DISCLAIMER: This blog is not for profit.
I do not claim ownership of this material- all images and footage used are
property of their respective companies unless stated otherwise.
This film feels very very bitty and for a good reason. It’s
the first on my list that fits into the ‘package era’, where the Second World
War brought lower budgets and a smaller animation team. As a result of this,
the Disney ‘movies’ released at the time were actually a collection of shorts
‘packaged’ as one feature.
Overall, each of the shorts is enjoyable in it’s own way.
For example, the shorts ‘Blue Bayou’ and ‘Two Silhouettes’ have some lovely
animation, although the latter’s use of Rotoscoping does look a bit odd at
times. On the whole, the animation for the rest of the shorts is pretty decent,
with some nice colours and great character designs. This is especially true in
the more comedic shorts, such as the baseball themed ‘Casey at the Bat’. But
there is nothing too special happening animation wise in any of the others, especially
considering that this is a studio that had already produced Bambi and
Pinocchio, albeit with a much larger budget and within a different context.
The best short in the set is probably ‘The Whale Who Wanted
To Sing At The Met’. Without spoiling anything, this is a beautiful, beautiful
story told in just the right way. Most of the other shorts also have fairly
entertaining plotlines.
The music is pretty fun and tells the stories of each short
effectively. It really shines the most when it is more narrative based, as
opposed to just being background music.
Overall, all of the shorts are well animated and entertaining on their own
and make for a pretty decent whole.
Rating
Good guys: Most
of the shorts have likable characters, with Willie the Whale being particularly
sweet, so the movie gets 5/10 for
good guys.
Bad guys: The
only real villain in the film is the Wolf in ‘Peter and the Wolf’- he is
somewhat threatening, but I feel like something about his design could have
been a bit scarier, so the Bad Guys get another 5/10
Animation: Pretty
in some shorts and decent in others, but nothing too special on the whole, the
animation gets a 5/10
Music: The music
tells the narratives of several shorts very well, in spite of being somewhat
forgettable at times, so the music gets a 6/10
Plot: Most of the
stories are interesting enough and Willie the Whale’s story is enough to bring
the score for Plot up to 7/10
Overall rating: 28/50
Next review: Melody Time
