"You know, you worry too much. In fact, everybody worries too much."

Film: "Fun and Fancy Free"

Release Date: 27 September 1947

Director: Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts, Hamilton Luske, William Morgan (live action)

History: Mickey Mouse is arguably the most famous and successful Hollywood star, real or fictional, to even grace the silver screen. Walt Disney, in part as a result of the reality, and in part becuase of the fact that Mickey was where his company started, and becuase mickey was his alter-ego, wanted nothing more then to make sure Mickey's star would shine as long as it could and as bright as it could. To that end, Walt was interested as he was making full length featured animated films, to start his beloved character as much as he could. Mickey stared in the very popular segment in "Fantasia," The Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Walt was really keen on putting Mickey in more films. Walt was interested in the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, and especially after Mickey's 1933 short, Giantland, felt that placing his beloved mouse in the staring role of that film would be a wonderful choice. Interested in making it a full length film, Walt once again faced the same issues faced that lead him to make the last three "package films," a lack of funds thanks mostly to World War II, so the project was dropped for a time.

Then a few years latter, needing a new film to be made, Disney picked the project back up and made the decision (based purely on cost) to pair it with another story that had be considered for a full length film, Bongo. Disney paired Mickey with long time pals Goofy and Donald Duck for the Jack half of the film, but needed some star power he felt for the Bongo part of it. So he brought in what at the time was possibly his fourth biggest and most popular character to act as a guide for the whole film and something of a partial narrator for Bongo, Jiminy Cricket. The famous cricket had not been seen since his debut in "Pinocchio," and Walt was ready to bring him back. The move would make it so that Mickey, Goofy, Donald and Jiminy Cricket would be the only four characters to appear in more then one of the Disney "Cannon" Animated Films under Walt Disney (after Walt died, the heroes of "The Rescuers" would go on to be the only other characters with that distinction). Jiminy Cricket would later been seen on tv in a number of various programs, most notably his "I'm No Fool" series, and then reunite on the silver screen with Mickey, Donald and Goofy in "Mickey's Christmas Carrol." This film would also be notable for being Walt's last performance theatrically as Mickey Mouse, and one of his last period.

Walt then decided to give the film more bang for the film goers buck, to add some live action segments featuring popular ventriloquist (and father of "Murphy Brown's Candice Bergen) Edger Bergen, with his puppets (and alter-egos) Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, along with child actress Luana Patten, to tell the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, while Dinah Shore, who as just in the last Disney animated film, would narrate "Bongo," as well as sing a number of songs. Doing well enough at the box office, both halves of this film would be show on tv separately many time through the years, especially Mickey and the Beanstalk, which would be re-narrated by both cartoon character Ludvig Von Drake and long time Disney voice veteran, the guy originally meant to narrate the story, Sterling Holloway.

My Reaction: My feeling for "Fun and Fancy Free" are mixed. I think it is really sad that both stories were not allowed to be the full films they were meant to be, and think in the long run that may have hurt them, most notably Bongo. Bongo was originally going to be a sort of/ kind of sequel to "Dumbo," but was heavily scaled down to fit into this film as half of it. It was a good story, and I think if given the time to explore the main characters and add more depth to them, could have been really special. But instead it felt like just what it was, a filler to a Mickey Mouse film. Maybe part of it was just that, that as the film goes on, you feel like you can't wait to see Mickey, maybe part of it is that the film speeds up parts and stret ches out parts, and on both sides does it to the wrong parts? But all in all, I enjoy watching Bongo the circus bear more then the previous films made by Disney since "Bambi." "Fun and Fancy Free" is the closet film since "Bambi" to get back to that original "feel" of Disney Animated Films.

The second half of the film is without much doubt the best part of it. But, that said, it is still really sad that Mickey and the Beanstalk never got to be it's own film. Unused animation and story ideas, including Mickey selling the cow to the Queen of Happy Valley (Minnie Mouse) and then having "Pinocchio" foe, Honest John be the one to sell Mickey the "magic beans" could have been awesome. Like Bongo, it felt rushed and drug out at the wrong moments, just not to the extent of Bongo. But, that said, it is really easy to see why of the two parts, it has been shown and released on home entertainment formats the most. As for the live action bits, while a fan of Edger Bergen, I was sad that Walt felt the need to add any live action to any of his "fully" animated films, and was happy when he stopped by the 1950's.

My Wife's Reaction: She enjoyed it, but had never seen the original version of Mickey and the Beanstalk. Being as she grew up only ever seeing the re-released version with Ludvig von Drake narrating it, she had a hard time watching the original version as she prefers the later version.

My Final Grade: (B-) Great film as the "package films" go, with Bongo being the weaker portion and Mickey and the Beanstalk being the better half and best reason to watch it.

All images copyright Disney. All rights reserved.

"You know, Donald, you have more relatives than there are coffee beans in Brazil. "

Film: "Three Caballeros"

Release Date: 3 February 1943

Director: Normand Ferguson

History: "Three Caballeros" was both the second of the "package film era" of Disney Animation and the second of the South of the Boarder propaganda films. But, unlike "Saludos Amigos" and other propoganda shorts made in the time period, "Three Caballeros" is a bit more hard to tell what it really is. The premise of the film, just like the other films of the 1940's, is a string of shorts put together and released as a full film. For "Three Caballeros," the film is held together by Donald Duck's birthday. Donald receives a few gifts from his friends South of the Boarder and each gift is used to tradition into the next short.

This would be Donald Duck's second theatrical film appearance, his first being in "Saludos Amigos", and first where he basically was the main star. He would later appear in "Fun and Fancy Free," "Fantasia 2000," and make cameos in non-Cannon Disney films "A Goofy Movie" and "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" "Three Caballeros" features many major film and music stars from South American countries of that era, including famed Mexican composer Manuel Esperon, as well as singers Aurora Miranda, Dora Luz and dancer Carmen Molina. It was originally released in Mexico City on December 21, 1944, and then released in the States on February 3, 1945. It was the last Disney film to be subsidized by the US Government as well as the last released during the second World War.

My Reaction: Again, I'm not a fan of the "package film era." As far as this film goes, there are a few shorts that I like, the opening about Pablo the Penguin is perfectly find by itself, the flying donkey makes a great short and the short "Las Posadas, about Mexican children at Christmas time is a great educational short, but beyond that I'm not fan of this film.

I found much of the rest of the film as odd, strange and even more odd when you keep in mind this is a Walt Disney film. True, Disney even had odd moments, but the ones found in this film takes the cake, save for maybe the "Pink Elephants of Parade" segment from "Dumbo" and "Heffalumps and Woozles" from "Winnie the Pooh"!

My Wife's Reaction: She likes this film for the simple reason it was a childhood favorite growing up and her mom the teacher would show it to her Spanish kids in Spanish.


My Final Grade: (C+) I'm not a fan of the "package film era" as a whole. That said many of the shorts that make up the six films in this era of Disney Animation are some of the studio's best work, but on the whole I'm not a fan. Disney's best films are single stories. This film, while maybe one of the best in the series and maybe best known, was a disappointment to me and is more in my collection for completest and historical reasons.

All images copyright Disney. All rights reserved.

"I'll bet his mother and dad will be proud of him. Just a natural born flier."

Film: "Saludos Amigos"

Release Date: 24 August 1942 (Brazil), 6 February 1943 (USA)

Director: Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts

History: "Saludos Amigos" was the sixth Disney Animated film, and first of the "package film" era. It was the culmination of a bunch of different things going on at the same time. World War II was going on, and while at the time that this film was made, the US had not gotten into the war yet, but worried as many Latin Nations were forming ties to Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, the same war was hurting the Disney Studios financially and in May of 1941, the studio had a strike during the production of "Dumbo." All in all, this lead to many worries for the studio, as well as for the country.

It was after the Disney Studio strike that future New York State Governor and US Vice President, Nelson Rockefeller, who at that time was head of the Latin American Affairs office in the State Department, suggested to Walt a goodwill tour of Latin America of behalf of the US Government. The US Government was happy as it meant that they would be sending down arguable one of their most popular citizens to Latin America as an ambassador of sorts, in hopes of it leading to ties being broken with Germany and forged with the US instead, and Walt was happy as the film he would make would be paid fully from government subsidies and tensions at the studio would ease while he was gone. Walt and the group from the studio that went with him, visited Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile. The film was first released in Brazil, but finally show in the states in early 1943. It had mixed reviews, but was popular enough that the Studio made one more Latin film, "The Three Caballeros."

My Reaction: To me, the "package film era" was a very bleak moment in the history of Disney Animation. It was for the most part an out come of World War II and really acted as more of a flotation device for the choppy financial waters the studio was in as a result. The first two films in this series, of which this was the first, acted as more of a propaganda film then anything else. It was meet with mixed reviews when it came out for a reason. Instead of the single, traditional story telling Disney was starting to be know for with his first five film, this was essentially a bunch of short subject cartoons, strung together with live-action footage of Walt and his group in Latin America. It defied the image of what a Disney Animated Film should look like, and most likely even angered some in 1943. But, it very much has to been seen with historians glasses, as again it was a direct result of World War II, and like many things, the War interrupted much of what was normal, everyday life in the United States, and even the whole World.

I think for what it was though, it was a good film. It is not a film I reach for when I want to watch Disney movies and is more of something I watch when I'm doing something like this marathon or for more historical reasons. It very much feels like just what it is, a series of Disney shorts staring Donald Duck and Goofy. The shorts themselves aren't even necessarily Donald or Goofy's best work, but still fans of either character will find enjoyment here.

Modern day releases of this film on DVD find a most confusing situation. Several seconds of animation depicting Goofy smoking were cut. Now while I can understand the thinking behind this, but feel there is room in this World for a DVD of both versions, the thing I don't get is why Disney didn't feel the need to cut scenes of smoking in this film from Joe Carioca or even Walt Disney himself! Then when you take into consideration that later, they did the same thing in "Melody Time" to Pecos Bill, but leave the smoking that once again Joe Carioca does as well as the smoking Pinocchio does in his film intact and the smoking Goofy does intact on the "Walt Disney Treatises" release of his shorts, you start to scratch your head. It slightly baffles why they chose to edit somethings but not others. Don't get me wrong, personally I've VERY anti-smoking and will argue for "family friendly edits" of film to the death, but the logic in this instance leaves me wondering what were they thinking? I think once again, there is room in this world for both versions.

My Wife's Reaction: She seemed ok with it, but it didn't seem to hold her attention as much.


My Final Grade: (C-) It is hard thinking of this film as a film in many ways and the shorts that make up the bulk of the film are not necessarily the best. In fact in many ways, this film felt more like a documentary mixed with Disney Animation and I'd guess would have better shelf life seen as something to show a history class in school then as family entertainment at home. But, for what it is, it was fine and there are many interesting facts about life in Latin America.

All images copyright Disney. All rights reserved.