Make Mine Music

Make Mine Music is a 1946 animated movie, produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was first released to movie theaters by RKO Radio Pictures on August 15, 1946. Make Mine Music was re-issued to theaters on May 13, 1957, June 19, 1968, July 26, 1978, April 2, 1984, June 19, 1987 and the 50th anniversary on June 14, 1996. Make Mine Music was re-issued in United Kingdom on January 1, 1983. The 8th animated movie in the Disney animated movie canon, it stars Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore, Benny Goodman, and The Andrews Sisters.

Segments

The movie is made of ten parts.

• The Martins and the Coys features popular radio vocal group, King's Men singing the story of a Hatfields and McCoys-style feud in the mountains broken up when two young people from each side fall in love. This segment was later cut from the film's video release due to comic gunplay.
• Blue Bayou features animation originally intended for Fantasia using the Debussy musical composition Clair de Lune.
• All the Cats Join In is one of two segments to which Benny Goodman contributed. A pencil draws the action as it is happening. 1940s teens are swept away by popular music.
• Without You is a ballad of lost love, sung by Andy Russell.
• Casey at the Bat features Jerry Colonna, reciting the famous poem about the arrogant baseball player whose pride was his undoing.
• Two Silhouettes features two live-action ballet dancers, David Lichine and Tania Riabouchinskaya, moving in silhouette with animated backgrounds and characters. Dinah Shore sings the title song.
• Peter and the Wolf features Sterling Holloway narrating an adaptation of Prokofiev's composition about a little boy who goes hunting for a wolf, with each of the characters being represented by a member of an orchestra (violins, flute, etc.).
• After You've Gone again has Benny Goodman and his orchestra as four anthropomorphized instruments parade through a musical playground.
• Johnnie Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnett tells the romantic story of two hats who fall in love in a department store window. When Alice is sold, Johnny tries to find her. The Andrews Sisters provide the voices.
• The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At the Met is the story about a Sperm Whale, named Willie, with great musical talent and his dreams of singing Grand Opera. However, the producer of the theater, Tetti-Tatti, thinks Willie swallowed an opera singer, and Tetti-Tatti chases Willie with a harpoon (a spear used to on whales). In the end, Willie is killed, but the narrator tells the viewers that Willie sings on in heaven. Nelson Eddy performed all the voices in this segment.

Production

During World War II, much of Walt Disney's staff was drafted into the United States Army, and those that were still there were called upon by the U.S. government to make training and propaganda films. As a result, the studio was littered with unfinished story ideas. In order to keep the movie division alive during this difficult time, the studio released four package films including this one, made up of various unrelated segments set to music.

Cast

Release

Make Mine Music is the only movie in the Disney animated features canon not to gain a Region 4 and Region 2 DVD release. Its only home video release was on DVD on June 6, 2000 under the Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection title.

Reception

Make Mine Music ended up being a slight disappointment itself, particularly from Walt Disney's point of view. It was not well received by the critics either. Years later, the segments were individually released as short subjects or used in various Disney television programs.

The movie was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival.

Titles in other languages

• Dutch: Maak de Muziek van de Mijn
• Finnish: Iskelmäparaati
• French: La Boîte à Musique
• German: Mach Mir Musik
• Italian: Musica Maestro!
• Japanese: メイク・マイン・ミュージック (Meiku Main Myūzikku)
• Portuguese: Musica, Maestro!
• Spanish: Musica Maestro (also known as La Cajita Musical in Latin America)
• Swedish: Spela för mej (also known as Spela för mig)

References

1. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Make Mine Music". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 2012-10-30. Retrieved 2009-01-03.

Other websites

• Make Mine Music on IMDb
• Make Mine Music at the Big Cartoon DataBase