Make Mine Music (1946)

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

OK, so "Make Mine Music" follows the "Fantasia" model of setting action to music. The Looney Tunes cartoon "A Corny Concerto" was probably the coolest incarnation. I understand that a sequence from "Make Mine Music" showing feuding hick families shooting at each other got cut out of concern that it made gun violence look funny. Isn't the problem easy access to guns? I noticed that the jitterbug sequence featured some scenes that probably irritated the prudes (a girl showers and then shows her naked upper back). It's always neat what animators managed to slip into their cartoons. Overall, a lot of the content was too flowery for my tastes, but I did like the vignette about the singing whale. And of course, sarcastic person that I am, while watching the movie I made a few remarks similar to those that Mike, Servo and Crow make at the crummy movies sent them by Dr. Forrester and TV's Frank on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Specifically, during "Peter and the Wolf" whenever it played Peter's theme, I referenced Otter in "Animal House" (you may recall that he whistles the theme).Anyway, we can accept the movie for what it is.

Unable to initially return to making true animated features like "Pinocchio" and "Bambi" after the Second World War, Disney turned to making "package features". Like "Fantasia", these films strung together various shorts and featurettes into a feature-length anthology. Between their release in the 1940s and the DVD age, these films were rarely, if ever, shown in their entirety. Instead, the individual segments were re-released as stand-alone pieces, some of which became quite popular. It's understandable why this was done. Whereas the individual elements of "Fantasia" have a similar enough artistic vision to be kept intact as a single experience, the package features do seem like a line of random, individual shorts that have been strung together. As such, the films can seem quite uneven and somewhat unsatisfying collectively.In particular, "Make Mine Music" stands out as being one of the most inconsistent package features. It consists of ten shorts, all relying heavily on music. Some of the shorts are fairly conventional, story-driven, while others are quite experimental. The real stand-out pieces are "Peter and the Wolf" (initially considered for a sequel/continuation of "Fantasia") and "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met". The stories are engaging, and they are absolutely charming, although "Peter and the Wolf" relies a bit too much on narration. It comes as no surprise that these two shorts became the film's most famous segments. Special mention should also be given to "Blue Bayou", which uses footage from a deleted segment of "Fantasia" that was to be set to Debussy's "Clair de Lune" (here, though, it's set to a love ballad).Other segments, however, vary. "The Martins and the Coys", which was rather stupidly removed from the American DVD, is not bad but hardly memorable. "After You've Gone", an interlude featuring anthropomorphised musical instruments, means well but falls quite flat, ultimately appearing as not much more than filler. "All the Cats Join In" and "Without You" equally seem like experimental filler, yet both are more successful. "Casey at the Bat", on the other hand, contains too many self-indulgent gags and overly caricatured animation to be of any real artistic or entertainment merit, a fact not helped by Jerry Colona's obnoxious narration. The two other segments, "Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet" and "Two Silhouettes", are so cutesy that they become nothing but pieces of unadulterated kitsch.Ultimately, the only people I would recommend "Make Mine Music" to would be the people who would only be interested in it - Disney fans and animation buffs. To everyone else, as with a good number of package films, it would probably be best seeing individual segments, which is how these films work best.

Get your dancing shoes on and have fun with this 1946 Disney cartoon classic, "Make Mine Music."This movie contains ten animated segments for the original version, and nine for the DVD version (due to the first short being a little bit too...). Like all of the other Disney classics, these shorts are exceptionally outstanding!One short in particular: The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At The Met. I'm mentioning this short the most because this was seen on the old Disney Channel (before it got all "Raven-ed" up LOL) nine years ago from writing. Sure, it was long, but it made for a very interesting short. It may also not have Mickey and Minnie, but it's still worth watching!"Make Mine Music" is a good movie to watch if you are a little bit down and need to be all pepped up! Enjoy!10/10

I'm a UK viewer and I saw "Make Mine Music" in the late 1940's,when it was newly released . I had seen and been excited by "Fantasia" and the "MMM" numbers, as a late teenager, I found hugely enjoyable. I'm sad to learn that the "Martins and the Coys" number has been deleted - it was fun and the hill billy feuding' was something we'd found amusing and harmless. I disagree with some of the comments on the individual numbers, particularly "Without You" by Andy Russell and "Two Silhouettes" by Dinah Shore, both of which made an impression on me and I've been trying to obtain a record of the former for years, without success. I have fond memories of "Johnny Fedora and Alic Blue Bonnet" (absurdly sentimental though it was)and can sing the first lines to this day. The Benny Goodman numbers are superb - musically and animation-wise - but then I'm a B.G.fan and ever will be. "Peter and the Wolf" persuaded me to listen to the real classical version and, subsequently, to buy the sound track record. Perhaps I do agree with the viewer who found Jerry Colonna's rendering of "Casey" a lemon but then you either take Jerry's versions of things or you don't. Nelson ("The singing capon")Eddy's version of "Willie" was a delight, though in later years it may have made one more conscious of the bloody aspects of whale hunting. Anyway, it was good to hear Nelson without "Heart of Steel" Jeanette MacDonald. You see, without seeing the film again the memories come tumbling out and I've given it a 9 for more reasons than one. Please will somebody tell me where I can obtain a VHS copy ? David Miles