 Yet another one of Disney's package films of the 40's; second to last of them, and leans a little more towards 'Make Mine Music' in style. Once again, we're spread out with a total of seven segments, so the review will be a touch long-winded, but I'll do my best to keep it short and sweet.
Much with 'Make Mine Music', it features segments that are punctuated with musical tones and poetry, and you get to guess how much of it may have been originally intended for the almighty 'Fantasia'. The whole thing is narrated by Buddy Clark - a man known more for his soundtrack performances than acting. He is also the man who sings the title song with his delightful, crooning voice. One by one, as usual, the segments are introduced, each offering a somewhat different artistic perspective. 'Once Upon a Wintertime': Frances Langford sings the title song, and we follow two young lovers named Jenny and Joe (neither with dialogue) while a couple of rabbits imitate most of their same moves. It's bright, chipper and cute, and would probably make for a nice addition to any Christmas soundtrack. Not my favorite kinda thing, but good for what it is. 3/5 'Bumble Boogie': This one WAS my favorite; Freddy Martin and His Orchestra, along with Jack Fina on the piano crank out a very jazzy, fast and upbeat version of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's 'Flight of the Bumblebee'. All the while, it follows this poor bumblebee as it keeps seemingly getting attacked and chased by surreal-looking instruments and musical notes. It's very artistic-looking and fun, and yes, it was originally considered for 'Fantasia'. 5/5 'The Legend of Johnny Appleseed': Dennis Day narrates a Disney retelling of American folk hero, John Chapman, otherwise, of course, known as 'Johnny Appleseed'. His nicknamed was earned after he spends most of his life planting apple trees across Mi-Western America while spreading Christianity. I'm not a fan, but that doesn't mean it's not fine for its target audience. I have this really weird bias against pioneer day stuff. I have a very hard time enjoying any of it, and find it a bit boring. We do all have our thing we'll never go out of our way to watch though. With that said, it pretty much mirrors how I feel about 'Once Upon a Wintertime'. 3/5 'Little Toot': I'm fairly certain I had this in the form of a read-along book on tape when I was a kid. One way or another, this was something I remembered from my childhood, so there was a bit of nostalgia that popped up. I pretty well forgot all about it until now. It tells of a small tugboat named 'Little Toot' who wanted to be just like his father, 'Big Toot', but couldn't stay out of trouble, and never seems to learn. It did trigger some nostalgia, but not quite enough. Once again, passable, but nothing too special. 3/5 'Trees': Joyce Kilmer's 1913 poem, 'Trees', is here performed by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. For yours truly, I found the song slow, dull, boring, like... watching trees grow? The artistic style of the segment, however, is gorgeous. Each scene is essentially a nature painting brought to life, as it cycles through the seasons and the changing of the trees. All in all, it's actually a great segment if you can just get past the slow drone of the recitation. 3/5 'Blame It on the Samba': A down and out Donald Duck and José Carioca (the Brazillian parrot) meet the Aracuan Bird (who we first met in 'The Three Caballeros'), who introduces them to the Samba, whisking their sadness away with the playful, fun dance. The song is an English-dubbed version of Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho by Ernesto Nazareth, performed by the Dinning Sisters, and featuring organist Ethel Smith in a short, live-action performance. I actually find the song quite catchy, the Aracuan Bird is funny, and it was good enough to make me ignore the fact that José already introduced Donald to the Samba back in 'The Three Caballeros'. 4/5 'Pecos Bill': In the final segment, Roy Rogers (along with his horse, Trigger), Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers tell the story of Pecos Bill to Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten (who we just saw talking to a bunch of creepy dummies in 'Fun and Fancy Free). The story tells of a child who was raised by Coyotes, later to become the world's greatest "buckaroo" (which I definitely did not hear right the first time around). Once again, due to smoking content, it was later strongly censored, but revived once it landed on Disney+. Once again, this is just okay, but I probably got a bit more out of it that 'Once Upon a Wintertime' or 'Johnny Appleseed'. It's a little more on par with 'Little Toot'. 3/5 Aside from a couple of the more surreal segments, this movie just works out to be another perfectly average film of its kind. I'm really looking forward to getting through all of these, as I find them a little more challenging to review. I can break down each segment, and work out an average rating, which makes things a touch easier. But when you get segments like this, unless it really speaks to me, it can be hard to say that anything is either terrible or awesome. These will almost always work out to be a 3 or, at best, 4, just due to how average it all works out to be. Like most of these (and it's starting to get frustrating because I want to give more), it works out to be a perfectly passable film, harmless, decent for the kids as well as the cultured (being a bit of Disney history), and something that makes for good background entertainment. It doesn't have the scope of 'Fantasia', or is particularly memorable, but there's really nothing wrong with it either. Here's thanking my lucky stars that the next and final package film, just in time for October, will be 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad', featuring what I can already say is my all-time favorite segment, 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'... so gimme a couple more months, and these will be much less boring! 3/5
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 Finally, I've reached the point where these reviews are gonna be a bit easier. We're still going through some anthology stuff, but this time, instead of reviewing 6 or 7 short segments, I'm reviewing 2. It's a breath of fresh air, really - a somewhat back-to-normal. In this case, the self-contained reviews will be a touch longer, as there's slightly more to cover than just a musical number with visuals.
The film opens with our kindly little host, Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards), singing a song about living "fun and fancy free", as he goes around telling different animals how they worry too damn much. He sets the mood for what you're about to see, with his upbeat attitude, and it's enough to pull you in. Speaking for myself, it was nice to see a song about all the worries people have, in regards to society right now with a world-wide pandemic. All Jiminy wants you to do now is join him in a fun, fable-telling film, all starting with the lovely voice of Dinah Shore as she narrates and sings the first of two stories. 'Bongo': Based on the Sinclair Lewis story, 'Little Bear', the story tells of a circus bear cub named Bongo. He's amazing at what he does, but he's treated poorly and wants his freedom. He eventually escapes, and just when he thinks things aren't going the way he imagined, he falls for a female cub named Lulubelle. But he must prove himself against a big brute of a bear named Lumpjaw, if he wants a shot at being with her. It's the classic David vs Goliath/Nerd vs Jock love story. All and all, it's a pretty solid musical, rhyming number for the little ones. It's honestly pretty cute, and even got a few laughs from me. However it should probably be mentioned that bears show their affection in this by slapping each other, so just be sure to remind your kids that humans aren't like that. 3/5 'Mickey and the Beanstalk': With narration by Edgar Bergan, this one's a retalling of 'Jack and the Beanstalk', replacing Jack with Mickey Mouse (Walt Disney), Donald Duck (Clarence Nash) and Goofy (Pinto Colvig). Mickey sells their cow for magic beans, which lead to the beanstalk, which lead to them discovering Willie the Giant's (Billy Gilbert) castle. There, they must retrieve a singing harp (Anita Gordon), and defeat the giant, to restore peace to their village. The animated segment is just classic. If I mention 'Fun and Fancy Free', many don't seem to know what I'm talking about, but if I mention 'Mickey and the Beanstalk', everyone seems familiar. I remember it being pretty popular, growing up,and it was likely featured on Disney's Sunday evening. But there was something about it I never caught on to until this watch. Segment narrator, Edgar Bergan, was a ventriloquist, and the segment is him telling the story to a young Luana Patten, with the help of two dummies named Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. It delivers some laughs, but a lot of it is just because of how incredibly creepy it all is. It looks like a scene from 'Goosebumps', and I can't imagine that girl being so comfortable through the whole thing. One of them even offers her a cigar. With that said, though, it just added to the fascination of the segment. But that's honestly just me. It's so weird and creepy that it's funny. 4/5 In short, this is just a feel-good film, and that's all it's meant to be. The only things I found potentially dated here was how creepy the dummies were, and the idea of slapping someone to show them you like them, but if you can just get around those things, it's totally enjoyable, and worth gathering the family around for a few laughs. 4/5  This month would appear to be a somewhat repetitive one. Not to be boring, but it just so happens that a five of these are under-the-radar anthologies, often musical and/or educational, dated, and met completely in the middle with my opinion. This one tries to play a little more on the 'Fantasia'-like anthology, featuring the music and lyrics of a select group of high-ranking artists for the time. With that, it's fascinating, but like it is with a lot of Disney stuff from way-back-when, there's some dated stuff here.
For the most part, the film is totally passable and enjoyable, but it's nothing at all that particularly sticks out in Disney's library. In fact, this might be the one title I've mentioned to other people that no one at all seems to recognize. Even the segments within it are pretty obscure; the most famous probably being 'Peter and the Wolf', or 'Casey at Bat' (which, by the way, has the dated comment that really stands out). More than anything, it's the musicians we're here for, and it's pretty interesting going back to hear some of the music of the time. 'The Martins and the Coys': The King's Men, a popular vocal group, sing the 'Hatfields and McCoys' story about a wild west family feud in which two characters from opposing sides fall in love. Eventually, the segment was censored from the film's video release for its gun-use, so apparently nowadays it's a bit of a rarity. But it's not entirely special nowadays when we're familiar with too many similar stories, and the concept of a vocal group is kinda dated. It's fine for its time, but not as timeless as a lot of Disney material is. 3/5 'Blue Bayou': Another fascinating one, featuring animation originally intended for 'Fantasia', using 'Clair de Lune' from Claude Debussy. The segment is quite lovely, featuring two egrets flying around on a beautiful, moonlit night. It would have fit 'Fantasia' so well, and for my money, is probably the classiest segment of the film. It's now featured with the song 'Blue Bayou' by the Ken Darby singers. Apparently, the original cut can still be found, but this is the official version, and it's a shame it didn't make it into 'Fantasia'. 3/5 'All the Cats Join In': Benny Goodman and his Orchestra play for this segment, probably my favorite in the film. It's a really neat take on animation that I've always enjoyed, where a pencil is drawing out the art as the animation is happening - some of the earliest examples of fourth wall breaking. The segment portrays the swinging youth of the 1940's with a very catchy tune, and even once featured female nudity that has since been edited - and yeah, you can tell where it was. But that's more just an interesting fact. The real takeaway from this is the ever-moving dance animation, and a tune that will have you tapping your feet, providing you with a cool little 1940's time capsule. 5/5 'Without You': A song about lost love by Andy Russell. Though it's punctuated by some beautiful animation, it's all in all depressing, and it feels like a huge drop from the catchy rhythms of the previous segment. I wasn't a fan. 2/5 'Casey at the Bat': While the 1888 poem is a solid classic, the segment opens up with a pretty rough song that states "the ladies don't understand baseball a bit, they don't know a strike from a ball or a hit". It otherwise hits a home run for giving us the comedy we so desperately needed after the last segment, and other than the song in the beginning, provides us with the timeless poem about how cockiness can lead to disappointment. It even got a sequel with 1954's 'Casey Bats Again'. 3/5 'Two Silhouettes': I'm not sure whether or not this was another one originally meant for 'Fantasia', with a different song, but it looks like it might be. This segment features a simple and pleasant love song, sang by Dina Shore, as two silhouetted ballet dancers, David Lichine and Tania Riabouchinskaya dance against a beautifully rendered, ever-changing background. If I'm honest with myself, I can certainly appreciate it. It sets a very pleasant mood, and for as much as I dislike ballet, I appreciate dream-like sequences a lot. If you do like ballet, go look it up on YouTube and check it out. 3/5 'Peter and the Wolf': Sergei Prokofiev's musical composition comes from 1936, and ten years later was made into a classic segment for Disney. I seem to faintly remember having a "read-along" book of this as a kid (a book that came with a tape you could read along with), but it really hit me as something bigger than I thought when 'Tiny Toons' parodied it, almost more as though it was a modern remake. Sterling Holloway (who popped up in the last review) narrates for Prokofiev's piece, and it tells of a boy named Peter who hunts a wolf with the help of his animal friends - Sascha the bid, Sonia the duck and Ivan the cat. Each character is represented by different instruments - Peter, the string quartet; Sascha, the flute; Sonia, the Oboe; Ivan, the Clarinet; an the Wolf, horns and cymbals. It gets kinda dark, but it does have a happy ending, and it still holds up as a classic piece of Disney work. 4/5 'After You've Gone': Benny Goodman comes back for this one, along with his quartet. I really enjoy this one in its creativity, as it features six anthropomorphic instruments, including a piano, bass, drums, cymbal and clarinet somehow putting on a sort of dance number. Between this and 'All the Cats Join In', this film has given me a whole new appreciation for Benny Goodman. They are both easily two of the most entertaining segments in the film. 4/5 'Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet': The romantic tale of two department store hats falling for each other. But when Alice is sold, Johnny devotes himself to finding her. All the while, The Andrews Sisters sing the story. As far as any love story goes in this film, the only one that really stuck out was 'Two Silhouettes'. This one was cute, but if I'm honest, I wasn't a fan of the song, and the whole thing felt a bit "mushy". Perhaps just not for me, once again. 2/5 'The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met': It's such a solid choice to make an operatic number the finale, but the problem here is that I really do not like opera at all. I have lots of respect for what they can do, but that's kinda like saying I have respect for anyone whose voice is sharp enough to break glass - it's cool, but the sound of it is a bit much. Nelson Eddy narrates, sings and voices everything here, as we hear the story of a whale named Willie (decades before 'Free Willy') who has an incredible singing talent, and dreams of singing grand opera. Soon, though, his voice is mistaken for being three opera singers he probably ate, and the hunt is on. It ends very bittersweet, and all in all isn't bad, but the operatic singing started taking me out of it just because that's about the one form of music I just can't deal with. The film ended, and I just kinda thought to myself that something like 'Peter and the Wolf' may have made for a better finale. Oh, and the whale sings 'Shortnin' Bread' (an old plantation song) at one point, and that may make one cringe a bit. Maybe it's just me, but I was disappointed by the wrap-up. 2/5 Perhaps most interesting about this movie is how it came to be. During World War II, a lot of the Disney staff was drafted, and several who stayed behind were asked to make US propaganda films (and we all know how well that stands nowadays). The studio was then full of unfinished ideas, and in order for Disney to keep going, six "package films" were created. These began with 'Saludos Amigos' and 'The Three Cabelleros', and after this would eventually be capped with 'Fun and Fancy Free', 'Melody Time' and 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad' (to be reviewed in the October Edition of this series). I actually didn't realize the history until I dug into this one. That made for a very lengthy review, and if you're still here, congratulations, you made it. My closing thoughts are just that I'm glad I finally got a chance to check this out. Just bear in mind that while the segments are easy enough to find, the full-length feature is not; even D+ doesn't have it, and that's where I watched the last two films I reviewed for this month. I'm not gonna consider this one underrated, but I will say that it's worth a sit-down, as I think the good actually does outweigh the bad. I keep handing out 3/5, but I recommend going by segments, because some are very well done. 3/5  Another Disney movie with self-contained segments drowned out by 'Fantasia's success was 'The Three Caballeros'. I've been familiar with it since childhood, but never saw or even bothered with. Back then was a time when Disney movies would get video re-releases for a limited time before "going back into the vault, forever". Because of this, there were a lot of titles I was unfamiliar with. For a while, this was one of them, but I was also aware of a movie called 'The Three Amigos', so eventually I caught on. But truth be told, this was my first time watching it.
The film begins as Donald Duck (Clarence Nash) is celebrating his birthday (on Friday the 13th, but no month is mentioned). He opens up a package containing all sorts of gifts that will give him further information of the world's geography and cultures. Mainly, it takes a further look at Brazil, as José Carioca (José Oliveira) the Parrot comes back to host Donald, and Mexico, where a rooster named Panchito (Joaquin Garay) comes in to dub the American duck, Brazilian parrot and Mexican rooster "the three caballeros". It all bears very similar aspects to 'Saludos Amigos'. I'd almost call it an unofficial sequel. The Cold-Blooded Penguin: Narrated by Sterling Holloway (most commonly known as the voice of Winnie the Pooh), the segment features a cute little penguin named Pablo, who goes against all penguin logic and decides he's sick of the cold climate of Antarctica, and wants to travel to warmer climates. Before landing on the Galápagos Islands, Pablo passes by Chile, Peru and Ecuador, giving kids a little geography lesson on South America's west coast. It was cute and gave me a giggle or two, but it didn't necessarily stand out either. 3/5 The Flying Gauchito: Narrated by Fred Shields (who was also narrator on 'Saludos Amigos') tells of a cute adventure of a little boy from Uruguay and his winged donkey, named Burrito. The segment is full of cuteness, but in a good way. It pretty much matches my opinion on the first segment, but perhaps with a little more stand-out in the cuteness of the characters involved. 3/5 Baía: I rather enjoyed the concept of this one; a love letter to the Brazilian state of Baía. This is where José really enters into it, as he sings a rather beautiful song about it, and takes Donald on a tour within a pretty damn cool pop-up book. Together, they meet the locals, including the lovely singer, Aurora Miranda. A lot of it involves the Samba, and Donald pining for the beautiful Brazilian women. It combines live action with animation, and I thought it was all put together nicely. 4/5 Las Posadas: We get a glimpse of Christmas tradition in Mexico, as a group of Mexican children re-enact the journey of Mary and Joseph, searching for room an the inn. "Posada" basically translates to "Shelter", which they of course eventually find in the stable. However, Mexican tradition brings in the piñata, which the kids hit for gifts and candy. It was neat, but might be more of a bookmark for something to check out around the Christmas season. 3/5 Mexico: Pátzcuaro, Veracruz and Acapulco: Here's where Panchito kinda takes the reins, and comes in with the song about "Three Caballeros". He then takes Donald and José on a tour of Mexico on a magic carpet. Here, they learn about several traditionally cultural dances and songs. We learn here that Donald is running a gag, often pining for the local women, but kinda failing at getting return affections every time. 3/5 You Belong to My Heart and Donald's Surreal Reverie: Seemingly continuing his running gag, Donald soon falls for singer Dora Luz, who sings him the son 'You Belong to My Heart'. He also eventually dances with the lovely Carmen Molina, singing and dancing to the song 'La Zadunga'. Eventually this all leads to a sort of love-struck, drug-like atmosphere that has Panchito and José ever-interrupting, and even eventually taking over, and there's a bit of chaos before the whole thing ends in a flash of Mexican, Brazillian and American fireworks. This part of the film wasn't one i particularly enjoyed, because it just kinda gets crazy and ends somewhat abruptly. But it's not even close to enough to ruin the whole movie, either. 2/5 All in all, it's not necessarily a title I could see myself revisiting much. The whole thing is something I feel like I'd end up being made to watch in Spanish class, as it mostly serves as an educational tool about geography and other cultures. As I mentioned before, I see it as a sort of loose sequel to 'Saludos Amigos'. And, much like with 'Saludos Amigos', I'm trying to figure out how much of the film is dated with its depictions of certain cultures. Again, not trying to be culturally insensitive at all, but perhaps coming across as such. It didn't really cross my mind in this case; I felt they meant well, trying to give kids an early education on things. To make the review short, it's simply passable, not very memorable, but I'm glad I watched it. 3/5  Once again, we have a month of 5 Thursdays, so once again, it's time to visit the deep, dark reaches of the Disney Vault. And man, oh man, do we have some obscurities this month. This may be the only Disney Month that consists entirely of films I could just as easily do an 'Under the Radar' month on.
First up, we have the Disney Animation Studios record-holder for shortest film; the 42-minute 'Saludos Amigos'. Though this is part of the DAS collection, in truth, it plays much more like a Disney Special I'd have seen one Sunday evening. The film is short, and consists of sketches, sometimes featuring old Disney favorites like Donald Duck and Goofy. In fact, it's probably safe to say that Donald is the main character in this, acting as a tourist as he travels to different destinations, but not in every sketch. Much like I did with 'Fantasia', I'll break it down bit by bit. The brief synopsis of the full film has to do with representative animators from Disney Studios travelling to exotic locations, and finding inspiration for their animation. Of course, as we all know, that has the potential to be a bit controversial. It's fun, but I often wondered if it bordered on insensitive. It stands as educational for its time, but I do wonder how much they got wrong. It's very much a product of its time. Lake Titicaca: This is one of the segments featuring Donald Duck as a tourist. For this one, he visits Lake Titicaca, and learns about some of the local culture, which includes riding a very stubborn llama - which is by far the best part of the sketch. 3/5 Pedro: While flying high above the mountains, one animator is inspired to create a story about an anthropomorphic plane who is engaging in his first mail retrieval flight, from Santiago, Chile to Mendoza. It's cute, but mildly entertaining at best, seemingly very aimed towards children (which is fine). 3/5 El Gaucho Goofy: Here we take a look at cowboy life, the way only Goofy can do it. It places Goofy, as an American cowboy, in the Argentinian pampas (lowlands) so he can learn the ways of the gaucho (South American cowboy). The scene pictured above of Goofy smoking a cigarette was later removed for the Gold Classic Collection, the Classic Cabelleros Collection, and even on Disney+, despite it being advertised as "unedited". Despite perhaps some dated cultural depictions, it still got a good laugh. 3/5 Aquarela do Brazil: In Portuguese, this means "Watercolor of Brazil", and it's probably my favorite of the sketches. In this finale, Donald returns as a tourist, this time in Brazil. He meets José Carioca; a Portuguese speaking, cigar smoking parrot from Rio, who shows him around, introducing him to the samba, and cachaça - a distilled spirit created from fermented sugarcane juice. This one's stylish, has catchy music to go with it, and even teeters on being a bit adult with the drink. For whatever reason, that wasn't as controversial as Goofy's cigarette. 4/5 I'm a bit torn on this one because there's something about it that I'm not quite getting. So much about it is saying that I should find the conroversy in it, as it does depict different nationalities in what is perhaps a dated way. But at the same time, nothing about it felt overtly racist, like jive-talking crows, or a certain centaur from 'Fantasia'. I really felt like this was trying to be cultured, and educational, and it never truly felt insensitive to me. But honestly, if I need my eyes opened, please do educate me. I can only speak personally, and I can say that in many ways this one took me back to childhood. Particularly, seeing a couple of old Donald and Goofy skits that were new to my eyes was a fun, nostalgic treat. I think one could look at this film as completely dated, and maybe even a bit insensitive if they look hard enough. But for myself, nothing really made me cringe or reel, it was just always on that edge where it could have crossed a line, but just did enough not to. It's a quick, easy watch, and just kinda there. I woudln't even really count it as a movie, myself, but it is on the list, so here we are. 3/5  This review might take a little while, as this isn't just your average, old school Disney animated film. What we have here instead is a classical musical that lasts just over two hours, and it speaks to our inner artists in a way that allows us to really appreciate what it is to be a little cultured... even if there are racist moments within it.
The idea is to have a bunch of pieces of classical music blend together with animated, visual interpretations of what the music was trying to say (to a degree). It's hosted by Mast of Ceremonies, American composer, Deems Taylor, and he takes us through the film, introducing each piece as we go. However, I do find that he introduces each piece by telling us a little too much about what we're about to see. There's not much left to the imagination because of this, but it doesn't make the pieces any less enjoyable either. Really, this is pretty timeless stuff - all save for one piece in particular, but we'll get to that. For this review, I'm breaking it into pieces, as I see it being the only really fair way to tackle it. Toccata and Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach: An enjoyable, abstract piece of work that combines silhouettes of the orchestra with animation reflecting the instruments and the music they play. It's simple, and it sets the mood for everything we're about to see. 4/5 The Nutcracker Suite by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Very little to do with the Christmas classic tune, this piece covers songs 'Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy', 'Chinese Dance', 'Arabian Dance', 'Russian Dance', 'Dance of the Flutes' and 'Waltz of the Flowers', each featuring a variety of animated dances, depicting the changing of the seasons. 3/5 The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Paul Dukas: When people think of 'Fantasia', their minds will automatically leap to one of tow pieces. This one is the first, which depicts Mickey Mouse as Sorcerer Yen Sid's apprentice. He attempts to use magic to make a clean-up job easier, but it gets completely out of hand. I still find this one to be the most entertaining of the pieces, personally. 5/5 Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky: Through selected pieces of the ballet score, this one depicts Earth's beginnings. Another one I find very entertaining, it goes from Earth's formation through to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This one might be considered to be a little controversial for people with a creationism history, but seeing as I personally lean towards science, it really does it for me, as this stuff fascinates me. 4/5 Intermission/Soundtrack: 'Fantasia' is very much represented as a concert show, as opposed to an actual movie. As such, it is complete with a slight intermission, a fun jam session, and a humorous introduction to the film's soundtrack, in which we see a line imitating various instruments with waves. Much like a real intermission, I can take or leave this part, and it won't be included in my ratings. It's sole purpose is to be filler. The Pastoral Symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven: This is the big one that really stirred up the controversy. The piece portrays tidbits of Greek/Roman culture, giving us a variety of mythological figures which include one particular racially insensitive centaur named Sunflower. Just Google it, and you'll see how it's an unfortunate fly in the ointment of an otherwise beautiful film, let alone the piece itself. 2/5 Dance of the Hours by Amilcare Ponchielli: A fun piece that depicts the stages of the 24 hour day. Morning is represented by Madame Upanova and her ostriches; afternoon is represented by Hyacinth Hippo and her servants; evening is represented by Elephanchine and her bubble-blowing elephant troupe; night is represented by Ben Ali Gator and his troop of alligators. 3/5 Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky / Ave Maria by Franz Schubert: Going back to that I said about 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', this is the other piece that tends to pop into people's heads when 'Fantasia' is brought up. also, much like 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice', this is a personal favorite bit of the film. 'Night on Bald Mountain' shows us midnight where a demon named Chernabog (or for all intents and purposes, Satan). he summons evil, restless spirits from their graves to essentially party for a while until 'Ave Maria' comes along, vanquishing the darkness, and showing us the dawn of a new day. 5/5 To close it off, it can be said with all honesty that this isn't just something I'd be able to throw on whenever I felt like it. It's very much something one needs to be in the mood for, especially as a full 2 hours plus. That may be fairly average movie running time, but not for Disney animation. With that said, however, this does add a touch of culture and class to Disney's library (again, taking Sunflower out of the equation). Pieces like 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' and 'Night on Bald Mountain' have since become far better known due to this film, and are both great instrumental tunes to listen to around Halloween. For the most part, it has aged nicely, despite its glaring problems. 4/5  This was originally gonna be something a bit more obscure with 'The 12 Chairs', but I thought that one should go more into the "Under the Radar" category for another time. Instead, I'm switching it up with a more well-known title, and one that falls under the "Catching Up" category, having only seen it once, over two decades ago. I will now instead be reviewing the, perhaps now extremely dated, 'History of the World: Part I'.
The film is done as an anthology, retelling various bits and pieces from the world's history, as only Mel Brooks' sense of humour can. He does like to be a bit edgy, but so much of it is surrounded by a delightfully "punny" set of jokes, or contrasting, light-hearted musical numbers, as seen here in the corner picture with a song and dance number depicting the Spanish Inquisition. Other non-musical sets include the Stone Age, the Old Testament, the Roman Empire, and the French Revolution. They're all brushed over in some sort of unique and funny way, but viewers may wanna be forewarned in this day and age of a few of those moments it was once much easier to get away with. The best examples would include the Roman Empire segment, using a certain derogatory term for "gay man" very loosely, followed by the French Revolution segment depicting King Luis as a sex-driven pervert who proudly boasts about the benefits of being king. But, before we jump down a post-dated Brooks movie for all of this, there may very well have been a chance that these extremes were what he was going for in a farcical sense. At least when it comes to King Luis. Even with my sight defense there, however, this just plain isn't one of Brooks' best. It's not without its moments, but I meet it about half-way. For my money, there are far more funny and enjoyable movies under his belt. At the same time, there were still a few places throughout the film that managed to give me a genuine chuckle, most of which takes place through the Stone Age and Old Testament segments. I find the film kinda peaks at the end of that, and slowly drifts downhill afterwards. Being that it's an anthology, it also makes it a bit easier to turn off without caring. So, at the end of the day, it's not one of Mel's best. One of these days I'll open up a Mel Brooks area for my "Screening Suggestions" to show off some of his best stuff (save 'Young Frankenstein', as I covered that back in '17). But getting back to this title, it can be fun if you're in the right frame of mind, but I daresay this is probably his top contender for "most offensive" film he's done. So perhaps not a recommendation to just anyone and everyone, but if you'r not easily offended, check it out. You might still have fun. 3/5  After seeing the first 'Creepshow' and enjoying it so much, the next logical step for my "Catching Up" reviews was 'Creepshow 2'. While it remains a fun, creepy anthology for the Halloween season, it's not quite as good as the first one. That said, it still has plenty working for it, including the once-again team up of Stephen King and George A. Romero. However, this time they are doing the writing while original 'Creepshow' cinematographer Michael Gornick is directing.
This time around, there are three stories overall. They are each buffered with animation segments, depicting a boy reading and enjoying his 'Creepshow' comic. It was given to him by a Creepshow Creep, played by practical effect master Tom Savini (who also played a garbage man at the end of the first one). Story one involves an elderly couple who get robbed, and a native statue coming to life to take vengeance. Story two involves a terrifying black, oozing mass in a lake that melts human flesh once it takes hold. Story three is about a woman who just can't seem to shake a hitchhiker no matter how many times she kills him. Sadly though, that's it. It kinda just leaves you wanting more, especially when comparing it to the first. The animation sequences are okay, but they seemingly get a little more in the way here. They tell a sort of side story about the kid getting harassed by Stephen King bullies (watch 'It' or 'Stand by Me', you'll know what I mean). Of course this all leads to the kid taking his revenge on them, but I won't spoil how it's done 'cause admittedly it's pretty cool. Not believable in the slightest, but still, cool. The story that stuck out here to me was 'The Raft' (the second story about the oozing mass). It gets pretty damn traumatic once this thing takes hold. The flesh burns as they're happening seem incredibly believable, and it doesn't help that the first victim keeps moaning "It hurts! It hurts!" as it's consuming her. It ends with a nice little twist in things too, and is probably my favorite of the three, simply in that the imagery stuck with me as seeming very real and terrifying. The first and third are well done, but they aren't quite as scary as they are just unsettling, which does work in it's own way. While it's no where near as good as it's predecessor, which was kind of a landmark on the history of horror cinema, it still holds it's own quite well as a sequel. It manages to meet the expectations I had, but there's more of a lack of celebrity cameos and it's just shorter. While this one isn't based around Halloween, it's still a fun watch as a sequel to get you into the holiday spirit. 4/5 |
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