Make Mine Music (Disney Gold Classic Collection)

Share in Walt Disney's extraordinary vision of pairing imaginative stories with spectacular music in Disney's 8th full-length animated classic, available for the first time ever. In the tradition of FANTASIA, MAKE MINE MUSIC is a glorious collection of musically charged animated shorts featuring such fun-filled favorites as "Peter And The Wolf," narrated by the beloved voice behind Winnie The Pooh. In addition, you'll enjoy such classic cartoon hits as "Casey At The Bat," "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At The Met," and "Johnnie Fedora And Alice Bluebonnet," the whimsical adventure of two hats who fall in love in a department store window. Every member of your family will have a favorite in this musical medley of fun and fantasy from Disney!|This was Disney's first postwar "package" feature. By tying a group of shorts together, he was able to get the production into theaters sooner. There were 10 segments in the original, released in April 1946.|The "Blue Bayou" segment was originally created for FANTASIA.|Many of the individual segments would be used on television or released theatrically as shorts.|The music for "All The Cats Join In" was provided by bandleader Benny Goodman. Sometimes referred to as "the Poor Man's Fantasia," Make Mine Music (1946) was the first of the "package features" Walt Disney released after World War II. Instead of Bach and Beethoven, the artists illustrated segments set to popular music by Benny Goodman, Dinah Shore, and the Andrews Sisters. Originally set to Debussy's "Claire de Lune," "Blue Bayou" remains an atmospheric evocation of the Everglades. "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met" is a charming fantasy about a cetacean with an extraordinary voice. "Peter and the Wolf," based on the Prokofiev score, offers brightly colored designs, but the narration by Sterling Holloway seems superfluous. "All the Cats Join In" is an upbeat evocation of the Bobby Sox era, but "Casey at the Bat" and "Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet" feel self-conscious and unfunny.

"Two Silhouettes" combines rotoscoped images of Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo stars Tatiana Riabouchinska and David Lichine with kitsch cupids, sparkles, and hearts. "The Martins and the Coys," a spoof of a hillbilly feud, has been excised in a bow to modern taste. The supplemental material includes The Band Concert, the first color Mickey Mouse short and one of the character's finest performances, and Music Land, a quirky Silly Symphony about clashing musical styles. --Charles Solomon