Make Mine Music!
Rating: 3/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
The interesting thing about watching the 1946 Disney film, Make Mine Music!, is that they seemingly don't want you to watch it. It's not on their streaming service and for the sake of this review, I had to buy a 20-year-old DVD to watch the film. Even then, there was a message at the beginning saying that the version I watched was even edited for content. This is a major part of the interesting history that these package films have during this time period, and more than anything, these films seem so out of place in the Disney catalogue. While they are not necessarily bad, and while some are leagues better than the others during this weird point in Disney history, they simply lack the magic and storytelling Disney is known for. While Make Mine Music! has some great segments, such as "Casey at the Bat", "Peter and the Wolf", and "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met", the movie simply feels forgettable and doesn't seem like it truly belongs in the Disney catalogue.
I think that is why it's hard to wrap my head around the two iconic segments being present in this package film. The whole movie features short segments that go along with the music and just appear to be exercises in animation for the film studio, not relying on any real story. Yet, with "Casey", "Peter and the Wolf", and "The Whale", it is so out of place to have these two story-driven clips in the film. I'm not sure if it was to keep the audience's attention or find a way to break up the purely musical segments, but it is hard to give this film a higher rating based on two of the ten segments. However, with these two, they simply work very well, and really capture the Disney magic through these segments. There is a reason these two moments in the film are considered some of the most iconic moments in any of the Disney package films.
At the same time, this is not to discredit what the other segments are able to do. For the most part, they are beautifully animated and the songs accompany them in a very good fashion. They all fit together nicely and are fun to watch for the most part. But, this simply isn't the Disney everyone knows and loves. There are segments of this movie that make it feel like it was made from another studio, with the controversial "All the Cats Join In" feeling like it would open the film Grease. There is no doubt that I can appreciate what they were going for in these segments, and it is hard to discredit this film because of the time period and what the studio was going through at the time, but the segments they craft simply are forgettable and very uncharacteristic of the studio.
However, I do want to focus a little more on the animation, as I mentioned earlier. Like every other Disney movie, the animation works spectacularly. I would argue that Disney has never had bad animation in any of their films, and this is another example. While the idea of crafting these animated moments to songs might not work as well as Fantasia did, there is no doubt that the animation is going to enchant you. Compared to other animation studios, you feel the hard work, dedication, and love that goes into every single frame of a Disney picture.
I think one of the things many people forget is that we have to be thankful for these package films that Disney released during this time. While they may not be the best and be very forgettable, they provided the funds and business for Disney to go on to create animated masterpieces later on in the studio's history. When looking at this film, it may not be the best, but it is simple fun from beginning to end. There is nothing over-the-top offensive or wrong that the film does, but rather just serves as this sort of mediocre film that allowed Disney to reach new heights.
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