FUN AND FANCY FREE

1947

Made up of two short films, Fun and Fancy free is Disney's second package film released after WWII. Production on both shorts had begun before the war, and from 1941 through 1946 they went through many changes, finally being paired up to be released as a single feature. Both shorts are presented by Jiminy Cricket (voiced by Cliff Edwards), who opens the movie with a song that was originally written for Pinocchio.

MAKE MINE MUSIC

1946

Since the beginning of World War II, Disney Animation Studios went through a kind of economical crisis, with some of its movies not doing so well at the box office. So during the mid-forties, the studio had lost a lot of animators and was forced to produce features with shorter budgets.

The answer was to create what are called "package films". These, as the name implies, are features made up of several short films. Disney had a lot of material to choose from. Some stories were too short to be features, others too long to be individual short films. So the studio made a compilation of stories in four different films: Make Mine Music, Fun and Fancy Free, Melody Time and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad.

THREE CABALLEROS

1945

The Three Caballeros was the second feature that came form the studios' trip to South America.
For this film, there was a special group that travelled to Mexico to get references for the Pancho Pistoles.

SALUDOS AMIGOS

1943

Saludos Amigos was the result of a trip through South America to promote American values during the Second World War, as a way of countering the influence of Nazi Germany in some Latin American countries. 

BAMBI

1942

Dumbo was a great success because of its story, characters, and beautiful sequences, but most of all because of its great animation, more cartoony and exaggerated than previous features. But for Bambi, Walt Disney wanted the studio's animators to animate every single animal as accurately as possible, hence the long pre-production of the film (it was set to be Disney's second animated feature).

Dumbo was a film where budget was very limited and the studio had to make the most of what they had. But for Bambi, the studio decided to spend more on visual effects and more time studying animal behavior to get everything just right.  The result was definitely worth it. A perfectly animated film with gorgeous backgrounds and beautiful characters.

DUMBO

1941

Based on the book by Helen Aberson and Harold Pearl, and adapted for the screen by  Joe Grant and Dick Huemer, Dumbo was Disney's fourth feature film. And it kind of saved the studio after the poor reception of Fantasia and even Pinocchio.

Even though the movie runs only 65 minutes and had a budget three times smaller than previous feature films form Disney, Dumbo works on the characters' great personalities and awesome animation.

FANTASIA

1940

Have you ever been in one of those exercises where you're suposed to close your eyes, listen to the music, and see where your mind takes you? Watching Fantasia is like going inside the mind of the Walt Disney Studios during one of these sessions.

Fantasia is the third feature film from Walt Disney, and the longest one, with 124 minutes (despite some of the songs being shortened for this movie). It is also the first movie (not just from Disney) to enjoy stereo sound (called Fantasound) which was developed specifically for this film. 

This time, I asked some friends to help illustrate some of the stories from the film.