Year Released: 1947
Michael's Movie Grade; B-
History
With World War 2, many Disney artists were drafted, and their foreign market had been shut off. The studio was also still worried by the financial failure of Pinocchio, and Bambi. Because of all this many animated feature length stories had been put on hold. At this time the studio was making animated feature films that were essentially multiple shorts put together and called a feature, but no films that had one feature length story.
Two ideas for animated features were a story of a circus bear named Bongo (Based on a short story by Sinclair Lewis, and a version of Jack and the Beanstalk staring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Because of these uncertain times instead of being released as separate features both were reduced in length and released together as one feature film. The two now shorts were be tied together with bridging sequences staring our old friend Jiminy Cricket. In this film he sings a song called I'm a Happy Go Lucky Fellow which was originally written for Pinocchio, but ended up not being used in the final film. A line in this song is where the film's title, Fun and Fancy Free came from. Jiminy wasn't the only character from Pinocchio that was going to be reused in Fun and Fancy Free. It was planned that in the Mickey and the Beanstalk segment Honest John was going to be the one to sell Mickey the magic beans, but this scene was cut from the film. Since the Bongo section took place at the circus it was originally planned to reuse some of the characters from Dumbo, however this idea ended up being scrapped.
The original voice for Mickey Mouse was Walt Disney himself, but because Walt became heavily involved in too many projects to keep on doing the voice. So the voice for Mickey would be done by sound effects man James McDonald. The change in voice actors would happen during the making of Fun and Fancy Free. This film marks both the last time Walt Disney Would do the voice for a theatrical film, and the first time James McDonald would do Mickey's voice. Because their was barely a difference between the voices both can be heard here. However Walt would later do the voice for the introduction to the Mickey Mouse Club TV show.
Fun and Fancy Free was moderately successful both critically and financially, though many wondered when Disney would return to a full feature length animated story.
Review
Again since this film is made up of two cartoons put together, I am going to review both separately and give both a separate grade along with the collective grade towards the top of the page.
Bongo: I don't know how Bongo could have possibly worked as a separate feature when it feels so overlong here. Sadly this is not that great. It's not really bad but it really pales in comparison to the work we are used to from Disney. The characters and the story just aren't that well developed, and would be better suited to a shorter running time. The idea of bears slapping each other to say "I love you" seems just silly, and not in a good way. However this short does feature some great background art, catchy songs (even if the lyrics aren't that great), and the beautiful voice of Dinah Shore. Overall a rather bland cartoon that feels too long, but is not without it's good points. Grade:D+
Mickey and the Beanstalk: A great overlooked cartoon short that would make the film worth seeing on it's own. Anyone studying character animation needs to watch this, as the character animation is full of great acting and is funny enough (in a quite subtle way) to improve every slapstick gag in the cartoon. The story is quite simple, but it never feels overlong like Bongo does. Willie the giant is a great character that I wish Disney could have found a way to use more of. He is especially helped by some great voice acting from a great and sadly overlooked comedic actor named Billy Gilbert (Who had previously voiced Sneezy in Snow White, and had also appeared often with Laurel and Hardy, and in silent Keystone Comedies, he also was in Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator, and had a small role in A Night at the Opera with the Marx Brothers). This segment starts with a live action Edgar Bergen, along with his puppets Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, telling the story to Launa Patten and an animated Jiminy Cricket, while this would later be released for TV with Ludvig Von Drake narrating it, this is the version you should see. While many have pointed out that Bergen was not the greatest ventriloquist (you can easily see his mouth move), he was a great comedian. Him and his puppets comments are very funny, and it continues over the cartoon portions themselves improving that part as well. There is a true wit to this comedy and it adds a lot to the film. Overall this is a great cartoon that is unfortunately too often overlooked. Grade:A-
The scenes with just Jiminy are too brief to get their own grade, but they are quite charming, and I'm a Happy Go Lucky Fellow is quite a good song that I am glad we could hear in this film.
Film Credits
Animation Directors: Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts
Live Action Director: William Morgan
Voices: Cliff Edwards (Jiminy Cricket), Jim Macdonald (Mickey Mouse, Lumpjaw),
Walt Disney (Mickey Mouse), Clarence 'Ducky' Nash (Donald), Pinto Colvig (Goofy), Anita Gordon (Harp), Billy Gilbert (Willie the Giant) ("Mickey and the Beanstalk"), Dinah Shore (Narrator), Edgar Bergan (Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd), The King's Men, The Dinning Sisters
Live Action Cast: Edgar Bergen (Himself), Luana Patten (Herself)
Producer: Walt Disney
Bongo segment based of the book Bongo by Sinclair Lewis
Writers: Homer Brightman, Harry Reeves, Ted Sears, Lance Nolley, Eldon Dedini, Tom Oreb
Song Writers: Ned Washington, Eliot Daniel, Buddy Kaye, Bennie Benjamin, George David Weiss, Bill Walsh, Ray Noble, Paul J. Smith, Arthur Quenzer
Editor: Jack Bachom
Music: Eliot Daniel, Paul J. Smith, Oliver Wallace
Cinematography: Charles P. Boyle
Production Supervisor: Ben Sharpsteen
Assistant Director: Joe Lefert, Mike Holoboff, Jack Atwood
Effects Animators: George Rowley, Jack Boyd
Special Effects: Ub Iwerks
Layout Artists: Donald Da Gradi, Al Zinnen, Ken O'Connor, Hugh Hennesy, John Hench, Glenn Scott
Background Artists: Ed Starr, Claude Coats, Art Riley, Brice Mack, Ray Huffine, Ralph Hulet
Supervising Animators: Ward Kimball, Les Clark, Fred Moore, John Lounsbery
Animators: Hugh Fraser, Phil Duncan, Judge Whitaker, Art Babbitt, John Sibley, Marc Davis, Harvey Toombs, Hal King, Ken O'Brien, Jack Campbell, Hugh Fraser, Edwin Aardal, Hal Ambro, Ted Berman, Al Bertino, Ted Bonnicksen, Bob Carlson, Al Coe, Blaine Gibson, George Goepper, Harry Holt, Ollie Johnston, Bill Justice, Rudy Larriva, Eric Larson, Don Lusk, Dan MacManus, Tom Massey, John McManus, Frank McSavage, Joshua Meador, G. Miller, Kenneth Muse, Milt Neil, Charles A. Nichols, Art Palmer, John Reed, Sandy Strother, Henry Tanous, Don Towsley, Bernard Wolf, Marvin Woodward, Robert W. Youngquist
Resources Used
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0039404/?ref_=ttfc_fc_tt
http://www.bcdb.com/cartoon-characters/24-Fun-Fancy-Free/#cartoon_directors
-Michael J. Ruhland
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