No surprise that Ben disliked The Three Caballeros. As I said myself, in the review, it was truly awful. I honestly have nothing else to say regarding his review, so let’s move on.
Now, the Disneyologists amongst you will know that Fun and Fancy Free wasn’t the next film to come out of the Walt Disney Animation Studios after The Three Caballeros. The next release was in fact ‘Make Mine Music’, followed by ‘Song of the South’. However, neither of these films are available on Disney Life in the UK (in fact, ‘Song of the South’ isn’t available anywhere!). I looked into this on Wikipedia and found that this was related to a segment in ‘Make Mine Music’ featuring gun use and ‘Song of the South’ due to:
“the film’s portrayal of African Americans as racist and offensive, maintaining that the black vernacular and other qualities are stereotypes. In addition, the plantation setting is sometimes criticized as idyllic and glorified”.
A good call on Disney’s part in the 21st Century, I’d say. However, if either of these films become available again, we will give them a watch and let you know what we think (though, to be honest, I’m not in any rush to see them).
‘Fun and Fancy Free’ was the fourth of six films that had been created during the Second World War, whilst most of the WDAS staff had been drafted, and therefore had a considerably lower budget. The film starts with Jiminy Cricket (got a lot of time for Jiminy!), who introduces us to the first story, Bongo, about a circus bear that escapes back to wild (despite being bred in captivity). Following Bongo, we get the story of ‘Mickey and the Beanstalk’, which is basically an adaptation of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’.
Despite the two stories (which, in themselves, were entertaining enough), much like in Saludos and Caballeros, the film frequently goes off on tangents of random musical animations that bear little relevance to the stories supposedly being told and are quite hard to follow at times. By this point, those segments have just become tedious to me and Ben. Thankfully, we also don’t have access to the next release, ‘Melody Time’ (there’s no specific reason why we don’t have access, so I’m assuming that it must just be total crap), which looks like it’s in the same ilk as the last three watched. Let’s hope The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad is better. If not, it’s Cinderella after that one! Woop woop!
3/10
Kerry😁
Disney during the 1940’s was rubbish. After watching seven films of dated indulgence mixed with child donkey slavery, deer snuff and plenty of birds that are almost moist with excitement at watching Latin American propaganda material, we’ve been able to mercifully skip two films either due to gunplay or scenes containing slavery. Without a doubt this is the only time I’ve had reason to say, “high-five for film racism!” In all seriousness, there has been a slight bitter taste in quite a few of the films so far, whether it’s normalising slavery, firearms, tobacco, alcohol or implying that women are only good for cleaning and Prince / dwarf nurturing. I will instead give a big high-ten for the progress we’ve seen since.
Unfortunately there are still two more Disney films to endure of their 1940’s era, and the title of the 1947 entry, ‘Fun and Fancy Free’, leaves little room for optimism. At worst, they created such a meaningless pile of crap that they felt compelled to name the film with as much positive connotation as possible to mask the shitshow contained within. At best, it’s a documentary about swingers. Given the past reputation of Disney films I mentioned above, a propaganda flick about the joys of dogging with the wife in Baía, seems perfectly plausible.
The intro tune is annoying and dated as always and…. bugger. Donald Duck again. Could this guy just piss off? If we get Jose Carioca again, who bludgeoned the last two films with his Latin America sycophancy, I swear to God I will turn it off. I just had to get Kerry to wind the intro song back as I’m sure I just heard the line “If you should have a crummy cake”. Go listen and see if you hear that too. Now I’ve put that idea in your head, you probably will. Alas, on rehearing the line it actually says, “if you should have a crummy day”. I’m disappointed. A crummy cake will cheer me up I’m sure. I really want cake now. Subliminal advertising perhaps? Wait, are Disney now receiving backhanders from Latin America AND a Mr. Kipling? Is ‘Fun and Fancy Free’ going to be all about how your life must include Fondant Fancies maybe? I could go for a Fondant Fancy right now. Not sure I could cope with a whole film about them though, especially if that dick Donald Duck is going to be eating them. I’m thinking about cake an awful lot, so if this was their cunning plan, then it really is working a treat.
Hello! Sorry I got totally side-tracked there. Right so, ‘Fun and Fancy Free’. We start with Jiminy Cricket, who was one of the less annoying parts of Pinocchio. I’m realising that I’m just starting to build up pockets of knowledge about Disney which has resulted in a cacophony of feelings ranging from pride to nausea. He’s singing on a boat about being fun and fancy free. They’re really driving home the point about fun and fancy freeness through the medium of song already, and I still have no idea really about what it means. I want to know why they made this the film name. Now he’s in a house. We see the fish he attempted to molest in Pinocchio and his ardour for her is clearly still alive. Next a cat tries to attack him after Jiminy pokes him on the nose with his umbrella. What a silly twat. Following this he chats with a drunk doll and an angry looking toy bear. He finds some records and a musical love story by some chick called Dinah Shore, which is so appealing he must play it. Jiminy and I are very different people / crickets.
The record starts playing and the audio suddenly becomes visual as well. Just because. We are informed this love story is about three bears. So presumably less “Romeo and Juliet” and more of a “Ron Jeremy” sort of love. The protagonist, Bongo the Bear, is the star of the Circus. He does all sorts of amazing things like juggling whilst upside down. On a unicycle. On a trapeze. The usual plausible stuff. Despite being literally the most talented being on the entire planet, he’s treated by the circus owners like crap. There are so many people in Disney films that I want to suffer hideous, grizzly deaths and to be honest, at least up to 1947, not enough of them do. In fact the number of villains and bastards that have met their maker total the same as deaths of sweet mothers of lovable fawns. So unsurprisingly he wants to leave and go back to the wild.
From his train carriage that goes from town to town, which more closely resembles a prison cell he manages to escape. It’s extremely satisfying considering his horrible and ungrateful owners. I feel a sense of joy as Bongo is reunited with the woods and his natural habitat, the only thing distinguishing his previous life from the other animals being his smile of appreciation. And his hat, bowtie, jacket and unicycle.
We then get many scenes of Bongo trying to adapt to the wild and generally having fun being free… That’s why the films called ‘Fun and Fancy Free’! Closure. Then, whilst Bongo has a bit of chill time in some flowers, we are treated to many scenes of trees and frolicking animals. Once again Disney doing its tried and tested art of killing time with cute drawings doing pretty much sweet F.A. and, as always, the song accompanying it is disgusting. 
After some struggles catching fish, Bongo meets a girl bear under a waterfall and immediately wants to do her. Or in Disney language, falls in love at first sight. She seems interested too. It must be that sexy hat, jacket and bowtie. This is an excuse for another hideous song with more indulgent animations such as cupid bears making a love nest out of pink clouds. I’m getting bored now.
The problem, it transpires, is that there is a fuck-off-big bear who also has an interest in her. Now, apparently if a bear likes another bear, they give them a slap. Does this actually happen or did the writers just decide this on a whim? Bongo being domesticated, doesn’t know this custom and so he doesn’t slap her about which means she thinks he’s not interested and goes off with the fuck-off-big bear instead. Now we get a song about how it’s “good to give them a slap”… I don’t think this song would be allowed in the 21st century somehow?! Just think how many impressionable boys of the 1940’s were inspired by the sentiments of this song! I wonder if the male writers that returned in distress from fighting the Nazi’s before making this film and wrote this ditty as retribution towards the women that stayed behind and didn’t have to experience the horrors of war.
Bongo decides to fight for his woman and with the aid of his unicycle, defeats fuck-off-big bear and lives happily ever after with her. It’s quite similar to Bambi, but better and far less distressing. I wouldn’t call it essential viewing, but there has been far worse in recent films.
We return to Jiminy Cricket who’s using a dolls bosom as a pillow. It was he who insisted we watch this musical story and then he slept through the bloody thing! Anyway, he sees an invite to a party across the way. As he travels to the party across the way, we get a song about going to a party across the way. I’m used to Disney doing shit like this now. Doesn’t mean I like it though.
The “party” it appears is in fact a congregation of the follow four people:
Is this a party or the young girl’s WORST FUCKING NIGHTMARE? “Mummy, Daddy I just had the worst dream where it was my birthday party and the only guests in the house were me, two elderly, drunk paedo puppets and an old man in a velvet pimp jacket making a mouth with his right hand!”
This is beyond creepy. Somehow the girl isn’t scared and even more inexplicably, Jiminy Cricket’s first instinct isn’t to call the police. I call bullshit. After doing research (or ‘nipping onto Wikipedia’), I’ve discovered the chap in the velvet jacket is comedian, actor and ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen. I question his ventriloquist skills though, mainly due to the fact when the puppets talk, Edgars MOUTH IS MOVING! Now I don’t know about you, but when I think of the main skills required to be considered a ventriloquist, not moving one’s mouth is pretty damn high on the list! Possibly ventriloquism has progressed a long way in the last 70 years, but I’m not impressed with this dude’s skills. Or his choice of dolls *shudder*. I get the feeling that most people would have known who Edgar Bergen was in 1940’s America or with the way he is presented, people are definitely expected to be familiar with his work. It’s yet another way the film feels so dated.
Here’s another thing that has blown my mind: that little girl died aged 57. Which was at the time of writing, over 23 years ago!!! Which has brought home the fact that just about everyone involved from the animators to the musicians to the actors to the dancers to George (see previous reviews), is now dead. Some have been for many years. Plenty probably died before I was even born. And yet thanks to the miracle of film, I get to endure some of the nonsense they created, even though our timelines never even crossed paths.
And on that note, Edgar and his creepy puppets tell the long since deceased girl Luana and story about a place called ‘Happy Valley’. He asks creepy puppet #1 to try and picture it. Creepy puppet #1 strains as if he is about to soil himself evidently proving that asking what is essentially sculped wood to produce conscious thought bubbles is a waste of time. Luana, as a sentient being, is on hand to help however, and Happy Valley is thunk thinked thoughted imagined into reality. Happy valley is a very… happy place. And why wouldn’t it be, after all it has a singing harp. Wait, what? I’m finding this sing harp annoying but each to their own. It should be noted that it also seems to be part harp, part woman. Ok then. To show how happy a place it is, we get more frolicking animals. Its feels like at least three quarters of the Disney animation films thus far have solely been frolicking animals.
One day the harp was taken and this basically caused famine and misery. The scientific reason for this should be so obvious I feel no need to discuss it further… We go to the house of Mickey, Goofy and OH FOR FUCKS SAKE, Donald. For the third film in a row. And if Donald could be annoying when he’s not hungry (granted he was extremely sexually frustrated), the levels of dickness he reaches when famished is inexplicable. He treats the others like complete crap, becomes hyper-aggressive and irrational which culminates in his attempted eating of a live cow’s tail.
We return to the world’s most horrifying birthday party for a reminder of just how creepy the puppets are (as well as just how annoying that girl, Luana, is). After their hilarious capering 😒, the world-famous Edgar Bergen continues with the story. Mickey sells the cow for magic beans. At this point I realise we’re watching an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk. The Disney films so far have done a lot of adapting rather than creating original stories. But then saying that, after seeing their original stories, I don’t really blame them. Unsurprisingly, the beanstalk grows, they climb it and there’s a giant house in the clouds. I reckon I know who stole the harp-woman.
So after entering the castle they realise there’s a giant there. Kerry has just suggested that the giant should say “Fe Fi Fo Fuck, I smell the blood of a stupid duck…” That would be amazing, so obviously he doesn’t say that. We return to “reality” to find creepy-puppet #2 pretending to be a giant. And apparently adorning a pirate hat helps this illusion. Ok then. The rest of the story passes by as I expected. They realise the giant has indeed stolen harp-woman, and they successfully steal her back and escape although there are quite a few near-misses. Around a thousand at a rough estimate. It does get a little “oh hurry the fuck up” if truth be told. The harp makes everyone happy and everything live again, the story ends, the film ends, and no lives have been changed by the experience that is watching ‘Fun and Fancy Free’.
And that’s the best way to summarise the film really. It wasn’t bad (Three Caballeros), Depressing (Bambi) or creepy (Pinocchio), but at the same time wasn’t exciting, overly rewarding or necessary (a film that isn’t Disney in the 1940’s) either. They just did it, and it just was. And now I just need a drink.
4.5/10
Ben 🙄
Now to the Amazon jungle in Venezuela. Specifically Venezuela. And they decide to give introduce us to a load of birds with funny names. We also have Toucans trying and failing to make love. Yup, that’s the expression they use. Make love. We also get a bird that sings a “peculiar song”. It is one of the greatest things in the history of film. Someone else out there obviously agrees (credit to ‘BeauwithaBang’ on YouTube) and made what is now my favourite video (even if it is slightly short). To be honest, just give today’s kids 90 minutes of this bird singing and they’ll be happy as a fawn in the woods (until its mother gets brutally murdered, naturally). Kids do not want hear the Latin name for Venezuelan wildlife nor the customs of some remote part of Latin America, they want to see this bird making stupid noises while running maniacally back and forth across the screen. But alas, 1940’s Disney doesn’t possess such logic. Instead we go to Uruguay for a story about a boy hunting Hornero birds, that is being narrated by presumably his adult self. Either that or boys’ voices in Uruguay break at a ridiculously young age.
Even a reprise by the amazing peculiar-song bird can’t save it. The parrot in question is the Brazil obsessed Jose Curioca from ‘Saludos Amigos’. This time he takes his obsession to new heights by zoning in on the wonders of Baía (Wikipedia has informed me that they’re referring to the state of Bahia). Donald’s never seen Baía, so Jose kindly conjures a magic train from the book to take them on a trip there. I’ve noticed that the Disney films of the 1940’s dedicate a large amount of time to indulgence for the animators and musicians and their trip here is a prime example of that, with complex evolving animations that ultimately have no substance, set to long outdated musical compositions that ultimately suck. Their journey to Baía is guilty of that sort of indulgence, and yet this is merely a warning shot for what lays ahead…
Ah, it’s time for another song. We haven’t had one for almost 90 seconds which means we were in grave danger of needing a plotline. The song is all about how they are three gay Caballeros. They use the term gay many, many times in these early Disney films. It should be noted that ever since Baía and during the remainder of this film, there is nothing gay, at least in the contemporary sense, about Donald. Every time he comes into any sort of contact with a female it becomes ever more apparent that he is on heat, to the point that surely Jose and Panchito must have thought his sex-pest tendencies would make him a liability.
The United States Department of State had funded the film in order for Disney to produce a film that solely featured Latin American culture, in an effort to try and severe the ties that some of the Latin American countries were seemingly developing with Nazi Germany. The film is made up of four segments. Two feature Donald Duck and one features Goofy. We are also introduced to the character José Carioca, a green cigar-smoking parrot from Brazil. José is also in the next film that we will be reviewing, The Three Caballeros, so let’s hope Ben like’s him (as I don’t think he’s that keen on Donald Duck!). I will let Ben take you through the segments in detail.
Lake Titicaca and we are immediately bedazzled by the delights of women weaving clothes and detailed explanations of what the fisherman’s boats are made of. Now for me, it’s reasonably interesting (key word being ‘reasonably’), but I suspect a number of young children at this point are running around pretending to be a car or doing a headstand on the sofa whilst humming or whatever else bored kids do. All of this is presented to us alongside commentary from a chap with a ‘Deems Taylor’ (the MC from Fantasia) level of wildness.
Basically some mail needs to be picked up from the other side of the Andes and the Mummy and Daddy plane both can’t make the trip due to various ailments so young Pedro plane has to do it instead. So Pedro sets off on his jour…. hang on. There are Mummy and Daddy planes and they can have children?!!!! The mind boggles at the thought of what happens when a Mummy and Daddy plane love each other very much. Anyway, Pedro sets off and is immediately scared of heights. Being a plane that’s somewhat problematic. Once he adapts, he flies through the mountains and only gets distracted when he spots a bird and gets rather overexcited, and chases it. You can’t fuck a bird, you silly plane! Apparently you can fuck another plane though (just ask Mummy and Daddy plane who I’m sure have gotten over their illnesses to make the most of your absence). After collecting the mail, the weather turns and there is a huge storm that threatens to knock Pedro out of the sky. We keep seeing a wobbling altímetro (that’s Spanish for altimeter… you’re welcome). Happily, after some scary moments, it doesn’t and he returns to find Mummy plane sleeping whilst Daddy plane lies next her smoking a cigarette and looking pleased with himself. That’s a lie, but at least Disney refrained from killing anything off for once.
Argentina next and we’re off to the Pampas, where we see local cowboys and old women and meat on barbeques. Personally, as a geography geek who’s fascinated by the world, I find this interesting. But I’m sure many won’t. All this leads to their next animated sketch, which involves the narrator reminding us that America has cowboys as well and so we’re going to Texas to see the antics of Goofy and a horse. Goofy is transported to the Pampas to learn about the differences between American and Argentinian Cowboys. My issue with this whole segment is that we had a “Goofy and his horse” shenanigans in the Reluctant Dragon and a lot of this feels like a bit of a rehash and, frankly, just lazy. You travel eight thousand miles to do a sketch with an almost identical premise to one from just three movies ago. That’s a waste. Goofy learns how to eat bread and meat and dances with a horse, you know, the usual.
Brasil (that’s Portuguese for Brazil… you’re welcome). The animation depicts various flora and fauna of the Amazon and is superbly done. Donald Duck reappears and I realise I much prefer Looney Tunes. If Bugs Bunny or Roadrunner were to appear here, I would be quite pleased, but when I see Donald Duck, I feel disappointed. José reappears and promises to show Donald Copacabana and it appears they have struck up a repour. They dance to some samba music. The one thing worth drawing attention to here is that Donald gets bladdered from drinking a spirit called cachaça. It is so strong it causes Donald to breathe fire, from which, José lights his cigar. Light up kids, but try to get blind drunk first. After Donald drunkenly dances to some Samba, the film ends.
Bambi gets taught the difference between birds and butterflies. And flowers. He calls a skunk a flower to much mirth. Then he gets scared by a storm… That’s it I’m done, now there’s a song about rain. Fuck this shit. Now don’t get me wrong, I did continue to watch this film because I will sit through all these films and I will review them because its what I’ve idiotically signed up for, but there’s not a lot I can say about most of this, hell, I may as well be trying to write a 3000-word review about what air looks like. All I can do is point out those few things of significance that do actually occur.
f the fight, that would be a bit strange. He gets it on with that face-licking Doe from earlier). Oh and in the midst of all this, the hunters come back and nearly shoot more animals and then attempt to burn down the forest. It would have been fitting for the film if Bambi had his house and mate torched to death as well, just to properly psychology ruin him. Fortunately that doesn’t happen as Bambi, being the brave prince he is, makes sure everyone is ok and they all live happily, and slightly scarred, ever after.
One argument that I’m sure people will make is that the film makes a compelling argument against hunting. Without going too deep into the politics of this, I absolutely hope that it has talked someone out of hunting for sport, but if you want to kill an animal for the sake of killing an animal, you’ve probably shut down enough processes in that part of your brain for a Disney film to cause any major epiphany’s. Furthermore, I know some people could, and would, argue that it forced Bambi to grow up and prove himself as a man (stag), but that isn’t the only way that Bambi could find maturity and bravery, and in a film where I want some enjoyable escapism, this certainly isn’t the best way to achieve that. But I know some will say “but this is life and you shouldn’t sugar-coat it as it will make it easier for children to cope when this sort of thing inevitably happens in their own lives!”
So the bags that the storks are bringing contain baby animals. Baby animals that are being brought for some Mummy animals. Now apparently there is an old-wives tale or a myth that “Storks bring the babies”, presumably to explain where babies come from to children who are not yet ready for the um… “details”. As someone who has never heard of this expression, this whole scene is somewhat confusing to say the least… also if storks bring the babies, how do you explain to kids the bloody great bump on Mummy’s tummy? To be honest, in today’s Jeremy Kyle environment (or American equivalent, Jerry Springer perhaps?) the only question children have about where babies come from is if the father is Steve or Dave?
The next day the same animals are being loaded onto a train. Oh yeah, and by the way, the train talks. Based on my experience with Disney thus far, I can only assume they’re being trafficked. At this point we have a fusion of narration and music, i.e. a singing narrator. It’s hideous. Although I love the idea of some dude singing about what’s going on for the entire film. Ah here’s the stork with the elephant, better late than never. He has been struggling to find Mummy Elephant but now he’s catching up with the train. A group of prostitute elephants wave at the stork and say “cooey!” from their wagon. Business must be bad if they’re trying to offer a stork a good time.
Later Dumbo gets washed and plays with Mummy, even though his big ears keep getting in the way. Some of the bastard children who were taking the piss out of Dumbo earlier return for another round of abuse. I feel that if they have nothing to better to do than track down an elephant with big ears so they can laugh at it again, they must have very boring lives. Is this what it was like before Playstations? The main kid dishing out the abuse looks remarkably like one of boys that was turned into a ‘Donkey slave’ in Pinocchio. Now if you happened to have read my previous reviews, you may have possibly noticed that I didn’t exactly warm to the donkey trafficking, as it seemed a horrifically over-the-top punishment just for being a naughty boy. However, if it turns out the crime was verbally abusing a cute baby elephant just because it has big ears, I will be forced to admit I was too hasty to judge, and those little shits deserve everything they get. I would also then happily add a point onto my score for Pinocchio as a reward, as it would have finally given me the closure I need. I’m deducting a point from this film however, as there’s too many bastards in it.
Definitely a bit angry.
What we do get however, is a very, very drunk baby elephant and mouse. It comes about after one of the clown’s bottles of alcohol ends up being tipped into a water bucket. A thirsty Dumbo then goes and drinks from it. Really, the problem here is allowing animals to freely wander about, thus making such health and safety problems inevitable. The mouse then falls in the “water” and ends up equally battered. I don’t know the scientific implications of elephants and mice drinking alcohol, but the Disney writers have decided it leads to crazy-ass hallucinations. This hallucination scene is beyond words. I cannot do it justice with words either. It is…. fucked up. Really fucked up. Without giving too many spoilers it contains many things like contorting pink elephant bubbles dancing around while a song called “Pink Elephants on Parade” is sung. I urge everyone to go and watch this segment now…
That night at the circus, “the biggest climax of all time” or whatever the hell it’s called, seems to involve throwing a baby elephant off something ridiculously high. After some moderate suspense involving the dropping of the “magic feather” whilst falling, Dumbo flies and becomes a mega-star. He gets insured for $1,000,000, reunited with his mum and TQM becomes his manager.
Disney - Guide for the Misguided 