Released in 1948, it’s pretty much a collection of short cartoons, or a package film, set to popular music of the time, which had zero auto-tune, if you can believe that. So there’s no common theme really, just to have a good time. In fact, the working title of this project was “All in fun”. Very ‘40s. Once Upon a Wintertime is classic Disney - opens with the call of true love, with a pair of animals along for the ride, mimicking the humans as they skate along the frozen lake in the middle of a forest. Of course, tragedy strikes the young couple, and through the power of animals and humans living together in peace, everyone is saved. I enjoyed this one, again it’s classic Disney storytelling -pleasing to the eye, heartwarming, and the horses have no eyeballs. Bumble Boogie - very reminiscent of Fantasia, in that the animation is pretty surreal, vivid, and quick. The plot is a bumble bee trapped in a sort of nightmare of musical instruments. But at times it’s more Dali than Disney. In his book The Animated Movie Guide, Jerry Beck 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 was a "vast underachievement" for Disney, and added that he found it hard to believe that the artists who made this film had also made Pinocchio eight years before. Burn. He also called Bumble Boogie "Disney's best piece of surrealism since the 'Pink Elephant on Parade' sequence in Dumbo". The music is inspired by flight of the bumblebee, but in a very jazzy way, which I loved. Johnny Appleseed - I forgot that this story had something to do with the bible. John Chapman was his real name, but for obvious reasons he became known as Johnny Appleseed. The opening song, The Lord is Good to me” annoyed me. Johnny gets convinced to go join the movement west with the pioneers and spread his love of apples across the frontier but an old settler who essentially gets him wasted on apple cider. According to a source, upon reviewing the music that Ken Darby had composed for "Johnny 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 I didn’t like this one as much, I don’t know why. It didn’t hold my attention too well - perhaps it was that breathy soft country narration, or the religious undertones, but wasn’t a fan. Skip. Little Toot - Sung by the Andrew Sisters. Little Toot is about a very happy small tugboat who just goofed off all the time. He got in trouble and was literally towed away in chains by cop tug boats. Which is sort of too far down the anthropomorphic rabbit hole for me. They towed him outside of town - essentially banishing him. Sooner or later, again in True Disney fashion, he is redeemed and all is well. This one was really good, I enjoyed it. The Andrews sisters did a great job singing the narration on this, the animation was good, and the story was cute as hell. Trees - based on the 1913 poem of the same name, its’ recited via song. While I can’t understand the words at all - keep that in mind, parents, when you complain about the music your kids listen to - I think it was about a tree during the seasons. I dunno, but the art was really cool and the music was really not. In keeping with the tradition of innovation Disney has, layout artist Ken O'Connor came up with the idea of using frosted cels, and then to render 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. Blame it on the Samba - Donald Duck and Jose from The three carboneras team up again in this lively segment about the samba. You get a cool little live action scene with Donald and Jose dancing what i can only assume is the Samba, on an organ. It’s a cute short, and I think kids would be into it. Melody Time was the last feature film to include Donald Duck & José Carioca until Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1988. Pecos Bill - Narrated by the famous Roy Rogers, our final story opens with very slow singing and animation of the old west, tumbleweeds and the like, and then it finds a campfire with another live-action scene. This time, Roy Rogers, his horse Trigger, singing group The Sons of the Pioneers, Bob Nolan, and those two annoying kids from Song of the South. Of course everyone is shocked when they two dumb kids hadn’t heard of the story of Pecos Bill - they all pronounce it Peh-kos, but whatever. After falling out of his families wagon as it crossed the west, little baby Pecos Bill was raised by wolves (sound familiar?), He was a tough kid who could out-hiss a rattlesnake. Pecos had a girlfriend called Slue Foot Sue. If that name sounds familiar, Sue is the owner of a certain Golden Horseshoe saloon in a certain park in Anaheim. In fact, during construction it was known as Pecos Bulls Golden Horseshoe Saloon. Not sure how he got bumped from ownership, but whatever. During the Golden Horseshoe Revue, Wally Boag began his Disneyland stage career playing Pecos on stage. This is the strongest tie in to the parks I think I’ve seen so far, and the best one because it’s very subtle. If you hadn’t seen this film, you'd have no idea. It’s a cute one - a tad slow but actiony enough. Its latest release was on June 6, 2000, on VHS and DVD as part of the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection, and was a touch edited. There is a scene with Pecos Bill lighting a cigarette, and this was digitally removed for this release. This is not the case in the UK Region 2 DVD where it is unaltered, for some reason. 
Jason
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Jason
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