| Fun and Fancy Free | |
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Original theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Jack Kinney (animation) Bill Roberts (animation) Hamilton Luske (animation) William Morgan (live-action) |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Written by | Homer Brightman Eldon Dedini Lance Nolley Tom Oreb Harry Reeves Ted Sears Sinclair Lewis (original author of Bongo) |
| Starring | Cliff Edwards Edgar Bergen Luana Patten Walt Disney Clarence Nash Pinto Colvig Billy Gilbert Anita Gordon Dinah Shore |
| Studio | Walt Disney Productions |
| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures, Inc. |
| Release date(s) | September 27, 1947 |
| Running time | 73 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English, Spanish |
Fun and Fancy Free is a 1947 animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures on September 27, 1947. It was one of the "package films" (feature-length compilations of shorter segments) that the studio produced in the 1940s. It is the ninth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, and the fifth package film by Disney.
The "Mickey and the Beanstalk" portion of the film was the last time Walt Disney voiced Mickey Mouse as he was too busy working on other projects to continue voicing the famous character. Disney replaced himself with sound effects artist Jimmy MacDonald.
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This film features two segments, Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk. Jiminy Cricket first appeared inside a large plant in a large house, exploring it and singing "I'm a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow" until he happened to stumble upon a doll, a teddy bear, a record player, and some records, and set it up to play the story of Bongo.
This segment is based on an original story by Sinclair Lewis, following a circus bear cub who wishes to live free in the wild. Bongo escapes and soon realizes through his adventure that he must prove himself in order to earn his freedom. He also forms a romantic relationship with a female bear cub in the wild.
Bongo is narrated by Dinah Shore. However in the re-release of Bongo, Cliff Edwards (as Jiminy Cricket) narrated the story.
This segment is an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as peasants who discovered temperamental Willie the Giant's castle in the sky through the use of some magic beans.
Mickey and the Beanstalk was narrated by Edgar Bergen in live-action sequences, who, with the help of his ventriloquist's puppets Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd, told the tale to child actress Luana Patten at her birthday party.
Mickey, Donald and Goofy lived in a place called "Happy Valley", which was plagued by a severe drought, after a golden harp who sang to make people happy, was stolen from a nearby castle in Happy Valley. The residents had nothing to eat except one loaf of bread; in a memorable scene the bread was cut into paper-thin slices. After Donald attempted to kill their cow with an axe, Mickey traded in their beloved animal for magic beans. Donald threw the beans in a fit of rage, and they fell through a hole in the floor. That night, the beanstalk sprouted and it carried their house upward as it grew. Climbing the gigantic beanstalk they entered a magical kingdom of equal scope, and entering the castle, Mickey, Donald and Goofy helped themselves to a sumptuous feast. This roused the ire of Willie the Giant, who is able to transform himself into anything. When they were spotted by Willie, Mickey spotted a fly-swatter and asked Willie to demonstrate his powers, by turning into a fly. Willie initially suggested turning into a pink bunny, but when he agreed to their request, he turned into a pink bunny anyway, and spotted Mickey, Donald and Goofy with the fly-swatter. Enraged, Willie captured Mickey, Donald, and Goofy and locked them in a box. Mickey however escaped. It was up to Mickey to find the key and rescue them, with the help of the singing golden harp. Once freed, the hapless heroes returned the golden harp to her rightful place and Happy Valley to its former glory, killing the giant by chopping down the beanstalk.
During the 1940s Mickey and the Beanstalk and Bongo were originally going to be developed as two separate feature films.
In the late 1930s Mickey Mouse's popularity fell behind Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Max Fleischer's Popeye. In order to boost his popularity Walt Disney and his artist created cartoons such as The Brave Little Tailor and The The Sorcerer's Apprentice which later became apart of Fantasia. In early 1940 during production on Fantasia animators Bill Cottrell and T. Hee pitched the idea of a feature film based on Jack and the Beanstalk staring Mickey Mouse as Jack and have supporting characters of Donald Duck and Goofy. When they pitched it to Walt he "burst out laughing with tears rolling down his cheeks with joy" as Cottrell and Hee later recalled. Walt enjoyed it so much he invited other employees to listen to it. However he said as much as he enjoyed it, the film would never be put into production because Walt claimed that the audience had certain expectations of Mickey and this was not what the audience would approve of.[1] However Cottrell and Hee were able to talk Walt into into giving it the greenlight and and story development of The Legend of Happy Valley commenced on May 2, 1940.[2]
The original treatment remained more-or-less the same than what ended up in the final film. However there were a few deleted scenes. For example there was a scene in which Mickey took the cow to market where he meets Honest John and Gideon from Pinocchio who con him into trading his cow for the "magic beans".[3] However after Pinocchio failed at the box-office Honest John and Gideon were cut from the film. The scene was then changed to Mickey giving the cow to the Queen (played by Minnie Mouse) as a gift, and in return she gave him the magic beans that have been in the royal family for generations. This scene was later cut when the story was tightened for Fun and Fancy Free[4]
Shortly after rough animation on Dumbo was complete in May 1941 The Legend of Happy Valley was put into production.[5] Since it was a simple, low budget film in six months time 50 minutes had been animated on "Happy Valley". Then on October 27 1941, due to the Disney animators' strike and World War II which had cut off Disney's forgein release market caused the company to be in serious debt so Disney put The Legend of Happy Valley on hold.[6]
Meanwhile, production was starting on Bongo, a film based on the short story written by Sinclair Lewis for a magazine in 1930. It was suggested that Bongo could be a sequel to Dumbo and some of the cast from the 1941 film would appear as supporting characters,[7] however the idea never fully materialized. In earlier drafts Bongo had a Chimpanzee as a friend and partner in his circus act. He was first called Beverly then Chimpy, but was ultimately dropped when condensing the story.[8] Bongo and Chimpy also encountered two mischievous bear cubs that were also deleted.[9] Originally the designs for the characters were more realistic, but when paired for Fun and Fancy Free the designs were simplified and made more cartoony.[10] A nearly completed script was completed on December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.[11]
On that same day the army marched in the studio and took control over all productions. Due to this Bongo was put on hold, along with Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows, Song of the South and The Legend of Happy Valley. During the war the military dictated the Disney studio to mainly produce propaganda films. During and after the war Walt stopped producing single narrative feature films due to the high costs and decided to "package" animated shorts together to make a feature film, a package film. He did this during the war on Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros and continued doing them after the war until he had enough money to make a single narrative feature again. Make Mine Music in 1946, preceded Fun and Fancy Free.
Walt felt since the animation of Bongo and The Legend of Happy Valley (which had been re-named Mickey and the Beanstalk) was not as sophisticated enough to be a standard Disney animated feature film the artists then decided that they would be more convenient as part of a package film.[12] At first Walt wanted Mickey and the Beanstalk to be paired with Wind in the Willows (which was in production around this time), under the new title Two Fabulous Characters. However Mickey and the Beanstalk was cut from Two Fabulous Characters and paired with Bongo instead. Two Fabulous Characters eventually added The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and was retitled The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad.[13]
This was the last time that Walt Disney would voice Mickey Mouse on a regular basis since he no longer had the time or the energy to do so. However he would occasionaly do the voice of Mickey on the Mickey Mouse Club. [14]
Celebrities like Edgar Bergen and Dinah Shore were cast to introduce the segments in order to appeal to a mass audience. Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio was also placed in the scene in which he sings "I'm a Happy Go Lucky Fellow", a song written for and cut out of Pinocchio before its release.[15]
The film was released on September 27, 1947 and was fairly well received. The Disney package films of the late 1940s helped finance the future film Cinderella.
Although they were not made into individual full-length features, they did air as individual episodes on Walt Disney's anthology TV series in the 1950s and 1960s. Mickey and the Beanstalk, in particular, aired on a 1963 episode with new introductory segments, and Ludwig Von Drake's narration (voiced by Paul Frees) replacing Edgar Bergen (and the sassy comments of his ventriloquist dummy, Charlie McCarthy). Another version of Beanstalk replaced Bergen with narration by Sterling Holloway, which was used as a stand-alone short in such venues as the 1980s TV show, Good Morning, Mickey!. This short was also one of the many featured in Donald Duck's 50th Birthday.
In 1982, Fun and Fancy Free was released in its entirety on VHS. It was re-released on VHS in 1997 and 2000. It was also released on laserdisc in 1997 and on DVD in 2000. In 2004, the theatrical version of Mickey and the Beanstalk was also released as a bonus feature on the Walt Disney Treasures set Mickey Mouse In Living Color, Volume Two. The TV version, featuring Ludwig Von Drake as the narrator, is available as part of the Disney Animation Collection (Volume 1).
Bongo was released by itself in 1989 in the Walt Disney Mini Classics line; this version is similar to that aired on the anthology series and uses Jiminy Cricket's narration. Similarly, the Ludwig Von Drake version of Mickey and the Beanstalk was separately released on VHS in 1993, as part of Disney's Favorite Stories collection.
The video and TV releases of Mickey and the Beanstalk have different edits in many parts:
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