Fun and Fancy Free
Year: 1947
Director: Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, William Morgan & Bill Roberts
Starring: Edgar Bergen & Cliff Edwards
Runtime: 73 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 15/02/21
Director: Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, William Morgan & Bill Roberts
Starring: Edgar Bergen & Cliff Edwards
Runtime: 73 mins
BBFC: U
Published: 15/02/21
So far, my experience with the Wartime Era of Disney has been underwhelming. I may not have heard many great things about this time in Disney’s history, but I did at least expect films of comparable quality to some of their other offerings. So it pains me to say that Fun and Fancy Free does not change anything and again remains an entry that like Make Mine Music I don’t necessarily dislike, but I see no reason to ever return to it.
Fun and Fancy Free collects two roughly half an hour tales and ties them together with a story narrated by Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards) and Edgar Bergen. First up is Bongo, the story of a circus bear who escapes into the wild, after finally having the ability to roam free and do as he so pleases he discovers that being wild is actually a lot more difficult than he anticipated.
The second story is Mickey and the Beanstalk, a riff on Jack and the Beanstalk, it’s a tale many will be familiar with but with the odd Disney twist thrown in for good measure.
Fun and Fancy Free collects two roughly half an hour tales and ties them together with a story narrated by Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards) and Edgar Bergen. First up is Bongo, the story of a circus bear who escapes into the wild, after finally having the ability to roam free and do as he so pleases he discovers that being wild is actually a lot more difficult than he anticipated.
The second story is Mickey and the Beanstalk, a riff on Jack and the Beanstalk, it’s a tale many will be familiar with but with the odd Disney twist thrown in for good measure.
Let’s start off with what I wasn’t so keen on. Mickey and the Beanstalk is narrated by Edgar Bergen and the story regularly returns to him as he tells it to a little girl. This segment is entirely live action and features some freaky and painfully unfunny puppets. Bergen is the ventriloquist controlling them and he isn’t a very good one at that. The story of Mickey and the Beanstalk itself is nothing you haven’t seen before if you know Jack and the Beanstalk. It’s almost identical and the changes made I argue are not to the story’s strengths. If you’re really dying for a Dsiney-fication of Jack and the Beanstalk it’ll suffice, but there are significantly better versions of the story out there.
Bongo though is a great little cartoon. Whilst it’s certainly light on story Bongo is an endearing character and the situations he is placed in are extremely entertaining. It doesn’t overstay its welcome either, it’s just the right length to be engaging without ever becoming tedious.
Fun and Fancy Free is a film I won’t ever be returning to, but Bongo is a highlight I recommend checking out if you have the chance. As I near the end of the Wartime Era films, all I really have to keep me going is the thought of at least soon I’ll be able to get to the Silver Age!
Bongo though is a great little cartoon. Whilst it’s certainly light on story Bongo is an endearing character and the situations he is placed in are extremely entertaining. It doesn’t overstay its welcome either, it’s just the right length to be engaging without ever becoming tedious.
Fun and Fancy Free is a film I won’t ever be returning to, but Bongo is a highlight I recommend checking out if you have the chance. As I near the end of the Wartime Era films, all I really have to keep me going is the thought of at least soon I’ll be able to get to the Silver Age!