Make Mine Music

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