Fun and Fancy Free

Fun and Fancy Free
Original theatrical release poster
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 (1947-09-27)
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.

Film segments

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", (he also exited it) (The Dr. Seuss Animation Chorus did the back-up singing instead of the Walt Disney Chorus in the 2011 re-release), 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.

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. The 2011 re-release retained Dinah Shore's narration.

Mickey and the Beanstalk

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.

Voice cast

• Edgar Bergen – himself, Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd
• Luana Patten – herself
• Cliff Edwards – Jiminy Cricket
• Walt Disney – Mickey Mouse
• Clarence Nash – Donald Duck
• Pinto Colvig – Goofy
• Billy Gilbert – Willie the Giant
• Anita Gordon – singing harp
• Dinah Shore – singer, narrator of Bongo
• Candy Candido - Lumpjaw the black bear (growls) (uncredited)

Production

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 was 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 it and story development of Mickey and the Beanstalk commenced on May 2, 1940.

The original treatment remained more-or-less the same than what ended up in the final film. However were was 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".^[2] 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.^[3] Walt ultimately found that how Mickey got the beans was not important to the story and in the final film it remains a mystery to were the beans came from.

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,^[4] 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. Bongo and Chimpy also encountered two mischievous bear cubs that were also deleted. A nearly completed script was completed on December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.^[5]

On that same day the army marched in the studio and took control over all productions. The war also cut off the Disney's foreign release market which was a vital source of income for the studio. Mickey and the Beanstalk and Bongo were put on hold, along with Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, The Wind in the Willows and Song of the South. 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 decided that since the running length of Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk was only about 45 minutes long, and the animation would be as sophisticated as short rather than a feature film, they would be more convenient as part of a package film. At first Walt wanted Mickey and the Beanstalk to be paired with Wind in the Willows (which was in production around this time), then he added Bongo Under the new title Three Fabulous Characters. Finally he cut Wind in the Willows from Three Fabulous Characters and retitled Fun and Fancy Free. Wind in the Willows would later appear in The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad in 1949.^[6]

Contrary to popular belief, Walt did not stop voicing Mickey after "Fun and Fancy Free"; The Mickey Mouse Club's titles was that last time, instead. ^[7]

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.^[8]

Directing animators

• Ward Kimball (Jiminy Cricket, Donald Duck)
• Les Clark (Singing Harp, Lulubelle)
• John Lounsbery (Willie the Giant)
• Fred Moore (Mickey)
• Wolfgang Reitherman (Goofy)

Release and reception

The film was released on September 27, 1947 and was a fairly well received. The Disney package films of the late 1940s helped finance the future film Cinderella.^{[citation needed]}

TV broadcast and home video release

Availability

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 and again in 1997 and then 2000 on VHS, laserdisc (in 1997) and 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 van Drake as the narrator, is available as part of the Disney Animation Collection (Volume 1).

Alternate versions

There are three different versions of Mickey and the Beanstalk. There's the original theatrical version, which is part of the Fun and Fancy Free feature, the home video (VHS) version, which is the Ludwig Von Drake version, and an extremely rare TV version narrated by Sterling Holloway. The video and TV releases of Mickey and the Beanstalk have different edits in many parts:

• In the TV version the opening scene where Happy Valley is shown being developed as a vision is absent.
• When the giant first kidnaps the harp, the harp is supposed to scream. However, in some VHS releases the scream was edited out.
• In the TV version the scene where Mickey, Donald and Goofy are walking through the giant's footsteps is edited out.
• In some VHS releases the dragonfly scene was shortened to the fish eating it. The reason is unknown, but probably due to references to World War II.
• In some VHS releases the clip of Goofy diving into the Gelatin, trying to retrieve his hat, was shortened to him diving into the walnut bowl.
• The TV version had some additional music added to some parts.
• In the theatrical version (that's part of the official Fun and Fancy Free), when Willie wakes up from his sleep to chase after Mickey and the others, Luanna says "Oh!". This was edited out of the TV version, but some VHS releases accidentally left it on.

See also

• List of animated feature films
• List of package films

References

1. ^ Gabler, Neal (2006)"Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination", Alfred A. Knopf Inc, New York City
2. ^ "The story behind Fun and Fancy Free", Disney VHS, 1997
3. ^ "The story behind Fun and Fancy Free", Disney VHS, 1997
4. ^ "The story behind Fun and Fancy Free", Disney VHS, 1997
5. ^ "The story behind Fun and Fancy Free", Disney VHS, 1997
6. ^ Gabler, Neal (2006)"Walt Disney: The Triumph of American Imagination", Alfred A. Knopf Inc, New York City
7. ^ Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color - Volume 2 (Bonus Material "Color Titles from 'The Mickey Mouse Club')
8. ^ "The story behind Fun and Fancy Free", Disney VHS, 1997

• "The story behind Fun and Fancy Free", Disney VHS, 1997

External links

• Fun and Fancy Free at Disney.com
• Fun and Fancy Free at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Fun and Fancy Free at the Internet Movie Database
• Fan and Fancy Free at Rotten Tomatoes