There are a lot of things that I’m proud of in my DVD/Blu-Ray collection but one of the more notable things that I have are nearly every film from Walt Disney Animation Studios (I refuse to buy Chicken Little even for completion purposes). A lot of people seem drawn to that section of my collection whenever I have them over and they quite often show a great deal of familiarity with a lot of the films there. However, one section of my Disney collection that always seems to be unknown to a lot of people seems to be movies six through eleven. These films were known as “Package Films” and, while strange in comparison to a lot of other Disney films, prove to be an incredibly important part of the history of the company.
Before we get into the films themselves, I feel it’s important to explain why they are called package films and the reason they were produced in the first place. Disney had been incredibly successful with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs but Pinocchio and Fantasia had both been box office failures and while Dumbo and Bambi were successful, they weren’t anywhere near as successful as Snow White had been. By 1942, the year Bambi was released, the US had entered World War II and many of Walt Disney’s animators had been drafted or had left the company due to the 1941 Disney animators’ strike. Due to this shortage of funds and staff, the next six films that Disney would produce would combine multiple stories from as few as two to as many as ten, hence the name “Package Films”.
The first package film released was Saludos Amigos and this movie has a surprisingly fascinating production history. The US was concerned that several South American governments were sympathetic to the Axis powers and they decided, as part of their Good Neighbor Policy, to send Walt Disney and his staff on a tour of South America due to the popularity of Disney characters there and to eventually produce a film that would be shown throughout the Americas. The result was Saludos Amigos, released in 1943 in the US and the shortest theatrical film that Walt Disney Animation Studios has ever produced with a runtime of about 40 minutes. The film is split into four segments each set in a different South American country with live-action footage of Walt Disney and his staff traveling and coming up with ideas for the movie. The film was much cheaper than the previous Disney movies and managed to do respectably well in the box office.
The Three Caballeros acts as a semi-sequel to Saludos Amigos and debuted in Mexico City in December 1944 before being released widely in 1945. The movie opens with Donald Duck receiving three gifts for his birthday which are themed around Latin America. The movie sees the return of José Carioca from Saludos Amigos as well as the introduction of Panchito, a new character from Mexico. The film is split up into several segments although the most noteworthy segments are in the second half of the movie where Donald Duck is taken to several regions of Latin America and is entranced by the women there (played by several Latin American celebrities). From a technical perspective the film is very impressive in how it manages to blend 2D animation with live-action footage and there is some very psychedelic animation which I always enjoy.
Make Mine Music was released in 1946 and is similar to Fantasia in the sense that it’s a compilation of short stories centred around music. There are ten segments with most segments featuring a music celebrity who conveys the story through the song. In contrast to Fantasia which was very much focused on classical music, Make Mine Music offers a wider variety of musical genres such as country, jazz, etc.
The 1947 film Fun and Fancy Free is quite different to the prior films in that there are only two segments. We follow Jiminy Cricket as he enters a house and comes across a recording, narrated by Dinah Shore, about a circus bear called Bongo that wants to live in the wild. After the recording finishes, Jiminy comes across an invitation, not to him but the house’s residents, to the house across the road where Edgar Bergen tells the story of Happy Valley, a version of Jack and the Beanstalk with Mickey, Donald and Goofy exploring the giant’s lair in order to rescue the magic harp that took care of Happy Valley. The story of Bongo and Happy Valley were originally intended to be two separate feature films but, due to production and financial troubles, they were each turned into a short film and paired up with each other. An interesting fact about this film is that it would be the last time Walt Disney would voice Mickey Mouse in either a short or feature length film.
Melody Time, released in 1948, is similar to Make Mine Music in that it has seven segments each set to music performed by music celebrities across a multitude of musical genres. It’s also interesting that a segment of this film sees the return of Donald Duck and José Carioca as a nod to both Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros.
Finally, the 1949 film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad is similar to Fun and Fancy Free in that it presents two short films. It adapts The Wind in the Willows in the first segment and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in the second. The Wind in the Willows had originally been intended to be a feature length film since it was viewed that animation was the only way to adapt the original novel. After a hectic production, it was decided to pair The Wind in the Willows with Happy Valley along with an adaptation of Roald Dahl’s The Gremlins. However, The Gremlins adaptation was scrapped and The Wind in the Willows was instead paired with an adaptation of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mister Toad is generally considered to be the best of the Disney package films.
While the Disney package films are certainly strange, they are nonetheless very important as they helped keep the Disney feature length animation department afloat during a very trying time long enough to make a return to single story feature length films with Cinderella in 1950 and beyond. Let me know your thoughts on the strange but important Disney package films, whether you’ve seen any of them, which ones you like or dislike, what you think about their place in the history of Disney and any additional information you might have on the topic.
Hopefully you have found this article interesting and informative and, if you wish to seek any of the works I mentioned, don’t hesitate to use amazon.co.uk or amazon.com for all of your needs!