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Benny Goodman, Sterling Holloway, Dinah Shore, David Lichine, Nelson Eddy ... see more see more... , The Andrews Sisters , Andy Russell , Jerry Colonna , The Pied Pipers , Pinto Colvig , The King's Men

In his first postwar animated feature, Walt Disney attempted to repeat the Fantasia formula, substituting "pop" music for the Classics. Make Mine Music consists of ten unrelated cartoon vignettes, eac... read more read more...h one featuring a popular recording artist. "A Rustic Ballad" is the story of the Martin-Coy hillbilly feud, narrated musically by the King's Men. "A Tone Poem" is an impressionistic interpretation of the song "Blue Bayou", sung by the Ken Darby chorus and rendered artistically by Disney's ace animators. "A Jazz Interlude", done in "sketchbook" style, is performed by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, and features the jitterbug specialty "All the Cats Join In". Jerry Colonna is next on the program in "A Musical Recitation", offering his own inimitable version of "Casey at the Bat". "Ballad Ballet" features Ballet Russe stars Tatiana Riabouchinska and David Lichine, dancing to Dinah Shore's vocalization of "Two Silhouettes". "A Fairy Tale with Music" turns out to be Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", narrated by Sterling Holloway. Next, Benny Goodman and company return with a surreal visualization of "After You've Gone", followed by "A Love Story", which features the Andrews Sisters' rendition of the ballad "Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet." The hilarious "Opera Pathetique" finale finds Nelson Eddy narrating the story of Willy, "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met". Better in its individual components than its sum total, Make Mine Music was drubbed by critics, who felt that Disney had abandoned his "artistic" aspirations in favor of crass commercialism, but performed reasonably well at the box office, inspiring several more "omnibus" animated features. In later years, the ten individual segments would be released as separate short subjects, both theatrically and as episodes of Disney's various TV series (where the original narration was often supplanted by the unfunny interpolations of Professor Ludwig Von Drake). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Flixster Users

43% liked it

2,056 ratings

Critics

67% liked it

9 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 7 min.

Directed by: Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore, Benny Goodman, Bob Cormack, Clyde Geronimi, Hamilton Luske, Jack Kinney, Jerry Colonna, Joe Grant, Joshua Meador, Sterling Holloway

Release Date: August 15, 1946

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DVD Release Date: June 6, 2000

Stats: 100 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (100)

  • sanjurosamurai
    December 30, 2007
    sanjurosamurai
    disneys 8th classic film, this is a collection of shorts, many featuring music and others featuring childrens stories with narration. willie the whale is the gem of the film, but the other shorts are very creative and the film has a suprise with a great jazz piece by benny goodm... read morean. the film is painfully slow, but it was made more for the expression of creativity than for the entertainment value. good picture.
  • maciasoctaviano
    June 28, 2011
    maciasoctaviano
    Number 3 of the compilation era

    The animation here is pretty good.
    The shorts are cute but unfortunately forgettable.
    The music at times boring.

    So far this is noticeably a weak era for Disney.

    Next up: Mickey Mouse the Movie (Sort of)
  • staindslaved
    February 27, 2012
    staindslaved
    WWII brought loads of problems to Disney Animation Studios. Walt was faced with financial complications due to the war, as well as having many of his animators overseas fighting or working on animated war propaganda for the government. Donald Duck became famous as the logo/masc... read moreot for the U.S. Navy during the war. With all of this going on Walt elected to release a few package films that consisted of works that were in progress or partially conceived. Make Mine Music was a sequel of sorts to Fantasia, with the same concept of each animated short being set to music. Like any anthology series the quality of each short differs, Make Mine Music has three borderline classics in Casey at the Bat, Peter and the Wolf, and Willie The Operatic Whale. Anyone would make the film worth recommending.
  • fb1246710182
    February 5, 2012
    fb1246710182
    A mixed bag of Disney animated shorts. Peter and the Wolf (altered from the original story), Casey at the Bat are good, and The opera singing whale is charming. Others are kind of slow. Good inclusion of some of the Silly Symphony cartoons, including the fun "Music Land."
  • kenscheck
    December 6, 2011
    kenscheck
    Sort of like a poor man's Fantasia with popular music of the day instead of classical. It is missing the imagination and depth of Fantasia, or the fun of the Three Caballeros, and in the end its mostly boring with hits in Casey at the Bat and Peter and the Wolf. The biggest probl... read moreem is that the popular music of the day SUCKED (this film could be evidence for anyone who thinks pop music has only gotten worse, it ain't true pop music has always sucked, and only the good stuff ever endures). The animations in these package films don't feel like there is as much effort put into them, they feel like the Disney shorts, not like the epic quality of Bambi or Snow White.
  • nestordonkey
    August 18, 2010
    nestordonkey
    Boring to sit through. Some entertaining pieces like Peter and the Wolf, but rather dull in execution. There is practically nothing stringing the shorts together which makes it feel cheap.
  • joakcbasse
    July 29, 2009
    joakcbasse
    i was thinking about how to describe this, but flixster helped take that burden off my hands. the flixster synopsis this movie is sometimes referred to as "the Poor Man's Fantasia." that's incredibly accurate. it's got lighter, more child-friendly animated shorts, and doesn't foc... read moreus as heavily on classical music. Other than that, it's the same sort of gist. Generally, an entertaining hour to spend.
  • Skoit7Up
    October 5, 2008
    Skoit7Up
    Very well done and in the vain of Fantasia. The animation feels very smooth and the colors and various animation styles work together nicely matching the current music style.
  • JTurner82
    July 27, 2008
    JTurner82
    The mid 1940's were a turbulent year for the Disney Studios; since SNOW WHITE, their subsequent productions, PINOCCHIO, FANTASIA, and BAMBI all failed financially; the fact that World War II crippled the artists' talents was also unfortunate. As a method of cutting down on costs,... read more Walt Disney decided to do a series of "anthology" features (aka package films), stringing together various shorts. The first of these was MAKE MINE MUSIC, which comprises of sequences such as "When You're Gone", "Peter and the Wolf", "Casey at the Bat", and "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing At The Met". The latter segment emerges as a major highlight for this film, being one of Disney's first major "unhappily ever after" stories. MAKE MINE MUSIC is probably too disjointed and dated to appeal to casual audiences, but Disney afficionadoes will enjoy it.
  • davyjkurlander
    May 7, 2007
    davyjkurlander
    I liked Make Mine Music. I thought all of the segments were well done, and the music was great. It wasn't too different from Fantasia, except a little more low budget.

View All Make Mine Music Reviews

Critic Reviews

November 16, 2009
TIME Magazine

Even Walt Disney's best films -- barring his wonderful slapstick -- have suffered from sticky taste; in this effort to be just plain folksy, that stickiness pretty thoroughly gums up the works. Full Review

Variety Staff
March 26, 2009
Variety Staff, Variety

It entertains all the way. Full Review

Bosley Crowther
March 25, 2006
Bosley Crowther, New York Times

Vivid, motley, ornamental and just-a-bit questionable in spots. Full Review

November 16, 2009
TV Guide's Movie Guide

An uneven, but generally well done and entertaining, potpourri of 10 cartoons set to disparate musical styles. Full Review

Tim Brayton
November 4, 2009
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy

One of the saddest little orphans in the whole of the Disney animated features canon... though the film hits more than it misses over the course of its ten sequences. Full Review

Trevor Johnston
June 24, 2006
Trevor Johnston, Time Out

Overall, it's hit and miss. Full Review

Steve Crum
October 23, 2004
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan

Disney animation-live action holds up well

Bob Bloom
October 5, 2002
Bob Bloom, Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)

A wonderful Disney offering featuring great animation.

Nell Minow
February 23, 2003
Nell Minow, Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

No review available.

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