(The Disneycember logo is shown, before showing clips from Melody Time)
Doug (vo): Now we have Melody Time, which is so similar to Make Mine Music that, actually, I'm sort of wondering why they didn't just call it "Make Mine Music 2". I mean, it's almost identical: different variations of songs, most of them modern, sung by modern singers, a little bit of poetry thrown in and even some straightforward stories. It's pretty much the exact same thing. And just like Make Mine Music, this one works pretty good, too.
Story and review
Doug (vo): You do have your straightforward narrative, some of them more forgettable than others. But you also have your selections of straightforward music, and even sometimes, even straightforward poetry.
[The "Trees" segment is shown]
Doug (vo): The poem "As Lovely As A Tree" segment is especially nice. It's just the Disney animators drawing what they hear as the poem is read, with some nice soothing music thrown over it. It works pretty well.
[The "Bumble Boogie" segment is shown]
Doug (vo): There's also a really cool section called "Bumble Boogie", which reminds me a lot of the "Pink Elephant" sequence. It's just a bee flying around to a whacked out version of "Flight of the Bumblebee" as the music is literally trying to destroy him. It's really chaotic, and leads to some fun imagery.
[More scenes of the segment is shown, before showing the "Johnny Appleseed" segment]
Doug (vo): The one that probably stands out the most is the "Johnny Appleseed" one. When I was a kid, I really liked it. When I was a teenager, I got a little bit more cynical and started making fun of it. Now that I'm older, I actually find myself really liking it again. It's got some real heavy atmosphere, some real heavy visuals and some of those backgrounds are just incredible. Yeah, it's still a little corny and I do make fun of it sometimes, but, it still holds up. It's the size and scope that they give something that it seems so relatively simple, and yet, they show that it took so much dedication. That image of the apple trees becoming the clouds is one of the most surreal things I've ever seen. I remember, it even stayed in my mind as a little kid, and it really, really is gripping. In fact, it's so good, it probably could have been its own movie. I'm sort of wondering why they tucked it away in here.
Johnny: [singing] The Lord is good to me. And so I thank the Lord for giving me the things I need, the sun and rain and an apple seed, yes, he's been good to me.
Doug (vo): Funny bit of trivia: when I was a little kid in Catholic school, they actually had this as the prayer we said before grace, isn't that weird? And they told us not to sing it, too. How is that possible? You can't say these words without singing it. It can't be done. We did it anyway, and I'm sure God knew we were thankful for the grub.
[The "Pecos Bill" segment is shown]
Doug (vo): And then the last segment they end on is "Pecos Bill", sung through a lot of folk and country music. This is also fun, too, and really creative, but, again, why did they end the film on this? I mean, it's funny, it's enjoyable, and it's catchy, but, dude, did you see the "Appleseed" one? I mean, that was far superior. "Pecos Bill" just ends on a...God, I don't even know what note. I'm not sure if it's sad, I'm not sure if it's happy, it's just...kind of odd. Like I said, I don't have a problem with it, I just don't know why they closed on it.
Final thought
Doug (vo): But, either way, Melody Time has some really good shorts in it, as well as some good music and really great animation. The atmosphere is really heavy in this one, again, maybe not Fantasia-heavy, but there are points where it hits that traditional Disney charm that only Disney can have, and they recreate it quite well here. Melody Time is definitely one to check out.
[The ending to the "Johnny Appleseed" segment is shown]
Singer: The Lord is good to me!