Melody Time (1948)

Directed by Ben Sharpsteen. Starring Roy Rogers, (voice) Dennis Day.

Disney post-war package film is the reverse of the conceptually similar Make Mine Music—instead of the more experimental, mood-based pieces making up most of the lesser bits, it’s the ones pushed by narrative and narration here that usually drag. About half the running time is dedicated to two of the seven segments, inspired by the legends/tall tales of Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill, but they’re intermittently engaging at best. Instead, tune in to this one for the brief but lovely ode to the beauty of nature as the seasons change (“Trees”), a cute little cartoon about a tiny tug boat with a lot of heart and mischief (“Little Toot”), and, best of all, a zippy zigzag of surrealism inspired by the frantic melody of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” (“Bumble Boogie”). Two of the three “caballeros” (Donald Duck and José Carioca) make their third appearance in one of the studio’s anthology pics, this time a dialogue-free throwaway once again celebrating the samba. Marks the final vocal performance from the Andrews Sisters in a feature film. Child star Bobby Driscoll makes a live-action appearance in the Roy Rogers-fronted Pecos Bill segment.

55/100