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Make Mine Music is a pop music version of Fantasia, composed of ten segments with the era’s popular musicians contributing to the soundtrack. Nothing here comes even has as close to Fantasia’s artistic daring and boundary-pushing bravado, but plenty of it is particularly charming and entertaining.
In its current form, Make Mine Music is edited down from its premiere. The opening segment was removed from all North American home video releases due to the graphic nature of its violence. In order to watch it, you’ll have to dig around. Having watched it, I think the censor of the short, called “The Martins and McCoys,” is an overreaction. The gun violence is no more eccentric and anarchic than what you would find in a Looney Tunes short, and it frankly plays like a sub-par Tex Avery cartoon.
While most of Make Mine Music works and is highly entertaining, the various ballads are a bit of slog to get through. “Blue Bayou,” “Two Silhouettes,” and “Without You” are the typically embalmed and glossy Disney animation that sparkles with technical proficiency and lacks any heart or emotion.
Everything else works much better. These six remaining shorts are a collection of terrific character animation and whimsy. The Benny Goodman Orchestra provides the soundtrack to two charmers, “All the Cats Join In,” a swinging look at 40s teenagers, and “After You’ve Gone,” which features eight instruments springing to life and dancing around an impressionistic wonderland. They’re more artistically daring and unique than the rest of the shorts, and I just wish that “After You’ve Gone” in particular was longer.
“Jonnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet” and “Casey at the Bat” are memorable bits of character animation. “Johnnie” being a love story between the two title characters, sung by the Andrews Sisters, which makes you invest in and care about the relationship between two inanimate objects. “Casey at the Bat” visualizes by the famous poem by Ernest Thayer and is narrated by Jerry Colonna. The variation of body types and personalities on display is a miniature look at the Disney animators doing what they do best, crafting unique personalities and animating towards that.
By far the most famous short from this is “Peter and the Wolf.” Personally, I could have done without Sterling Holloway’s narration after the opening, which introduces the various musical instruments and visualizes the parts that they represent. I found his narration to be a repetitive element for a story that was clearly and effectively told through character animation and pantomime.
But the most enjoyable might be the last entry, “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met.” It finds an equal amount of pathos and comedy in its story, and presents an endearing and original character in Willy the singing sperm whale. A sperm whale in various famous Opera costumes is humorous enough, but add in a mistaken impresario who hunts down Willy, a seagull sidekick, and three goofy crewman, and the rough materials are all in place for a solid short. The unexpectedly dark conclusion is a nice swerve, and ends the film on a satisfying note.
If you ever wondered how much Disney cares about most of the films from this era, just look at how beat-up and dirty this print is. Specks, scratches, and dirt are all over it. I’m not sure why Disney let this film fall into such rough shape, there’s a lot of charm on display here. Granted, as a whole Make Mine Music is only mildly satisfying, but individual moments linger and hit hard.
