Disney was known for combining his musical cartoon shorts into interesting feature-length anthologies and Melody Time is one of the best. But for the fact that all of the featured segments have musical themes, they vary widely in musical and artistic style. Included are the exciting "Bumble Boogie," with a jazzy version of Rimski-Korsakov's famed "Flight of the Bumblebee," played by Freddy Martin and His Orchestra; the legend of Johnny Appleseed, "Little Toot," the story of a courageous tug-boat narrated by the Andrews Sisters; "Trees," based on Joyce Kilmer's poem and featuring songs by Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians; "Blame It on the Cowboys," featuring Ethel Smith kicking up her heels with Donald Duck and his Three Caballeros pal Joe Carioca, and cowboy stars Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers in a live-action/animated retelling of the legend of "Pecos Bill." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Review
The opening of Melody Time promises "something for everyone," and that's the main problem with this amiable descendant of the much more effective and ambitious Fantasia. By trying to please too many people, it ends up being less satisfying than if it had aimed at one target audience and tried to please that audience wholeheartedly. As is usually the case with anthology films of this sort, there are highs and lows. But while the "lows" are not too low here, neither are the "highs" particularly high. No one segment stands out as a "must see," although all are agreeable and entertaining. The best realized of the lot are probably the "Johnny Appleseed" and "Pecos Bill" segments, the latter notable for finding the folks at Disney behaving more like the animators at Warner Brothers. Weakest is the opening segment, which traffics in the kind cloying faux-nostalgia that weakens a number of other Disney efforts. The "Bumble Boogie" episode is also strong, if too short, and features some very imaginative animation involving piano keys that turn into flower petals and snakes, among other things. Animation throughout is smooth and assured, and if it never is groundbreaking, it still allows the animators to work in some styles that are atypical for the studio. Vocal talent is good throughout, with welcome contributions from the Andrews Sisters and Dennis Day and an odd but intriguing contribution from Ethel Smith. No classic, but quite enjoyable. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Hal Ambro - Animator, Hal King - Animator, Don Lusk - Animator, Cliff Nordberg - Animator, Ken O'Brien - Animator, Harvey Toombs - Animator, Judge Whitaker - Animator, Marvin Woodward - Animator, Edwin Aardal - Animator, John Sibley - Animator, Rudy Larriva - Animator, Frank Thomas - Animator, Ollie Johnston - Animation Director, Clyde Geronimi - Director, Wilfred Jackson - Director, Jack Kinney - Director, Hamilton Luske - Director, Thomas Scott - Editor, Donald Halliday - Editor, Eliot Daniel - Composer (Music Score), Kim Gannon - Composer (Music Score), Walter Kent - Composer (Music Score), Johnny Lange - Composer (Music Score), George Weiss - Composer (Music Score), Bobby Worth - Composer (Music Score), Allie Wrubel - Composer (Music Score), Ray Gilbert - Composer (Music Score), Eliot Daniel - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ken Darby - Musical Direction/Supervision, Paul J. Smith - Musical Direction/Supervision, Winton Hoch - Cinematographer, Walt Disney - Producer, William Cottrell - Screenwriter, Ken Anderson - Screenwriter, Homer Brightman - Screenwriter, Winston Hibler - Screenwriter, Erdman Penner - Screenwriter, Harry Reeves - Screenwriter, Joe Rinaldi - Screenwriter, Ted Sears - Screenwriter, John Walbridge - Screenwriter, Bob Moore - Screenwriter
Once Upon a Wintertime features Frances Langford singing the title song about two romantic young lovers in December. The boy shows off for his girl, and near-tragedy and a timely rescue ensue. This short was also featured in Very Merry Christmas Songs which is part of Disney Sing Along Songs as a background movie for the song Jingle Bells.
Bumble Boogie is a surrealistic nightmare for a solitary bee trying to escape from a visual and musical frenzy. The music is courtesy of Freddy Martin and his orchestra (with Jack Fina playing the piano) and is a swing-jazz variation of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, which was one of the many pieces considered for inclusion in Fantasia.
The Legend of Johnny Appleseed is a retelling of the story of John Chapman, who spent most of his life roaming Mid-Western America (mainly Illinois and Indiana) in the pioneer days, and planting apple trees, thus earning his famous nickname. Dennis Day narrates and provides all the voices.
Little Toot is based on the poem by Hardie Gramatky, in which the title protagonist, a small tugboat, wants to be just like his father Big Toot, but can't seem to stay out of trouble. The Andrews Sisters provide the vocals. Out of all the musical segments, this one is the most famous.
Blame It On the Samba has Donald Duck and José Carioca meeting with the Aracuan Bird who introduces them to the pleasures of the samba. The Dinning Sisters provide the vocals while organist Ethel Smith plays the organ.
Pecos Bill is the finale about the famous hero from Texas, the biggest and best cowboy that ever lived, his horse Widowmaker, and how he was brought back down to earth by a woman named Slue-Foot Sue. This retelling of the story is courtesy of Roy Rogers, Bob Nolan, and the Sons of the Pioneers to Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten. This segment was later edited on the film's NTSCvideo release (but not the PAL release) to remove all scenes of Bill smoking a cigarette. The entire scene with Bill rolling the smoke and lighting it with a lightning bolt was cut and all other shots of the offending cigarette hanging from his lips were digitally removed.
Cast
Roy Rogers - Himself; Narrator; Singer (Pecos Bill)
Trigger, the Smartest Horse in the Movies - Himself
Dennis Day - Narrator; Singer; Characters (Johnny Appleseed)
