Make Mine Music is perhaps one of the most forgotten Disney films. It is the eighth movie from Walt Disney Animation Studios, and the third “package film” that Disney released during World War II, following its two predecessors, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros. It’s called a “package film” because it’s not really a movie, so much as it is just a collection of unrelated animated shorts cobbled together. These were released to save money, since Disney winded up getting in some financial troubles during World War II due to many of their staff being drafted into the war. No one really talks about or remembers these package films anymore, but they did at least help to finance some of the next big hits for Disney, like Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan.

Anyway, Make Mine Music is a bit of a different beast for me than its two predecessors. While both of those movies did feature a bunch of animated shorts, they felt like they were actually woven together by a central theme. The Three Caballeros did this best, since it actually featured a central character, Donald Duck, interacting with the shorts in question. Make Mine Music doesn’t really do this at all. It’s literally just one short after another, and there’s nothing really to connect them together. It’s actually more akin to something like Fantasia, with the main point being to set animation to music. With that being said, this is not nearly the gem that Fantasia is, with the music not really being all that impressive, and the animation not being much better.

Since there’s no central plot or theme to tie these shorts together, I find it best to review this more by the sum of its parts than by the whole package. So, let me give my brief thoughts on each of the ten shorts:

The Martins and the Coys – This one just features two families that are in a feud together, similar to the Hatfields and McCoys. Their war winds up going in a different direction when a couple falls in love, with one of them being from each family. This one isn’t really that interesting. It’s the most basic version of this sort of story, and doesn’t even really do anything interesting with it. What’s more interesting about this is that you might have to actually seek it out yourself. My DVD version of this movie cut this segment, due to the gunplay not being considered to be suitable for kids. I found it on YouTube, but you might not see this unless you actively look for it.

Blue Bayou – This is one of the shortest segments, literally just featuring two birds flying around to music. It’s as boring as it sounds.

All the Cats Join In – I didn’t really see much of an actual story in this one. It’s more about teens being swept away by music. This is actually one of my favorite ones. It’s fun and unique, and has a very interesting style to it. The animation looks a lot different than typical Disney movies, and so I thought it was pretty cool.

Without You – This one is kind of like Blue Bayou. There’s just not much to it, and I completely forgot about it until I looked up a list of the segments. Meh.

Casey at the Bat – If All the Cats Join In isn’t my favorite, then it would be Casey at the Bat. This is one of those classic stories about an arrogant baseball player, who ends up striking out due to his own arrogance. This one is just pure fun, with the animation being really funny. I would recommend this even if you don’t watch the whole movie.

Two Silhouettes – This is another really short one, but unlike the previous ones I mentioned, I do actually like this one. This just features two dancers whose silhouettes are rotoscoped onto the screen. It’s short, but sweet.

Peter and the Wolf – This is about a young boy that sets out in the woods to hunt a wolf. I was slightly into it for a little while, but it winds up going on for way too long. This one had potential, and it does have its moments, but ultimately I wasn’t that into it.

After You’ve Gone – Aside from Two Silhouettes, this is my other favorite short segment in the movie. It just features six musical instruments dancing around. It’s kind of pointless, but I really enjoyed it.

Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet – My God, this one is stupid. It’s about two hats that fall in love in a department store and wind up getting separated from each other. This is probably one of my least favorites.

The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met – This is probably one of the other worst ones. This is unfortunate, because it’s the longest one, being about 15 minutes total. It’s about a whale that wants to be an opera singer. By this point, I had already checked out from the movie, but this made it so much harder to reach the finish line.

As you can see, I didn’t like a ton of the shorts in Make Mine Music. I only really liked four of the ten segments, which isn’t a great track record. I guess this might be worth seeing out if you’re a diehard Disney fan, but otherwise it’s really not worth it. I think this is one of the worst Disney movies I’ve seen, actually. I can see why this one got forgotten.

2/5