DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE
Make Mine Music
WHAT IS THE DISNEY MOVIE CHALLENGE: With Disney+ making available almost all of their films from the vault I thought it was a good time to watch all the theatrically released feature length Disney Studio Animated films. That’s a lot of qualifications so what does it all mean? It must be a film developed and released under the Walt Disney Animation Studios (so no PIXAR or Tim Burton stop motion films). Must have been released in theaters (no direct to video releases). And feature length (no shorts that played prior to the features). Currently there are 58 films. Starting with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937 going to Frozen II in 2020.
Similar to “Fantasia” the film uses music as inspiration for each short. Instead of using classical music it used contemporary music of the time. Some of the artists that contributed music to the film are The Benny Goodman Band, Dinah Shore, and The Andrews Sisters. It didn’t have a narrator like “Fantasia” but each short had a title card that introduced the style. For example before “Blue Bayou” there was a title card that said Tone Poem, and before “All the Cats Join in” we are told this is a Jazz Interlude.
I felt like I have actually seen some of these shorts before so some of them must have played on Disney Channel at one point. A few of the more notable ones are “Casey at Bat” and “Peter and the Wolf”. For the most part the shorts in this package film are decent. Only a few I didn’t enjoy at all. The last short "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" is a bit of a downer to end on. The titular whale is harpooned and killed but does go on to sing in heaven so guess not a total bummer.
The biggest controversy for this film was the first short in the original release called "The Martins and the Coys". It's a take on the Hatfield and McCoys which include plenty of gun violence. The short was removed on from the only DVD release because "graphic gun play not suitable for children". There was also a minor edit in "All the Cats Join In" where a girls bare butt is edited out. Both are now considered no-go for modern Disney films, and it is most likely the reason why the movie is not currently available on Disney+. I was lucky enough to be able to get the edited DVD from my local library. If you are so inclined you can watch "The Martins and the Coys" on YouTube. As far as the bare butt goes you can probably find that if you look hard enough but I did not try.
Overall: As I have mentioned before each package film is going to have its hit and misses. This one worked for me. I enjoyed "All the Cats Join In", "Casey At Bat", "Peter and the Wolf", and "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met". I actually like the more modern take on "Fantasia" and wonder why Disney hasn't done something like this recently.
Random Facts
Entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival
There is an uncut Japanese laserdisc version from 1985 and a Scandinavian uncut version was released in 2006 but they are very rare. In 2013 a U.K. uncut DVD version was finally released. No Blu-Ray was ever released. The uncut version is one of the hardest Disney Films to find and not even the edited version is available on Disney+.
Random Facts
Entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival
There is an uncut Japanese laserdisc version from 1985 and a Scandinavian uncut version was released in 2006 but they are very rare. In 2013 a U.K. uncut DVD version was finally released. No Blu-Ray was ever released. The uncut version is one of the hardest Disney Films to find and not even the edited version is available on Disney+.
The U.S.' only DVD release was in 2000 and had the two edits previously mentioned.
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