(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Fun and Fancy Free)
Doug (vo): Fun and Fancy Free, only one thing could be gayer than that title. (Scene where Jiminy Cricket pops up) And, there he is. Yeah, as I said before, I'm not a huge fan of Jiminy Cricket but, luckily, he doesn't have that much to do in this. Just like the other films, there's no one story, but in this, there's not really a bunch of them either. There's only two. And Jiminy Cricket, for whatever reason, hosts them. It's strange that they would actually call this movie Fun and Fancy Free, instead of just the two titles. It's not like Make Mine Music where if you listed all the titles, there wouldn't be enough room. Here, there's only two. Bongo and Jack and the Beanstalk. Heck, that's a shorter title than Ichabod and Mr. Toad, they could have done it! But heck with that. How did the stories hold up?
Story and review of Bongo
Doug (vo): Well, as the other Disney stories go, even for the short ones, it's nothing that special. They're okay, though. The first one is called "Bongo", that's about a bear who used to work in the circus but escapes to live in the wild. He finds he doesn't quite fit in, but things change when he comes across a female bear. But then he gets confused when she starts beating the shit out of him. But then, the movie so colorfully tells us that the way bears show that they love each other is beating the shit out of each other. Makes sense to me. Yeah, even as a kid, I thought that was a little weird and I'm still not sure I'd buy it now, but it makes for a cute song.
Background singers: Every pigeon likes to coo when he says, "I love you", but a bear likes to say it with a slap!
Doug (vo): And that's the best way to describe the first short: cute. I really liked it as a kid, but, looking back, it does go on a little too long. If they were gonna do this and make it work, they should either make it its own movie with much more characters or make it a lot shorter.
Story and review of Mickey and the Beanstalk (and the live-action segment)
Doug (vo): Then there's a really weird transition where Jiminy Cricket is somehow invited to a party! A party where puppets come to life and strange creepy men do weird sounds with their hands and the parents are nowhere to be seen... Yeah, this would not fly today...
(A scene where Edgar Bergen does, indeed, a really strange ventriloquist act, is played)
Edgar Bergen: You know, Ophelia, you look so sweet.
"Ophelia": Ah! What'd you say?
Edgar Bergen: I say, I think you look so sweet.
"Ophelia": Yeah?
Doug (vo): But that segues into "Jack and the Beanstalk", the first appearance of Mickey Mouse in any movies since Fantasia, and believe it or not, the last time you'll ever hear Walt Disney do his voice. We also get Goofy and Donald into the mix as it's pretty much just the straightforward story of "Jack and the Beanstalk", not really any major differences.
(Scenes focusing on Willie the Giant are shown)
Doug (vo): I see the only thing that stands out about it is the giant, who is sort of this enjoyable doofus. And they added this really weird plot device where he could change into anything. Isn't that strange? He's already a giant, why do you have to give him more magical stuff? Being a giant's enough! On top of that, they don't really do anything with it. There's a whole chase scene at the end where he's trying to get them, but would it just make more sense if he turned into a cheetah or something?
Final thought
Doug (vo): The film doesn't quite have the flow or creativity that Make Mine Music had. And to be honest, I don't know what the connection is with all these things! You have Jiminy Cricket, then a bear from a circus into the wild, then a creepy man with puppets, and then "Jack and the Beanstalk"! How does that all tie together? Individually, they work okay, as cartoons, but I don't think there's enough of them to really warrant a film. For if they did pick to, they'd have to do one that was particularly unique or particularly cinematic. And here, these really aren't. Again, they're not bad, they're just not anything that special. But they have their own charm and likability to them, so I guess they work out. I say it's probably better just to run them individually and skip the middle parts, but that's just me. If it looks good to you, you'll probably like it.
(The ending of the movie is shown)
Chorus: Fun and fancy free!