Make Mine Music (1946)

67% of critics liked it
(9 reviews)
43% of users liked it
(2,056 ratings)

In his first postwar animated feature, Walt Disney attempted to repeat the Fantasia formula, substituting "pop" music for the Classics. Make Mine Music consists of ten unrelated cartoon vignettes, each one featuring a popular recording artist. "A Rustic Ballad" is the story of the Martin-Coy… More In his first postwar animated feature, Walt Disney attempted to repeat the Fantasia formula, substituting "pop" music for the Classics. Make Mine Music consists of ten unrelated cartoon vignettes, each one featuring a popular recording artist. "A Rustic Ballad" is the story of the Martin-Coy hillbilly feud, narrated musically by the King's Men. "A Tone Poem" is an impressionistic interpretation of the song "Blue Bayou", sung by the Ken Darby chorus and rendered artistically by Disney's ace animators. "A Jazz Interlude", done in "sketchbook" style, is performed by Benny Goodman and His Orchestra, and features the jitterbug specialty "All the Cats Join In". Jerry Colonna is next on the program in "A Musical Recitation", offering his own inimitable version of "Casey at the Bat". "Ballad Ballet" features Ballet Russe stars Tatiana Riabouchinska and David Lichine, dancing to Dinah Shore's vocalization of "Two Silhouettes". "A Fairy Tale with Music" turns out to be Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf", narrated by Sterling Holloway. Next, Benny Goodman and company return with a surreal visualization of "After You've Gone", followed by "A Love Story", which features the Andrews Sisters' rendition of the ballad "Johnny Fedora and Alice Blue Bonnet." The hilarious "Opera Pathetique" finale finds Nelson Eddy narrating the story of Willy, "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met". Better in its individual components than its sum total, Make Mine Music was drubbed by critics, who felt that Disney had abandoned his "artistic" aspirations in favor of crass commercialism, but performed reasonably well at the box office, inspiring several more "omnibus" animated features. In later years, the ten individual segments would be released as separate short subjects, both theatrically and as episodes of Disney's various TV series (where the original narration was often supplanted by the unfunny interpolations of Professor Ludwig Von Drake). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 7 min.
Directed By: Nelson Eddy, Dinah Shore
Genres: Animation, Kids & Family, Musical & Performing Arts, Classics

In Theaters: Aug 15, 1946 Wide
On DVD: Jun 6, 2000

Critic Reviews

, TIME Magazine
Even Walt Disney's best films -- barring his wonderful slapstick -- have suffered from sticky taste; in this effort to be just plain folksy, that stickiness pretty thoroughly gums up the works.
Variety Staff, Variety
It entertains all the way.
Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Vivid, motley, ornamental and just-a-bit questionable in spots.
, TV Guide's Movie Guide
An uneven, but generally well done and entertaining, potpourri of 10 cartoons set to disparate musical styles.
Tim Brayton, Antagony & Ecstasy
One of the saddest little orphans in the whole of the Disney animated features canon... though the film hits more than it misses over the course of its ten sequences.
Trevor Johnston, Time Out
Overall, it's hit and miss.
Steve Crum, Kansas City Kansan
Disney animation-live action holds up well
Bob Bloom, Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)
A wonderful Disney offering featuring great animation.

Read all 8 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

danny d

disneys 8th classic film, this is a collection of shorts, many featuring music and others featuring childrens stories with narration. willie the whale is the gem of the film, but the other shorts are very creative and the film has a suprise with a great jazz piece by benny goodman.… More
disneys 8th classic film, this is a collection of shorts, many featuring music and others featuring childrens stories with narration. willie the whale is the gem of the film, but the other shorts are very creative and the film has a suprise with a great jazz piece by benny goodman. the film is painfully slow, but it was made more for the expression of creativity than for the entertainment value. good picture.
DOCTOR P

Number 3 of the compilation era The animation here is pretty good. The shorts are cute but unfortunately forgettable. The music at times boring. So far this is noticeably a weak era for Disney. Next up: Mickey Mouse the Movie (Sort of)
Matthew Y

WWII brought loads of problems to Disney Animation Studios. Walt was faced with financial complications due to the war, as well as having many of his animators overseas fighting or working on animated war propaganda for the government. Donald Duck became famous as the logo/mascot… More
WWII brought loads of problems to Disney Animation Studios. Walt was faced with financial complications due to the war, as well as having many of his animators overseas fighting or working on animated war propaganda for the government. Donald Duck became famous as the logo/mascot for the U.S. Navy during the war. With all of this going on Walt elected to release a few package films that consisted of works that were in progress or partially conceived. Make Mine Music was a sequel of sorts to Fantasia, with the same concept of each animated short being set to music. Like any anthology series the quality of each short differs, Make Mine Music has three borderline classics in Casey at the Bat, Peter and the Wolf, and Willie The Operatic Whale. Anyone would make the film worth recommending.