Package Films (1943-1949)
During World War II, much of Walt Disney’s staff was drafted into the army, and those that remained were called upon by the U.S. government to make training and propaganda films. As a result, the studio was littered with unfinished story ideas. In order to keep the feature film division alive during this difficult time, the studio released six package films.
Saludos Amigos (1943)
This film features 4 different segments, each of which begin with various clips of the Disney artists roaming the country, drawing cartoons of some of the local cultures and scenery.
Lake Titicaca
In this segment, American tourist Donald Duck visits Lake Titicaca in Peru and meets some of the locals, including an obstinate llama.
Pedro
Pedro is about a small anthropomorphic airplane from an airport near Santiago, Chile, engaging in his first flight to retrieve air mail from Mendoza, with disastrous consequences. He manages to safely return to the airfield with the mail despite an encounter with the dangerous mountain Aconcagua. The mail is revealed to be a single postcard.
El Gaucho Goofy
In this segment, American cowboy Goofy gets taken from Texas to the Argentinian pampas by the Narrator to learn the ways of the native gaucho.
Aquarela do Brasil
Aquarela do Brasil (Portuguese for "Watercolor of Brazil"), the finale of the film, involves a brand-new character, José Carioca from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, showing Donald Duck around South America, having a drink of cachaça with him and introducing him to the samba (to the tunes of "Aquarela do Brasil" and "Tico-Tico no Fubá”).
TRIVIA
Saludos Amigos was the result of a trip through South America to promote American values during World War 2 as a way of countering the influence of Nazi Germany in some Latin American countries.
The Three Caballeros (1945)
The film consists of 7 segments, each connected by a common theme.
It is Donald Duck's birthday and he receives 3 presents from friends in Latin America. The 1st present is a film projector, which shows him a documentary about birds called "Aves Raras”.
The Cold-Blooded Penguin
The first segment of the documentary tells the story of Pablo, a penguin seeking the warm weather of Equatorial South America. Pablo is so fed up with the freezing conditions of the South Pole that he decides to leave his home for warmer climates, navigating the long coast of Chile (including the Juan Fernández Islands and Viña del Mar), passing by Lima (the capital of Peru) and Quito (the capital of Ecuador) before landing on the Galápagos Islands.
The next segment details some of the odd birds of Latin America. During this part documentary, he learns about the Aracuan Bird, who received his name because of his eccentric song.
The Flying Gauchito
The documentary then shifts to the perspective of a man narrating a story from his childhood, where he discovers and befriends a donkey with the wings of a condor in Uruguay. The donkey goes by the name Burrito.
Baia
The next present is a book given to Donald by José Carioca (introduced in Salados Amigos). This book tells of Bahia (spelled "Baía" in the film), which is one of Brazil's 26 states. José shrinks them both down so that they can enter the book. They take a train which is re-routed by the Arabian Bird by drawing new tracks, causing the train to disassemble. Eventually, they make it to Baia where Donald and José meet up with several of the locals, who dance a lively samba, and Donald ends up pining for one girl Yaya, the cookie seller, but fails and gets jealous of another man. After the journey, Donald and José leave the book.
Las Posadas / Mexico: Patzcuaro, Veracruz, and Acapulco / “You Belong to My Heart” / “Donald’s Surreal Reverie
Upon returning, Donald realizes that he is too small to open his third present. José shows Donald how to use "black magic" to return himself to the proper size. After opening the present, he meets Panchito, a native of Mexico. The trio take the name "The Three Caballeros" and have a short celebration.
Panchito then presents Donald's next present, a piñata. Panchito tells Donald of the tradition behind the piñata. This is the story of a group of Mexican children who celebrated Christmas by re-enacting the journey of Mary, the mother of Jesus and Saint Joseph searching for room at the inn. "Posada" meant "inn", or "shelter", and their parents told them "no posada" at each house until they came to one where they were offered shelter in a stable. This leads to festivities including the breaking of the piñata, which in turn leads to Donald Duck trying to break his own piñata as well. José and Panchito then blindfold Donald, and have him attempt to break open the piñata, eventually revealing many surprises.
Panchito gives Donald and José a tour of Mexico City and the country of Mexico on a flying sarape, or magic carpet. Several Mexican dances and songs are learned here. A key point to what happens later is that Donald is pining for some more ladies again, tries to hound down every single one he sees, and gain return affections, but once more he fails every time and ends up kissing José while blindfolded.
The skies of Mexico City result in Donald falling in love with singer Dora Luz. Donald constantly envisions sugar rush colors, flowers. The scene changes after Donald manages to dance with Carmen Molina from the state of Oaxaca, from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. The two dance and sing the song "La Zandunga”. Carmen reappears dressed in a Charro's outfit and uses a horsewhip as a conductor's baton to make cacti appear in many different forms while dancing to "Jesusita en Chihuahua", a trademark song of the Mexican Revolution.
Donald ends up battling the same toy bull with wheels on its legs. It is now loaded with fireworks and other explosives, following with a fireworks finale with the words "The End" exploding from the fireworks, first in Spanish (Fin), in the colors of the flag of Mexico, then the second in Portuguese (Fim), in the colors of the flag of Brazil, and finally in English, in the colors of the flag of the United States (The End).
Make Mine Music (1946)
A Musical Fantasy in 10 Parts:
Blue Bayou (A Tone Poem)
Features an egret couple looking for companionship in the loneliness of the Louisiana bayou.
All the Cats Join In (A Jazz Interlude)
Features a group of teens who join together for a swinging time at the local malt shop as a pencil struggles to keep up with the animation.
Without You (A Ballad in Blue)
A ballad of lost love set to a series of impressionistic images.
Casey at the Bat (A Musical Recitation)
Recites and animates the famous Ernest Thayer poem Casey at the Bat about the arrogant ballplayer Casey and his valiant stand to try to win the game for Mudville.
Two Silhouettes (Ballade Ballet)
Features two live-action ballet dancers moving in silhouette with animated backgrounds and characters.
Peter and the Wolf (A Fairy Tale With Music)
An animated dramatization of the 1936 musical composition by Sergei Prokofiev about a Russian boy named Peter who sets off into the forest to hunt the wolf with his animal friends: a bird named Sasha, a duck named Sonia, and a cat named Ivan.
After You've Gone (And Now the Goodman Quartet)
Features four anthropomorphized instruments parade through a musical playground.
Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet (A Love Story)
Tells the romantic story of two hats who fall in love in a department store window. When Alice is sold, Johnny devotes himself to finding her again.
The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met (Opera Pathetique)
Tells the story of a sperm whale named Willie with incredible musical talent and his dreams of singing Grand Opera at the Met. But short-sighted impressario Tetti-Tatti believes that the whale has simply swallowed an opera singer, and chases him with a harpoon. In the end, Willie is harpooned and killed, but the narrator softens the blow by telling the viewers that he sings on in heaven.
Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
Jiminy Cricket appears inside a large plant in a large house, exploring and singing "I'm a Happy-go-Lucky Fellow", until he happens to stumble upon a doll, a teddy bear, and a record player with some records, one of which is Bongo, a musical romance story narrated by actress Dinah Shore. Jiminy decides to set up the record player to play the story of Bongo.
The story follows the adventures of a circus bear named Bongo who longs for freedom in the wild. Bongo is raised in captivity and is praised for his performances, but is poorly treated once he is off stage. As such, while traveling on a circus train, his natural instincts (“the call of the wild”) urge him to break free. As soon as he escapes and enters a forest, a day passes before his idealistic assessment of his new living situation has been emotionally shattered, and he experiences some hard conditions. The next morning, however, he meets a female bear named Lulubelle. The two bears immediately fall in love, until Bongo soon faces a romantic rival in the bush—an enormously-shaped rogue bear named Lumpjaw. Bongo fails to interpret Lulubelle slapping him as a sign of affection, and when she accidentally slaps Lumpjaw, he claims her for himself, forcing all other bears into a celebration for the happy new couple. Bongo comes to understand the meaning of slapping one another among wild bears and returns to challenge Lumpjaw. He manages to outwit Lumpjaw for much of their fight until the two fall into a treacherous river and go over the waterfall. While Lumpjaw is presumably swept away and never to be seen again, Bongo's hat saves him from falling down, and he finally claims Lulubelle as his mate.
After the story of Bongo, Jiminy Cricket receive an invitation to Edgar Bergen's home, where Edgar tells the story of Happy Valley.
Happy Valley is a jovial countryside land kept alive at all times by a singing golden Harp, is suddenly plagued by a severe drought and falls into turmoil and depression after the instrument is stolen from the castle by a mysterious giant. After weeks pass, there are only peasants remaining, the story then looks into 3 of the peasants: Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. The trio have but just one loaf of bread and a single solitary bean to eat. During this time, Mickey has no choice but to cut the bread into paper-thin slices for the three friends to eat. Driven insane by his hunger, Donald goes into an evil rage, complaining that he cannot stand it anymore. He makes a sandwich out of plates and silverware, but Mickey and Goofy stop him and manage to calm him down. He then sees an axe and attempts to kill a female cow for beef with said axe, but Mickey and Goofy manage to stop him again. Mickey then decides to sell the pregnant cow for money to buy food. Goofy and Donald are excited about eating again and begin to sing about delicious dishes until Mickey comes back and reveals that he sold the cow in exchange for a container of beans that are said to be magical. Thinking that Mickey had been tricked, Donald throws the beans down the floor, and they fall through a hole.
However, it turns out that the beans are truly magical after all. The next morning, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy soon find themselves at the top of a gigantic beanstalk and in a magical kingdom of enormous scope, where they appear to be tiny creatures compared to their surroundings. They eventually make their way to a huge castle, where they help themselves to a sumptuous feast. There, they stumble across the harp locked inside a small box, and she explains that she was kidnapped by a wicked giant. Immediately after, a giant named Willie emerges from the shadows, grunting angrily while simultaneously breaking into a happy song and bouncing a ball about while demonstrating his powers of flight, invisibility, and shapeshifting.
As Willie prepares to eat lunch, he catches Mickey hiding in his delicious sandwich after Mickey sneezes when Willie pours some chilli pepper onto the sandwich. Mickey tries to escape, but Willie catches him. Mickey then plays palm reader and gains the childish giant's trust. Willie offers to show off his powers, and Mickey, spotting a nearby fly-swatter, requests that he change himself into a fly. However, Willie suggests turning into a pink bunny instead, and as he does, he sees Mickey, Donald, and Goofy with the fly-swatter. Angry, Willie captures Mickey, Donald, and Goofy and locks them in the harp's chest so as to keep them from pulling any more escape tricks.
In order to escape, Mickey must find the key and rescue his friends. He does so with the help of the musical harp, who begins singing Willie to sleep. Mickey almost alerts Willie to his presence by sneezing after falling into a box of snuff powder in Willie's pocket, but the same powder makes Willie sneeze and he loses sight of Mickey. Mickey frees his friends and they make a break for it with the harp. However, Willie wakes up from his sleep and spots them, giving chase all the way to the beanstalk. Mickey stalls him long enough for Donald and Goofy to reach the bottom as they begin to saw down the beanstalk. Mickey arrives just in time to finish the job of sawing down the beanstalk, and the gigantic villain, who was climbing down, falls to his offscreen death.
Back at Edgar Bergen's home, he finishes his story, saying that with the return of the harp, Happy Valley returned to prosperity. He then cheers up Mortimer Snerd who was crying about Willie's death, saying that Willie was a good giant who did not deserve to be dead. Just as Edgar says that Willie is a fictional character and not real, the giant appears, having survived the fall, tearing the roof off his own house in frustration. Willie inquires about Mickey's whereabouts, but Edgar faints in shock while Mortimer tells Willie goodnight. The movie then ends with Jiminy leaving the house at night and Willie noticing the Brown Derby restaurant and putting it on like a hat before stomping off to find Mickey, with the Hollywood lights blinking in the background.
Melody Time (1948)
This particular film has 7 segments:
Once Upon a Wintertime
A December valentine features the memories of a romantic couple in their courting days. Joe tries to show off for Jenny on the ice, but events soon turn to a possible tragedy and a timely rescue.
Bumble Boogie
A surrealistic nightmare for a solitary, tiny, aghast, fast, and desperate bumblebee actually known as Bumble (to a boogie-woogie version of Flight of the Bumblebee) trying to escape the visual display and imminent harmony of a musical frenzy.
The Legend of Johnny Appleseed
A retelling of the story of John Chapman, who spent his life roaming America and planting apple trees, thus earning his nickname.
Little Toot
Based on the poem by Hardie Gramatky, in which the title protagonist, a small tugboat, wants to be just like his father but can't seem to stay out of trouble.
Trees
A reciting of the famous Alfred Joyce Kilmer poem by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians that follows trees through the seasons.
Blame It on the Samba
Features Donald Duck and José Carioca meeting with the Aracuan Bird who introduces them to the pleasures of the samba.
Pecos Bill
A retelling of the famous roughest, toughest cowboy in the west, Pecos Bill and his trusty steed Widowmaker and how he was brought back down to earth by a woman named Slue-Foot Sue and why the coyotes howl at the moon.
The Adventures of Ichabod & Toad (1949)
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad consists of 2 segments: the first based on the 1908 children's novel The Wind in the Willows by British author Kenneth Grahame, and the second based on the 1820 short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by American author Washington Irving.
The Wind in the Willows
The scene takes place in London, England, United Kingdom. The protagonist J. Thaddeus Toad, Esq. is introduced as an incurable adventurer who never counted the cost. Although he is the wealthy prospector of the Toad Hall estate, Toad's adventures and positive mania for the fads have brought him to the brink of bankruptcy. As a last resort, Toad's friend Angus MacBadger volunteers as Toad's bookkeeper to help Toad keep his estate which is a source of pride in the community. One summer day, MacBadger asks Toad's best friends Ratty (a water rat) and Moley (a mole) to persuade Toad to give up his latest mania of recklessly driving about the countryside in a horse and gypsy cart, which could accumulate a great deal of financial liability in damaged property.
Ratty and Moley confront Toad, but they are unable to change his mind. Toad then sees a motor car for the first time and becomes entranced by the new car, having been taken over by motor mania. To keep Toad out of trouble and protect Toad Hall, Ratty and Moley put him under house arrest. However, Toad breaks free and is later arrested, getting charged for car theft. At his trial, Toad represents himself and calls his horse Cyril as his first witness. Cyril testifies that the car which Toad was accused of taking had been stolen by a gang of weasels. Toad had entered a tavern where the car was parked and offered to buy the car from the gang. However, since Toad had no money, he instead offered to trade Toad Hall for the car. The prosecutor and judge show disbelief toward the statement, so Toad then calls the bartender, Mr. Winkie, as a witness. However, when told by Toad to explain what actually happened, Winkie claims instead that Toad had tried to sell him the stolen car. Toad is found guilty on the spot and sentenced to 20 years in the Tower of London.
As the months passed by, Toad's friends make every effort to appeal his case, but to no avail. Then, on Christmas Eve, Cyril visits Toad in disguise as his grandmother and helps him escape by giving him a secondary disguise of his own. Toad runs to a railway station and hijacks a steam locomotive and drives it out of the station heading towards the river bank without getting caught by the police riding another loco, coming to Ratty and Moley's house. Just then, MacBadger visits Ratty and Moley to tell them that he discovered that Winkie is the leader of the weasel gang, who have taken over Toad Hall, proving that Toad had indeed traded his estate for the stolen car; Winkie himself is in possession of the deed. Knowing that Toad is still guilty in the eyes of the law and the deed bearing his and Winkie's signature would prove Toad's innocence, the quartet sneak into Toad Hall and narrowly manage to steal the deed back following a chase around the estate.
The movie then ends on New Year's Day with Toad exonerated. As MacBadger, Ratty, and Moley celebrate the New Year with a toast to Toad, who they believe has completely reformed, Toad and Cyril recklessly fly past on a Wright Flyer; Toad has not truly reformed and developed a mania for planes.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
The scene starts with Ichabod Crane arriving in Sleepy Hollow, New York, a small village outside Tarrytown that is renowned for its ghostly hauntings, to be the town's new schoolmaster. Despite his odd behavior, appearance, and effeminate mannerisms, Ichabod soon wins the hearts of the village's women and forms good friendships with his students. Brom Bones, the roguish town hero and bully, does his best to pull some bad tricks on Ichabod. However, he is very good at ignoring these taunts and continues to act charming with the townspeople. One day, Ichabod meets and falls in love with a Dutch young woman named Katrina, the beautiful daughter of the wealthy Baltus van Tassel and Brom's unofficial fiancee. Despite being obsessed with Katrina's beauty, Ichabod mainly desires to take her family's money for himself. Brom, who has never been challenged like this, proceeds to compete badly and unfairly with the schoolmaster, but Ichabod wins Katrina over at every opportunity. Intrigued by this, Katrina uses Ichabod to tease his rival, making Brom jealous and angry.
The two rivals are invited to the van Tassel Halloween party. Brom manically attempts to get Ichabod to dance with a new woman instead of Katrina, and later attempts to have him fall through a cellar door, but both attempts backfire. While both men dine, Brom catches Ichabod accidentally knocking the salt shaker over and nervously tossing salt over his shoulder. Discovering that Ichabod's weakness is superstition, he decides to sing the tale of the legendary and evil Headless Horseman. The horseman supposedly travels the spooky and dark woods on Halloween each year, searching for a living head to replace the one which he has lost, and the only way to escape that ghost is to cross a covered bridge. Katrina finds the song very amusing and best, while Ichabod, on the other hand, starts to fear for his own protection. Riding home from the Halloween party, Ichabod becomes frightened of every sound and sight which he hears. His imagination beginning to take over and heighten his fear and anxiety; as he passes through the Hollow, where the Headless Horseman has been rumored to haunt.
While traveling through the old European cemetery, Ichabod believes he hears the sound of a unknown horse galloping toward him, but discovers the sound is being made by nearby cattails bumping on a log. He and his horse begin to laugh, however, their laughter is cut short by the dark appearance of the Headless Horseman, wielding a sword and riding on the back of a powerful black horse, wielding his own glowing head. After being chased through the forest along with some close calls from being decapitated, Ichabod, remembering his rival's advice, rides across the covered bridge to stop the ghost's pursuit. But as he looks back to see his ghostly pursuer vanish, the horseman stops and throws a jack-o'-lantern, right at his face. The next morning, Ichabod's hat is found at the bridge next to the shattered jack-o-lantern, but the schoolmaster himself is nowhere to be found. Some time later, the revengeful Brom takes Katrina as his new wife. Rumors begin to spread that Ichabod is still alive, married to a wealthy widow in a distant county with children who all look like him.
TRIVIA
Attraction(s)
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
The Headless Horseman leads the Halloween parade at Disneyland