a VHS copy of it and for the first six or so years of my life I did nothing but watch Disney movies on VHS. A couple of months ago I bought a slipcover-less used copy of the Bambi Platinum Edition DVD because it's out of print and I had either started or was planning to start Watchin' Disney: The Blog Feature.

So I watched it: I don't think I have too much to say about Bambi. I can see why I don't have strong memories of it, despite having probably seen it, because not a whole lot happens in it. That's not a bad thing though. It is a good thing. The movie is just basically a bunch of scenes where Bambi grows up and lives his life in a forest. It's a cool thing to try, a "realistic" movie about forest critters. It's a thing that was worth doing, and thank god Walt and co. did it when they did cause you can't just make an animated movie about scenes in a forest now. Yeah, Bambi's mom dies, but that's not the point of this movie. It's just a thing that happens in Bambi's life.

Speaking of Bambi's mom dying, this movie is pretty dark, enough to make me think the Disney stereotype of "cutesy forest critters" is undeserved, and that said stereotypes' parodies involving Disney-esque cutesy forest critters doing rude things like KILLING each other and having BLOOD and GUTS are in fact entirely superfluous.

What else can I talk about, uhhh, I had no idea that Bambi grows up in this movie, but he does, he grows up and gets a grown up voice like Simba. I can't really take grown up Bambi seriously though, I mean his name is BAMBI. The DVD box cover as well as this blog post features Bambi making cute eyes at a butterfly, who expects to see that character all grown up with antlers and everything? But at the end of the movie grown Bambi beats up a bunch of hunting dogs and that's pretty cool. (Don't worry about spoilers, like I said this movie pretty much has no story.) I liked Bambi, for real, I just still haven't really gotten into the rhythms of the old Disney animated movies. It's taking me a while!

Up next: Saludos Amigos. What the hell is Saludos Amigos? I'm afraid it's going to be a while before I can work up the enthusiasm to go rent and watch that, hopefully not too long though.