Make Mine Music
Wikipedia
Guide to Animated Disney Movies
Make Mine Music is a 1946 American animated musical anthology film produced by Walt Disney. During the Second World War, much of Walt Disney's staff was drafted into the army, and those that remained were called upon by the U.S. government to make training and propaganda films. As a result, the studio was littered with unfinished story ideas. In order to keep the feature film division alive during this difficult time, the studio released six package films including this one, made up of various unrelated segments set to music. This is the third package film, following Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.
This particular film has ten such segments.
The Martins and the Coys
The popular radio vocal group The King's Men sings the story of a Hatfields and McCoys-style feud in the mountains broken up when 2 young people from each side inadvertently fall in love.
Blue Bayou
This segment featured animation originally intended for Fantasia using the Claude Debussy musical composition Clair de Lune from Suite bergamasque. It featured two egrets flying through the Everglades on a moonlit night. However, by the time Make Mine Music was released Clair de Lune was replaced by the new song Blue Bayou, performed by the Ken Darby Singers. However, the original version of the segment still survives.
All the Cats Join In
This segment was one of two sections in which Benny Goodman and his Orchestra contributed. Their music played over visuals drawn by an animator's pencil as the action occurred. The scene portrayed teens of the 1940s being swept away by popular music.
Without You
This segment is a ballad of lost love, sung by Andy Russell.
Casey at the Bat
This segment featured Jerry Colonna, reciting the poem also titled "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer, about the arrogant ballplayer whose cockiness was his undoing. A few moments are exaggerated or altered and music is added.
Two Silhouettes
This segment featured two rotoscoped live-action ballet dancers, David Lichine and Tania Riabouchinskaya, moving in silhouette with animated backgrounds and characters. Dinah Shore sang the title song.
Peter and the Wolf
The segment "Peter and the Wolf" is an animated dramatization of the 1936 musical composition by Sergei Prokofiev. A Russian boy named Peter sets off into the forest to hunt the wolf with his animal friends, a bird named Sascha, a duck named Sonia, and a cat named Ivan. Just like in Prokofiev's piece, each character is represented with a specific musical accompaniment, Peter by the String Quartet, Sascha by the Flute, Sonia by the Oboe, Ivan by the Clarinet, Grandpa by the Bassoon, the shooting of the Hunters' guns by the Kettledrums, and the evil Wolf primarily by horns and cymbals.
After You've Gone
This segment again featured Benny Goodman and The Goodman Quartet as six anthropomorphized instruments (Piano, Bass, Snare and bass Drums, Cymbal and Clarinet) parade through a musical playground.
Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet
This segment told the romantic story of two hats who fell in love in a department store window. When Alice was sold, Johnnie devoted himself to finding her again. They eventually, by pure chance, meet up again and live happily ever after together, side by side. The Andrews Sisters provided the vocals.
Finale: The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met
The final segment, the finale of the film, is a bittersweet story about a whale (named Willie) with incredible musical talent and his dreams of singing grand opera. A rumor is spread throughout the city about an operatic whale, but is seemingly disproven, therefore the short-sighted impresario Tetti-Tatti believes that the whale has swallowed an opera singer and sets out to rescue his non-existent quarry, the newspapers announcing that he was going to sea.
Whitey, Willie's seagull friend, excitedly brings Willie the newspaper, all of his friends believing that this is his big chance, so he goes out to meet the boat and sing for Tetti-Tatti. He finds them, and upon hearing Willie sing, Tetti-Tatti comes to believe that Willie has swallowed not one, but three singers, and chases him with a harpoon on a boat with three crewmen. Upon hearing the whale sing, the crewmen try to stop the stubborn and deluded Tetti-Tatti from killing the whale, as they want to continue listening to him sing, even to the point of pinning Tetti-Tatti down by sitting on him.
A montage then follows of what would be Willie's future career in performing opera on the stage of the Met, with Tetti-Tatti shown to have finally been convinced otherwise. In the end, reality strikes when Tetti-Tatti succeeds in harpooning and killing Willie, but the narrator then explains that Willie's voice will sing on in heaven.
Just as the curtains close, the film ends.
This particular film has ten such segments.
The Martins and the Coys
The popular radio vocal group The King's Men sings the story of a Hatfields and McCoys-style feud in the mountains broken up when 2 young people from each side inadvertently fall in love.
Blue Bayou
This segment featured animation originally intended for Fantasia using the Claude Debussy musical composition Clair de Lune from Suite bergamasque. It featured two egrets flying through the Everglades on a moonlit night. However, by the time Make Mine Music was released Clair de Lune was replaced by the new song Blue Bayou, performed by the Ken Darby Singers. However, the original version of the segment still survives.
All the Cats Join In
This segment was one of two sections in which Benny Goodman and his Orchestra contributed. Their music played over visuals drawn by an animator's pencil as the action occurred. The scene portrayed teens of the 1940s being swept away by popular music.
Without You
This segment is a ballad of lost love, sung by Andy Russell.
Casey at the Bat
This segment featured Jerry Colonna, reciting the poem also titled "Casey at the Bat" by Ernest Thayer, about the arrogant ballplayer whose cockiness was his undoing. A few moments are exaggerated or altered and music is added.
Two Silhouettes
This segment featured two rotoscoped live-action ballet dancers, David Lichine and Tania Riabouchinskaya, moving in silhouette with animated backgrounds and characters. Dinah Shore sang the title song.
Peter and the Wolf
The segment "Peter and the Wolf" is an animated dramatization of the 1936 musical composition by Sergei Prokofiev. A Russian boy named Peter sets off into the forest to hunt the wolf with his animal friends, a bird named Sascha, a duck named Sonia, and a cat named Ivan. Just like in Prokofiev's piece, each character is represented with a specific musical accompaniment, Peter by the String Quartet, Sascha by the Flute, Sonia by the Oboe, Ivan by the Clarinet, Grandpa by the Bassoon, the shooting of the Hunters' guns by the Kettledrums, and the evil Wolf primarily by horns and cymbals.
After You've Gone
This segment again featured Benny Goodman and The Goodman Quartet as six anthropomorphized instruments (Piano, Bass, Snare and bass Drums, Cymbal and Clarinet) parade through a musical playground.
Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet
This segment told the romantic story of two hats who fell in love in a department store window. When Alice was sold, Johnnie devoted himself to finding her again. They eventually, by pure chance, meet up again and live happily ever after together, side by side. The Andrews Sisters provided the vocals.
Finale: The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met
The final segment, the finale of the film, is a bittersweet story about a whale (named Willie) with incredible musical talent and his dreams of singing grand opera. A rumor is spread throughout the city about an operatic whale, but is seemingly disproven, therefore the short-sighted impresario Tetti-Tatti believes that the whale has swallowed an opera singer and sets out to rescue his non-existent quarry, the newspapers announcing that he was going to sea.
Whitey, Willie's seagull friend, excitedly brings Willie the newspaper, all of his friends believing that this is his big chance, so he goes out to meet the boat and sing for Tetti-Tatti. He finds them, and upon hearing Willie sing, Tetti-Tatti comes to believe that Willie has swallowed not one, but three singers, and chases him with a harpoon on a boat with three crewmen. Upon hearing the whale sing, the crewmen try to stop the stubborn and deluded Tetti-Tatti from killing the whale, as they want to continue listening to him sing, even to the point of pinning Tetti-Tatti down by sitting on him.
A montage then follows of what would be Willie's future career in performing opera on the stage of the Met, with Tetti-Tatti shown to have finally been convinced otherwise. In the end, reality strikes when Tetti-Tatti succeeds in harpooning and killing Willie, but the narrator then explains that Willie's voice will sing on in heaven.
Just as the curtains close, the film ends.