Melody Time (1948)

User Rating:

6.7/10   

Directors:

Clyde Geronimi
Wilfred Jackson

Writers:

Winston Hibler (story) &
Erdman Penner (story) ...

Release Date:

27 May 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Family | Music

Tagline:

For Your All-Time Good Time !

Plot:

Animation done to contemporary music. Somewhat of a sequel to "Make Mine Music".

Plot Keywords:

Donald Duck | Anthology | Horse | Part Live Action | Disney Animated Feature

Cast

Roy Rogers	...	Himself
Trigger	...	Himself - The Smartest Horse in the Movies
Dennis Day	...	The Old Settler / Johnny Appleseed / Johnny's Angel (voice)
The Andrews Sisters	...	Themselves (as Andrews Sisters)
Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians	...	Themselves (as Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians)
Freddy Martin	...	Himself
Ethel Smith	...	Herself
Frances Langford	...	Herself (voice)
Buddy Clark	...	Himself - Master of Ceremonies (voice)
Bob Nolan	...	Himself
Sons of the Pioneers	...	Themselves
The Dinning Sisters	...	Themselves
Bobby Driscoll	...	Himself
Luana Patten	...	Herself

Runtime:

72 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:All | USA:Approved (certificate #12937) | USA:Not Rated (video rating) | New Zealand:G | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | Australia:G

Company:

Walt Disney Pictures

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.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Heavy Traffic (1973)

Soundtrack:

Melody Time

Melody Time brings back memories

I believe I first saw Melody Time when it was re-issued to theaters in the Fifties, but like it's successor, Make Mine Music, certain episodes found their way onto Disney's weekly TV show. That's when it was on Wednesday nights, not Sundays, and in black and white. Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill were the two most repeated segments on television because of the popularity of their characters. Dennis Day of course was well known to youngsters because of his appearance on the Jack Benny show and of course Roy Rogers was the top western star in 1948 when the movie was released. Even today, my favorite part of the program is the song, "Blue Shadows on the Trail." Make Mine Music had the classic Casey at the Bat,as told by Jerry Colonna, whom even though you may never have heard of him, brings laughs at his narration. The other character to come from Make Mine Music was Bongo, the circus bear. There were Bongo story books and of course records. While modern day audiences may find fault with Disney's story telling techniques as being stereotyped or old-fashioned, he brought to life in vivid Technicolor the classic stories of childhood.