Fun and Fancy Free

"You know, you worry too much. In fact, everybody worries too much."

Jiminy Cricket (Edwards) navigates through two stories.  First, to cheer up some friends, he plays the record of "Bongo."  Bongo is a circus bear that dreams of life in the wild.  When he escapes the circus, he falls for a bear named Lulubelle and finds an enemy in Lumpjaw.  Can all his circus training help Bongo survive the wild?

When the record ends, Jiminy goes to Luana Patten's birthday party.  At the party Edgar Bergen and friends, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, tell the story of "Mickey and the Beanstalk."  When the magic harp (Gordon) of Happy Valley is stolen, everyone in the valley suffers.  Mickey (Disney), Donald (Nash), and Goofy (Colvig) are short of food and hope, until Mickey brings home some magic beans.  The beans grow overnight and transport the trio into the sky, to the castle of Willie the Giant (Gilbert).  Can they save the Harp and escape the Giant?

In the 1940s, Disney was short on cash and animators, due to WWII and an animators strike.  To continue churning out pictures, Disney opted to release "package films," which featured multiple short films that were tied together into a full length feature.  Fun and Fancy Free was the only "package film" that relied on 2 long pieces of animation, instead of numerous short films.  Both pieces were conceived as larger pieces of work, but were ultimately shortened.

As a child, I would often watch Mickey and the Beanstalk, which was released as a stand-alone short, and was a part of my grandmother's considerable Disney collection.  I loved the film, especially watching Mickey, Donald, and Goofy enjoying the enormous feast.  It is a fun, and not too scary, film... with silly little songs and a villain that enjoys fluffy pink bunnies (who doesn't like fluffy pink bunnies).

Bongo was also released as a stand alone film, which I enjoyed as a child.  None of the characters talk, but you barely notice because the animation is fun and inventive.  The story is narrated beautifully by Dinah Shore, who also gets to sing a bit... but the part I remember the most is the "Say It With a Slap" (it is catchy).

Anyway, while reading my favorite Disney commentary, Waking Snow White, I discovered that the two were supposed to be seen together.  Fun and Fancy Free manages to seamless pull the two films together by using Jiminy Cricket to transition the film.  He opens by wandering through a house singing "I'm a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow."  Then, he turns on a record of Dinah Shore reading Bongo.  Afterward, he sees an invitation to Luana's party and goes over there.  He is mostly out-of-sight during that sequence, but does make a few appearances.

An enjoyable experience, but I understand why Disney released the films separately later.  They are more memorable on their own, and don't need to be seen together.  The animation is great, as usual, and worth checking out (especially since this is one of the times Walt Disney voiced Mickey Mouse).  Check out the link above to "Waking Snow White" which features a more thorough look at the film and animation.

Fun and Fancy Free (1947) 70 minutes
Starring: Edgar Bergen as Himself, Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd
Dinah Shore as Narrator
Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse
Anita Gordon as Singing Harp
Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket
Billy Gilbert as Willie the Giant
Clarence Nash as Donald Duck
Pinto Colvig as Goofy
The King's Men
The Starlighters