[4]
If musical animated shorts had to audition to be part of Disney’s Fantasia, then Make Mine Music is a compilation of the rejects. Without an overarching narrative to connect these shorts in any way, the film hinges on the aggregate quality of its parts which range considerably in tone and quality. The most memorable pieces are the mid-point dramatization of Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’, narrated by Sterling Holloway, and the climactic ‘The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met’, featuring narration and opera singing by Nelson Eddy. In contrast, ‘Casey at the Bat’ and ‘The Martins and the Coys’ veer straight into cartoon humor. Only a few impressionistic pieces, including ‘Blue Bayou’ with music by Debussy, rival the high-level artistry of Fantasia.
With music by Benny Goodman, Dinah Shore, The Andrews Sisters, and The King’s Men.