Melody Time (1948)

An anthology of animated vignettes set to contemporary music.

Directors:

Clyde Geronimi, Wilfred Jackson,

Writers:

Winston Hibler (story), Erdman Penner (story),

Stars:

Roy Rogers, Trigger, Dennis Day

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Roy Rogers	...	Roy Rogers
Trigger	...	Trigger (as Trigger the Smartest Horse in the Movies)
Dennis Day	...	Johnny Appleseed Narrator (voice)
The Andrews Sisters	...	The Andrews Sisters
Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians	...	Fred Waring's Pennsylvanians
Freddy Martin	...	Freddy Martin - Pianist
Ethel Smith	...	Ethel Smith
Frances Langford	...	Frances Langford (voice)
Buddy Clark	...	Master of Ceremonies (voice)
Bob Nolan	...	Bob Nolan (voice) (as Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers)
Sons of the Pioneers	...	Sons of the Pioneers
The Dinning Sisters	...	Dinning Sisters - Singers
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Bobby Driscoll	...	Bobby Driscoll
Luana Patten	...	Luana Patten

Storyline

Segments: "Once Upon a Wintertime," two lovers rescued from an icy river by friendly animals; "Bumble Boogie," bee beset by musical instruments and symbols come to life; "Johnny Appleseed," story of the legendary pioneer tree-planter; "Trees," mood piece set to musical treatment of Joyce Kilmer's poem; "Little Toot," story of a heroic little tugboat who saves an ocean liner; "Blame it on the Samba," Donald Duck and Jose Carioca have the blues blown away at a Latin cafe; "Pecos Bill," story of the legendary cowpoke, his trusty mount Widowmaker and his sweetheart Slue Foot Sue.

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Plot Keywords:

jose carioca | pecos bill | johnny appleseed | samba | anthology | 

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Taglines:

For Your All-Time Good Time!

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Genres:

Animation | Family | Music

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 May 1948 (USA)

Also Known As:

All in Fun

Filming Locations:

Walt Disney Studios, 500 South Buena Vista Street, Burbank, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

72 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Because of the controversy about smoking, the "Pecos Bill" segment was heavily edited for release to DVD. In the original film Bill is seen smoking a cigarette in several sequences. The cigarette was edited out in each case, resulting in the removal of almost the entire tornado sequence and some odd hand and mouth movements for Bill throughout.

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Quotes

[introduction to "Pecos Bill"]
Master of Ceremonies: Here's a tall tale straight from the chuck wagon, just the way the old-timers used to tell it. According to them, Pecos Bill was the roughest, toughest, rootin'est, tootin'est, shootin'est cowpoke that ever lived. Well, any story about old Pecos is bound to be right strong medicine, so maybe it's best to sashay into it kinda gentle-like.

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Connections

Referenced in The John Garfield Story (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Bumble Boogie"
Written by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, arranged by Jack Fina
Performed by Freddy Martin and His Orchestra
Featuring Jack Fina on piano

User Reviews

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly....

The WWII years were not good to 'ol Walt Disney. First, a crippling strike occurred just before the war (in which he lost about a third of his animators) and then the war took a whole bunch more. Plus, apart from making military training films and a few shorts here and there, the production of full-length films ground to a complete halt. Up until this time, Disney had produced some amazingly good cartoons such as "Snow White", "Pinocchio" and "Bambi" among others. Once the war was over, the studio was a mess and they were in no shape to try to replicate their past glorious films. So, the studio worked on a wide variety of short films--intended as experimental productions and opportunities for the new animators to hone their craft. To put it bluntly, it was almost like the minor leagues of Disney--or perhaps the pre-season! Regardless, by 1946-8, they had A LOT of shorts and decided to clump them together (sometimes clumsily) and release them as full-length films, such as "Make Mine Music", "Saludos Amigos" and this film. Unfortunately, these all were wildly uneven pictures--full of very good stuff, some poor stuff and some downright awful stuff. For kids, in particular, they were second or third-rate films--often full of dull songs and varying wildly in style, content and focus.

Of the collections marketed as full-length films, "Melody Time" might just be the most consistent of them. While it still is uneven and occasionally bad (Once Upon a Winter Time), it also had more good stuff--though nothing exactly great. The best of them were probably "Pecos Bill" and "Little Toot"....though I also liked "Bumble Boogie". The rest of the crop would fall somewhere between these extremes. Enjoyable but probably a film best for die-hard Disney fans or people who adore animation...REALLY adore animation. Otherwise, I anticipate some very disappointed people out there.