| Melody Time | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Clyde Geronimi Wilfred Jackson Hamilton Luske Jack Kinney |
| Story by | Winston Hibler Erdman Penner Harry Reeves Homer Brightman Ken Anderson Ted Sears Joe Rinaldi Bill Cottrell Art Scott Jesse Marsh Bob Moore John Walbridge |
| Produced by | Walt Disney Ben Sharpsteen |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Winton Hoch |
| Edited by | Donald Halliday Thomas Scott |
| Music by | Eliot Daniel Paul J. Smith Ken Darby |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 75 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.5 million[1] |
| Box office | $2.56 million (worldwide rentals)[2] |
Melody Time is a 1948 American live-action and animatedmusicalanthology film produced byWalt Disney. It was released to theatres byRKO Radio Pictures on May 27, 1948. Made up of seven segments set topopular music andfolk music, the film is, likeMake Mine Music before it, the popular music version ofFantasia.Melody Time, while not meeting the artistic accomplishments ofFantasia, was mildly successful.
According to Disney, the film's plot is as follows: "In the grand tradition of Disney's greatest musical classics, such as FANTASIA, MELODY TIME features seven classic stories, each enhanced with high-spirited music and unforgettable characters...[A] feast for the eyes and ears [full of] wit and charm... a delightful Disney classic with something for everyone".[3] Rose Pelswick, in a 1948 review forThe News-Sentinel, described the film as an "adventure into the intriguing make-believe world peopled by Walt Disney's Cartoon characters". It also explains that "with the off-screen voice of Buddy Clark doing the introductions, the... episodes include fantasy, folklore, South American rhythms, poetry, and slapstick".[4] A 1948 review by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette described it as a "mixture of fantasy, abstraction, parable, music, color, and movement".[5]
The seven "mini-musical"[6] stories outlined:
This segment featuresFrances Langford singing the title song about two romantic young lovers on a winter day in December, during the late 19th century. The couple are Jenny and Joe (unlike most Disney cartoons, Jenny and Joe lack spoken dialogue). Joe shows off on the ice for Jenny, and near-tragedy and a timely rescue ensues. This is intertwined with a similar rabbit couple.
Like other segments of these package films,Once Upon a Wintertime was later released theatrically as an individual short, in this case on September 17, 1954.[7]
This segment presents asurrealistic battle for a solitary bumblebee as he tries to ward off a visual and musical frenzy. The music, courtesy ofFreddy Martin and His Orchestra (withJack Fina playing the piano), is a swing-jazz variation ofRimsky-Korsakov'sFlight of the Bumblebee, which was one of the many pieces considered for inclusion inFantasia.
A retelling of the story ofJohn Chapman, who spent most of his life roaming theMidwestern United States (mainly Ohio and Indiana) in the pioneer days, and planting apple trees, thus earning his famous nickname. He also spread Christianity.Dennis Day narrates (as an "old settler who knew Johnny well") and provides the voices of both Johnny and hisguardian angel.
The segment was released independently on December 25, 1955, asJohnny Appleseed.[8] The piece has a running time of "17 minutes [making it] the film's second-longest piece".[9] Before being adapted forMelody Time, the story of Johnny Appleseed was "first immortalized around campfires", then later turned into "storybook form".[10]
The story ofLittle Toot byHardie Gramatky, in which the title protagonist, a smalltugboat inNew York City, wanted to be just like his father Big Toot, but could not seem to stay out of trouble.
The Andrews Sisters provide vocals. A clip features briefly in the "Friendship" song onDisney Sing Along Songs volumeFriend Like Me. It was also featured inSing Me a Story with Belle.
A recitation of the 1913 poem"Trees" byJoyce Kilmer, featuring music byOscar Rasbach and performed byFred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. The lyrical setting accompanies animation ofbucolic scenes seen through the changing of the seasons, with an extended break between the sixth and seventh lines of the poem to accommodate a storm scene.
To preserve the look of the original story sketches, layout artist Ken O'Connor came up with the idea of using frosted cels and rendering the pastel images right onto the cel. Before being photographed each cel was laminated in clear lacquer to protect the pastel. The result was a look that had never been seen in animation before.[11]
Donald Duck andJosé Carioca meet theAracuan Bird, who introduces them to the pleasures of thesamba. The accompanying music is the 1914polkaApanhei-te, cavaquinho byErnesto Nazareth, fitted with English lyrics.
The Dinning Sisters provide vocals while organistEthel Smith appears in a live-action role.[12]
The finale follows aboutTexas' famous heroPecos Bill. Raised bycoyotes, he became the biggest and best cowboy that ever lived. It also features hishorse Widowmaker, who he saved fromvultures that tried to eat him. He then goes on to become the most famous cowboy in folklore. It recounts the ill-fated romance between Bill and a beautiful cowgirl named Slue-Foot Sue,with whom he fell in love at first sight, which made Widowmaker so jealous of Sue that he caused her to get literally stranded on the moon on their wedding day. Heartbroken, Bill leaves civilization and rejoins the coyotes who now howl at the moon in honor of Bill's loss.
This retelling featuresRoy Rogers,Bob Nolan, the former's horseTrigger, and theSons of the Pioneers telling the story toBobby Driscoll andLuana Patten, all in a live-acted introduction set against animated backdrops before segueing into the animated story. The segment was later edited on the film'sNTSC video release (sans thePAL release) to remove all shots with Bill smoking a cigarette and almost the entire tornado scene with Bill rolling his cigarette and lighting it with a lightning bolt.[13] Both the cigarette and tornado scenes were restored when the film was released onDisney+. With a total running time of "22 minutes, [it] is the lengthiest piece".[9]
The cast is listed below:[3]
| Once Upon a Wintertime | Bumble Boogie | Johnny Appleseed | Little Toot | Trees | Blame It On the Samba | Pecos Bill |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frances Langford (Singer) | Freddy Martin (Music composer) | Dennis Day | The Andrews Sisters (Singers) | Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians (Singers) | Ethel Smith and the Dinning Sisters (Singers) | Roy Rogers (Singer), Sons of Pioneers (Singers),Bob Nolan (Singer) |
| Melody Time | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1948 | |||
| Label | Disneyland Records | |||
| Walt Disney Animation Studios soundtrack chronology | ||||
| ||||
The songs inMelody Time were all "largely based around (then) contemporary music and musical performances".[15] "Blue Shadows on the Trail" was chosen by theWestern Writers of America as one of the top 100 Western Songs of all time.[16]
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Performer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Melody Time" | George David Weiss &Bennie Benjamin | Buddy Clark | |
| 2. | "Once Upon a Wintertime" | Bobby Worth &Ray Gilbert | Frances Langford | 7:22 |
| 3. | "Bumble Boogie" | Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (writer),Jack Fina (arranger) | Freddy Martin and His Orchestra &Jack Fina (piano) | |
| 4. | "Johnny Appleseed" | Kim Gannon &Walter Kent | Dennis Day | |
| 5. | "Little Toot" | Allie Wrubel | The Andrews Sisters | |
| 6. | "Trees" | Joyce Kilmer (poem) &Oscar Rasbach (music) | Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians | |
| 7. | "Blame It on the Samba" | Ernesto Nazareth &Ray Gilbert | Ethel Smith &The Dinning Sisters | |
| 8. | "Pecos Bill" | Eliot Daniel &Johnny Lange | Roy Rogers &The Sons of the Pioneers | |
| 9. | "Blue Shadows on the Trail" | Eliot Daniel &Johnny Lange | Roy Rogers &The Sons of the Pioneers |
In late 1947, Disney announced he would be releasing a "regrouping of various cartoons at his studio under two titles,Melody Time andTwo Fabulous Characters", to be released in August 1948 and 1949, respectively.[17]Melody Time ended up being released a few months earlier than planned, in May.
Melody Time is considered to be the last anthology feature made by Walt Disney Productions (the next film to be released wasThe Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, which featured two stories). These package features were "little-known short-film compilations that Disney produced and released as feature films during World War II". They were "financially (and artistically) lightweight productions meant to bring in profits [to allow the studio to] return to fairy tale single-narrative feature form", an endeavour which they successfully completed two years later withCinderella. While the shorts "contrast in length, form, and style", a common thread throughout is that each "is accompanied by song[s] from musicians and vocalists of the '40s"[9] – both popular and folk music.[18] This sets it apart from the similarly structuredFantasia, whose segments were set to classical music instead.[19] As opposed toFun and Fancy Free, whose story was bound to the tales ofBongo andMickey and the Beanstalk, in this film "Walt Disney has let his animators and his color magicians have free rein".[20]
Melody Time was the last film The Andrews Sisters took part in. They sang throughout the 10-minute segment known asLittle Toot. Andrews Sisters member Maxine said: "It was quite an experience. On the wall at the studio they had the whole story in picture form. Two songwriters played the score and Walt Disney explained it to us. It was a new thing for Disney. We sang the narrative. It was very exciting to work with Disney—he was such a gentleman".[14]
Favorite Disney juvenile actorsBobby Driscoll andLuana Patten, who also starred inSong of the South andSo Dear to My Heart, appear in the last sequence as the two children who hear the story of Pecos Bill.[6]
Melody Time was the last feature film to include Donald Duck and José Carioca until the 1988Touchstone Pictures filmWho Framed Roger Rabbit.[6]
The film was originally released in USA, Brazil, and Argentina in 1948, in 1949 in Australia and in 1950 in Mexico and Uruguay. From December 1948 (UK) to 15 September 1954 (Denmark) the film was released across Europe. The film was known by a variety of names includingВреме за музика in Bulgaria,Mélodie cocktail in France,Musik, Tanz und Rhythmus in Germany, andSäveltuokio in Finland.
Disney later released a package film entitledMusic Land, a nine-segment film which "recycled sequences from bothMake Mine Music andMelody Time". Five selections were fromMelody Time while another was the shortTwo For the Record, which consisted of two segments produced under Benny Goodman's direction.[21]
Melody Time was unusual in that, until 1998 (50 years after its initial release), it remained "one of the handful of Disney's animated features yet to be released on videocassette". Some of the segments "have been re-released as featurettes", andOnce Upon a Wintertime has "been included on other Disney video cartoon compilations".[22]
Melody Time was first released on January 25, 1987, in Japan, onLaserdisc, and then onVHS on June 2, 1998, under the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection title.[23] ThisTHX certified VHS was the first American home video release of the film itself, premiering in time for its 50th anniversary.[24]
Prior to its 1998 home video debut in the US, in part of the Walt Disney Masterpiece Collection,Once Upon A Wintertime was featured on the VHS, A Walt Disney Christmas,Little Toot on Storybook Classics,Blame It On The Samba on The Wonderful World of Disney: Music for Everybody andPecos Bill on the American Heroes VHS paired withPaul Bunyan.
On June 6, 2000,Melody Time was released on VHS andDVD as part of theWalt Disney Gold Classic Collection. However, in the Region 1 DVD release all scenes of smoking were digitally removed in thePecos Bill segment while the Region 2 release in Europe leaves those scenes unaltered. The movie was left uncut, with smoking scenes intact, when it was included on theDisney+ streaming service. It was released on Blu-Ray, exclusive to the Disney Movie Club, on November 2, 2021, also uncut and unaltered.
The various taglines of the film were: "For Your All-Time Good Time!", "7 Hit Songs! 11 Musical Stars!", and "Walt Disney's Great New Musical Comedy".
Collectible items for the film include books, figures, and posters.[19]
At the time of its release, the film received "generally unfavorable" reviews.[25] However,Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom notes that an article inTime Magazine around that time "celebrated the global scope of the Disney product",[25] and a 1948 review forThe News-Sentinel said the "charm and skill" that one had to expect from Disney is "delightful entertainment" for all children.[4] A 1948 review of the film for theLos Angeles Times said the "acts"Johnny Appleseed andPecos Bill, which the "new variety show from Walt Disney [gave] special attention to" are "'human' sagas" and as a result "more endearing" than the rest of the segments.[26]The Andrews Sisters: A Biography and Career Record notes that "the public liked the film and it was a box-office success".[14]
A 1948 review by thePittsburgh Post-Gazette said the film was a "visual and auditory delight" and added that if Disney were able to reach his audience's other senses, "there's no doubt he'd be able to please them too". It says a "tuneful and functional soundtrack rounds out the Disney art". It said thatBumble Boogie "reverted back to fantasia-like interpretive technique". It also notes that the abstraction ends afterTrees, and the final three shorts are "story-sequences". It says the simple story of Johnny Appleseed is done with "touching perception". It saidLittle Toot "is destined to become a fable of our time" and adds "the Andrews Sisters tell the story in lilting song". The review ended with the author saying "deserving accolades will go to [Walt Disney] and his whole production staff, as well as to the staff whose voices he has used as well".[5]
A 1948 review of the film forThe News-Sentinel describedPecos Bill as the best segment, and said it "caused a stir among the small fry in the audience".
Later reviews are more mixed, noting the film's faults, but also praising it for various technical achievements.
DVDizzy notes that in regard to the mix of shorts and 1940s music, "the marriage often does not work, and the melodies are not particularly the film's forte"; however, it adds that this is a modern-day opinion, and that paying audiences at the time the film was released probably "felt better about the music". The site then reviewed each segment in turn, saying:Once Upon a Wintertime is "physical slapstick" that doesn't match the "dramatic singing by Frances Langford",Bumble Boogie is "fun but forgettable",The Legend of Johnny Appleseed is the "most enjoyable" of the segments,Little Toot is "rather generic",Trees features "some nice imagery",Blame it on the Samba "involve[s] Latin dancing and nothing more", andPecos Bill has "Disney...go[ing] back and us[ing] today's technology to alter [Bill's smoking,] what admittedly is a minor point in one short of a film that's predominantly going to be watched and purchased by animation enthusiasts/historians". It explains the "video quality is consistently satisfying" and that the "audio has the dated feel of other '40s Disney films".[9]
The film received a score of 77.06 out of 100 based on 50 votes, on the site Disney Movies Guide.[27]
In his bookThe Animated Movie Guide, Jerry Beck gaveMelody Time a rating of 2/5 stars, and described the film as "odds and ends from a studio geared up towards revival". He said that by this time the post-war formula of releasing anthologies had become "tired", with only a few of the segments being interesting, and feeling as if the animators kept "pushing for something more creative to do". He commented that the film, a "vast underachievement" for Disney, felt dated like its predecessorMake Mine Music, and added that he found it hard to believe that the artists who made this film had also madePinocchio eight years before. He praised the "exceptional designs and palettes" by stylistMary Blair, including the "flat styli[s]ed backgrounds" ofWintertime, and the Impressionist painting/folk art look ofThe Legend of Johnny Appleseed. He highlighted the "slapstick...impressive montage of Bill's impressive feats" as a "true treat". He described the "manic interpretation" ofFlight of the Bumblebee known asBumble Boogie, in which a bee terrorized by musical instruments and notes "change[s] colors and outlines from one moment to the next as the backgrounds seamlessly dissolve, change or morph around him", as "Disney's best piece of surrealism since the 'Pink Elephant on Parade' sequence in Dumbo". He also spoke about the "stellar special effects" involved in the dynamite exploding Ethel Smith's organ instrument, in the segmentBlame it on the Samba. However, he added that the rest ofMelody Time was "sad[ly]...forgettable".[12]
InThe Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life, Steven Watts explains that whilePecos Bill "recaptured some of the old magic", the film as a whole, along with the other "halfhearted...pastiche[s] of short subjects", came across as "animated shorts surrounded with considerable filler and stuff into a concocted package". He adds that as a result they "never caught fire" due to their "varying wildly in quality", with moments of creativity being outweighed by the "insipid, mediocre, stale stretches of work".[28]
The authors ofThe Cartoon Music Book saidMelody Time was "much better" than the other post-Fantasia Disney package films of the era, adding that it was "beautifully designed and scored", paving the way for the "'populuxe' style" of Disney's first renaissance (starting withCinderella in 1950). They stated thatTrees andBlame it on the Samba (which they described as a "psychedelic Latin American sequence") are "charming, if still obscure, entries in the Disney pop song catalog[ue]".[29]
The Andrews Sisters: A Biography and Career Record author H. Arlo Nimmo said "in general, [the Andrews Sisters-sung] Melody Time holds up well, and the story of 'Little Toot' is as appealing to today as when it originally appeared fifty-some years ago". He described the singing as "unremarkable but narrat[ing] the...story cleverly". He addsVariety's quote: "'Little Toot,'...is colorful and engrossing. Andrews Sisters give it popular vocal interpretation", and said that althoughThe New York Times preferred the film toMake Mine Music the newspaper added "The Andrews Sisters sing the story...not very excitingly". He also includedMetronome's indifferent comment: "The Andrews Sisters sing a silly song about a tugboat". The articleThe Walt Disney Classics Collection Gets "Twitterpatted" For Spring deemedLittle Toot one ofMelody Time's highlights.[30]
In a review of the 2004 Disney filmHome on the Range, the article "Frisky 'Range' doesn't measure up: Disney delivers fun" said that the "sendup of the Wild West...has some fitful comic vitality and charm - [but] it can't hold a candle to the 'Pecos Bill' segment of the studio's late-'40s anthology, 'Melody Time'".[31]
Rotten Tomatoes reported that 75% of 12 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average score of 6.9/10.[32] The critical consensus reads, "Melody Time is a charming musical anthology film that's expertly crafted and filled with high-spirited numbers."
A 1998Chicago Tribune review of the film, in honor of its VHS release, described the film as a "sweet, old-fashioned delight and one of the few Disney animated films that pre-schoolers can watch alone without danger of being traumatized", but also added that the younger generation might be bored by it, as they are "attuned to the faster, hipper rhythms of the post-'Mermaid' era".[22]
Beck considers the segment "Blame It on the Samba" to be the best "Good Neighbor" Disney film there is, stating that "it blows my mind every time I watch it."[33] Film historianJ.B. Kaufman has noted that the segment is a cult favorite among Disney fans.[34]
The film returned rentals to RKO by 1951 of $2,560,000 with $1,810,000 being generated in the U.S. and Canada.[2]
Due to the controversy surrounding the smoking inPecos Bill, the segment was "heavily edited" when the film was released onto VHS in 1998. While the character of Bill is shown "smoking a cigarette in several sequences", the edited version cuts these scenes, "resulting in the removal of almost the entire tornado sequence, and [creating] some odd hand and mouth movements for Bill throughout". In a review at DVDizzy, it is noted that if one has an interest in the shorts, one will "probably be upset to know that Disney has decided to digitally edit out contents of the 50-plus-year-old frames of animation".[9] In theMelody Time section of theYour Guide To Disney's 50 Animated Features feature at Empire Online, the review said of the editing: "at least, it was [done] for the US releases, but not for the rest of the world. Go figure."[15] The scenes are removed on theGold Collection DVD release[12] although the Japanese laserdisc and the version of the DVD released in the United Kingdom are uncut. For the first time in 80 years, the uncut version with Pecos Bill's cigarette can now be seen onDisney+, alongside a Disney Movie Club exclusive Blu-ray, released on November 2, 2021.
According to a source, upon reviewing the music that Ken Darby had composed forJohnny Appleseed, Walt Disney "scorned the music", describing it as "like New Deal music". Darby was "enraged", and said to Disney "THAT is just a cross-section of one man's opinion!". Darby was only employed at The Walt Disney Company for a short while after this supposed incident.
Jerry Beck, in his bookThe Animated Movie Guide, comments on a risqué joke inPecos Bill that somehow made it past the censors, when Bill kisses Sue and his guns rise from their holsters and begin to fire by themselves, simulating ejaculation. He adds jokingly that "perhaps Roy Rogers was covering the eyes of Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten during this scene".[12]
Many of the seven segments were later released as shorts, and some of them became "more successful than the original film".Bumble Boogie was among the few segments to receive huge popularity upon individual release.[27] The articleThe Walt Disney Classics Collection Gets "Twitterpatted" For Spring notes that "theLittle Toot segment of the film was so popular that it was re-released on its own as a short cartoon in 1954, and was subsequently featured on Walt Disney's popular weekly television series".[30]
There are many references to thePecos Bill segment in theFrontierland part ofMagic Kingdom: there is a sign of Bill outside the Pecos Bill Tall Tale Inn and Cafe, as well as various images of him, the other characters, and their accessories around the cafe. A pair of gloves with the inscription "To Billy, All My Love, Slue Foot Sue" is located in a glassdisplay case. In the World of Disney, Jose Carioca fromBlame it on the Samba appears in a mural on the ceiling among many other characters. In a glass case, behind the windows of the All-Star Movies, there is a script forMelody Time.[6]
