Melody Time

Yet again we come across a package film where certain segments might be better known outside of the actual film itself. The three segments which I am referring to are "Once Upon A Wintertime," "Johnny Appleseed," and  "Pecos Bill." It is quite possible that other segments have been seen outside of Melody Time, but these three are ones that I have personally seen first hand in other sources.

Once Upon A Wintertime is our first segment, and for some reason we have returned to the hodgepodge style of film. That however does not hamper this short. While I have heard some people don't overly care for it for various reasons, I myself love it. It's simple and charming, and a wonderful addition to my Christmas viewing every year with it's winter theme. It's just light, fluffy fun and it's done with rather interesting visuals as well.

Bumblebee Boogie is quick, fun, but ultimately not very memorable. The abstract visuals are probably the most interesting aspect of this short.

Johnny Appleseed is the second longest short in this film, and is certainly one of the best pieces in all of the package features. The visuals in this short are by far the best we have seen yet, and is constantly pleasing to watch. One of my favourite bits of the visuals is how the apple blossoms slowly go up into the sky and look like the clouds at the end. The ending, much like 'The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met', does have a slightly downer ending even if it does try to end it on a more happy note. It's also a rare time where we see the more religious aspects, including a bible on screen.

Little Toot is up next and is a rather generic story about a playful tugboat who causes trouble and learns a lesson. It's nothing we haven't seen before, and strongly resembles the story of Pedro the Plane from Saludos Amigos.

Trees follows the poem of the same name being sung to some very pretty visuals, though like Bumblebee Boogie is rather forgettable compared to the other sequences.

Blame It On the Samba is a very fun and energetic segment which reunites the 3 Caballeros and quite likely is also the last appearance for Jose Carioca in film. It mainly involves nothing but latin dancing.

The final segment is Pecos Bill, which is the longest. Roy Rogers, Bobby Driscoll and Luana Patten all appear at the beginning for the live action sequence which introduces us to the story of a cowboy raised in the wild. The biggest note here is actually regarding what Disney has done to edit Pecos Bill. In certain shots, our hero is supposed to be smoking a cigarette but instead Disney has gone and removed the 'offending' item completely. It's rather curious as to why this happened and is certainly not the first time Disney has done this. In Saludos Amigos, Goofy also has a cigar removed from his segment.


This film is certainly worth a look for the three shorts I have mentioned in the opening ramble, and earns a 3/5