Load of rubbish!!

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Absolutely brilliant

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

When you think of classic Disney films, this is perhaps one that does not come to mind. Melody Time is essentially a series of shorts put together to make up a narrative feature. As you might expect, it is a hit and miss show. It's not that it's bad per-se, it's just that when the company that made this, also made Fantasia, Beauty and the Beast and Pinocchio, you can see why it doesn't hold up.As usual, the animation is superb. Animation wise, there is nothing to fault. At times, it feels like visual poetry. But sometimes, the content falls short of what could be an interesting film. The good includes 'The Legend of Johnny Appleseed', a gorgeous look at one of America's first pioneers, and 'Pecos Bill', a country and western jamboree about an impossibly adventurous cowboy. Both of these segments remind us that Disney is at their shorts best, when they are focused on folkloric tales. See Icabod and Mr Toad for further proof. However, it's not all fun and games. One segment, 'Little Toot' was so abysmal that it made me yearning for the blandness of the kids TV show, 'Tugs'. And 'Blame it on the Samba', featuring the most irritating Disney character ever committed to celluloid, The Aracuan Bird. There also seems to be this constant idea in the segment which says that the Samba music is impossible not to dance to. I know a lot has changed since 1948, but did I miss a meeting where it was agreed that this music was supposed to be intoxicating? The other segments full under the radar. 'Trees' in particular felt only about 1 minute long, which is a shame because the animation in the that is the best of the film. The original title of Melody Time was 'All is Fun'. After seeing the film, you can see why they changed the title. But it doesn't mean there is no fun to be had along the way.

Like Fantasia, Melody Time is an anthology of animated sequences, but is not as long like the former and not as brilliant or vibrant in my opinion. It contains seven animated shorts, some with just music and some with dialog and music.You won't find much plot in this film - just a bunch of cartoon shorts set to the music of contemporary oldies and songs sung by singers from the Golden Era. The animation looks pretty washed up and the overall movie misses the rich music, dynamic and scenic animation sequences and the excitement and majesty Fantasia was able to present.While each segment wasn't very appealing, the Johnny Appleseed sequence was a little touching and the Trees segment was quite beautiful. The story of Little Toot was too "cute" but has some heroic elements, and the Blame it on the Samba sequence was quite catchy with its Latin music (and it's nice to see a familiar face, Donald Duck, star in that sequence). However, the Once Upon A Wintertime short was boring, Bumble Boogie was a little too mindless and the Pecos Bill story, while set to some good ol' American flavor, dragged the film.Overall, the film doesn't have much that would grab your attention and has that all-around lazy feel to it. It might be something that is OK for adults to watch once to pass the time, but children might not be able to sit through it.Grade D+

The WWII years were not good to 'ol Walt Disney. First, a crippling strike occurred just before the war (in which he lost about a third of his animators) and then the war took a whole bunch more. Plus, apart from making military training films and a few shorts here and there, the production of full-length films ground to a complete halt. Up until this time, Disney had produced some amazingly good cartoons such as "Snow White", "Pinocchio" and "Bambi" among others. Once the war was over, the studio was a mess and they were in no shape to try to replicate their past glorious films. So, the studio worked on a wide variety of short films--intended as experimental productions and opportunities for the new animators to hone their craft. To put it bluntly, it was almost like the minor leagues of Disney--or perhaps the pre-season! Regardless, by 1946-8, they had A LOT of shorts and decided to clump them together (sometimes clumsily) and release them as full-length films, such as "Make Mine Music", "Saludos Amigos" and this film. Unfortunately, these all were wildly uneven pictures--full of very good stuff, some poor stuff and some downright awful stuff. For kids, in particular, they were second or third-rate films--often full of dull songs and varying wildly in style, content and focus.Of the collections marketed as full-length films, "Melody Time" might just be the most consistent of them. While it still is uneven and occasionally bad (Once Upon a Winter Time), it also had more good stuff--though nothing exactly great. The best of them were probably "Pecos Bill" and "Little Toot"....though I also liked "Bumble Boogie". The rest of the crop would fall somewhere between these extremes. Enjoyable but probably a film best for die-hard Disney fans or people who adore animation...REALLY adore animation. Otherwise, I anticipate some very disappointed people out there.

I believe I first saw Melody Time when it was re-issued to theaters in the Fifties, but like it's successor, Make Mine Music, certain episodes found their way onto Disney's weekly TV show. That's when it was on Wednesday nights, not Sundays, and in black and white. Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill were the two most repeated segments on television because of the popularity of their characters. Dennis Day of course was well known to youngsters because of his appearance on the Jack Benny show and of course Roy Rogers was the top western star in 1948 when the movie was released. Even today, my favorite part of the program is the song, "Blue Shadows on the Trail." Make Mine Music had the classic Casey at the Bat,as told by Jerry Colonna, whom even though you may never have heard of him, brings laughs at his narration. The other character to come from Make Mine Music was Bongo, the circus bear. There were Bongo story books and of course records. While modern day audiences may find fault with Disney's story telling techniques as being stereotyped or old-fashioned, he brought to life in vivid Technicolor the classic stories of childhood.