Disney Count Down #48-43: The Package Films

From 1942-1949, Disney released a series of films that are now widely considered "package films." They include:

Saludos Amigos
The Three Caballeros
Make Mine Music
Fun and Fancy Free
Melody Time
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Many of you at this point are probably thinking: "Wait, what are these? I've never heard of them. Those are Disney movies?" And I will say that I was in the exact same boat last year when I began to tackle this 50-something feature cannon.

There are reasons why this is this is the case. In the forties, as many people know, the country was involved in a little thing called World War II. In the year or so before the onset of the war, the government asked Disney animators to take a trip to Latin America with the intention of producing a film that could be shown in the United States, Central and South America. The project was a part of the Good Neighbor Policy, enacted by President F. Roosevelt as an attempt to keep peace between the US and the Latin American countries during the turbulence of WWI and WWII. The government gave loans to the Walt Disney company in order to complete the project, as Disney was struggling after the loss of their European markets to the war and a strike within the company that rose up just as the project began. While in various Latin American countries--including Brazil, Argentina, Peru, and Chile-- the animators collected live-action footage of various parts of the continent, including cities with skyscrapers and modern residents. The result of this trip was Saludos Amigos, a combination of live-action and animation not dissimilar to Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The Three Caballeros followed in a similar vein, with animation integrated into film footage and intended as another friendly film towards Latin America. It included several different segments all stung together by the plot point of Donald opening birthday gifts. The film also stars José Carioca, the little green cigar-smoking parrot that represents Brazil who debuted in Saludos Amigos and Panchito Pistoles who represents Mexico. It's also probably the best of the package films, in terms of quality, storytelling, and animation. The Donald-opening-gifts backbone is one of the better ways developed to give the shorts coherency in these films and I like the onslaught of color from the three main bird characters and their backgrounds.

The rest of the package films have much less of a coherent theme backing them. With the US becoming involved in WWII, many of the Disney animators were drafted and those that weren't were recruited by the government to make propaganda and training films. As a result, most of what these remaining films include are not much more than segments that had been sitting around the studio. Make Mine Music and Melody Time included some left over pieces from Fantasia, while Fun and Fancy Free contains two segments that were intended to be made into full-length features on their own.

I'm not going to lie: These films hold my interest very little. I'm not a fan of Latin American culture (not that I don't like the people, but the culture itself doesn't engage me as much as some others), and most of the segments in the following films feel lazy and lackluster to me. It was hard to get through them, even though most of the films barely pass the 60-minute mark.

That's not to say there aren't gems to be found in these movies. In fact, many of the well-known shorts trace their origins back to these films, including the "Sleepy Hollow" adaptation, "Mickey and the Beanstalk," and "Peter and the Wolf." There's a really fabulous scene from The Three Caballeros that demonstrates some amazing animation as well as good humor:

It's difficult to judge these films considering their back-story and how many of them have one or two really great parts amongst segments of mediocrity. As I mentioned above, I found most of these hard to get through, (especially Fun and Fancy Free with it's ridiculous means of linking the two totally unrelated segments via a birthday party with some uncomfortable guests) even with moments of awesome animation and the appearance of Donald, Goofy, and Mickey. I don't believe most of these are strong enough to be full-length features, but that doesn't mean certain segments aren't worth seeing. If you're interested in Latin American culture, loved Fantasia, or just want to see every Disney Animated Feature, check them out.