Fun and Fancy Free is a 1947 animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures on this day in 1947. It was one of the "package films" (feature length compilations of shorter segments) the studio produced in the 1940's. It is the 9th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, and the fourth package film by Disney.The "Mickey and the Beanstalk" portion of the film was the last time Walt Disney voiced Mickey Mouse, because he was too busy on other projects to continue voicing the famous character. Disney replaced himself with sound effects artist Jimmy MacDonald.
This film features two segments: "Bongo" and the classic "Mickey and the Beanstalk". Jiminy Cricket first appears inside a large plant in a large house, exploring, and singing "I'm a Happy-go-Lucky Fellow" until he happens to stumble upon a doll, a teddy bear, a record player with some records, and sets up to play the story of Bongo.
Bongo - This segment is based on the tale "Little Bear Bongo" by Sinclair Lewis, following a circus bear named Bongo who wishes to live freely in the wild. Bongo is raised in captivity and is praised for his performances, but is poorly treated off stage. As such, while traveling by train his natural instincts urge him to break free. Once he escapes and enters a forest, a day passes before his idealistic assessment of his new living situation is shattered and he is faced with some hard conditions. The next morning however, he meets a female bear named Lulubelle. The two fall in love, but he immediately faces a romantic rival in the brutish, enormously-shaped Lumpjaw. Bongo fails to interpret Lulubelle slapping him as a sign of affection and when she accidentally slaps Lumpjaw, he claims her for himself, forcing all other bears into a celebration for the "happy" new couple. Bongo comes to understand the meaning of slapping one another among wild bears and returns to challenge Lumpjaw. He manages to outwit Lumpjaw for much of their fight until the two fall into a river and go over a waterfall. While Lumpjaw is swept away, Bongo's hat saves him from falling and he can finally claim Lulubelle as his mate. Bongo is narrated by Dinah Shore.
Mickey and the Beanstalk - This segment is an adaptation of Jack and the Beanstalk with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy as peasants who discover temperamental Willie the Giant's castle in the sky through the use of some magic beans.
Mickey, Donald and Goofy lived in a place called "Happy Valley", which was plagued by a severe drought, after a golden harp that sang to make people happy, was stolen from the castle in Happy Valley. The trio had just one loaf of bread and a single bean; in a memorable scene the bread was cut into paper-thin slices. After Donald, driven insane by hunger, broke the fourth wall and attempted to kill their cow with an axe, Mickey decides to trade the cow for money to buy food. Goofy and Donald are excited about eating until Mickey comes back and reveals that he traded their beloved bovine for magic beans. Thinking that Mickey was tricked, Donald furiously throws the beans and they fall through a hole in the floor. However, it developes the beans are truly magical as later that night, a beanstalk sprouts and it carries their house upward as it grows.
Climbing the gigantic beanstalk they enter a magical kingdom of enormous scope, and entering the castle, Mickey, Donald and Goofy help themselves to a sumptuous feast. This roused the ire of Willie the Giant, who is able to transform himself into anything. When spotted by Willie, Mickey spys a fly-swatter and asked Willie to demonstrate his powers by turning into a fly. Willie initially suggested turning into a pink bunny, but agreed to Mickey's request, he turns into a pink bunny anyway, seeing Mickey, Donald, and Goofy with the fly-swatter. Angry, Willie captures Mickey, Donald, and Goofy and lock them in a box to keep them from pulling any more tricks. Mickey escapes. Mickey must find the key and rescue them, and does so with the help of the singing golden harp. Once free, the hapless heroes return the golden harp to her rightful place and Happy Valley is restored to its former glory, killing the giant by chopping down the beanstalk (the end is never shown, and a happy ending is declared).
The cartoon ends with Willie the Giant (having survived the fall) stomping through Hollywood looking for Mickey Mouse. Before the scene closes, Willie notices The Brown Derby restaurant and picks up the building looking for Mickey and since the restaurant looks like a hat, places it on his head, and stomps off with the HOLLYWOOD lights blinking in the background.
Production
During the 1940's, Mickey and the Beanstalk and Bongo were originally going to be developed as two separate feature films. In the late 1930's, Mickey's popularity fell behind Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Max Fleischer's Popeye. To boost his popularity, Walt Disney and his artists created cartoons such as "Brave Little Tailor" and "The Sorcerer's Apprentice", which later were included in the feature film 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 starring Mickey Mouse as Jack, with Donald Duck and Goofy as supporting characters. 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 their tale. However he said as much as he enjoyed it, the film would never go into production because as Walt claimed, they "murdered [his] characters". However, Cottrell and Hee were able to talk Walt into giving it the greenlight and story development as The Legend of Happy Valley, which commenced on May 2, 1940.
The original treatment remained more-or-less the same in the 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". Another version had a scene where Mickey gave the cow to the Queen (played by Minnie Mouse) as a gift, and in return she gave him the magic beans. However, both scenes were cut when the story was trimmed for Fun and Fancy Free and the film does not explain how Mickey got the beans.
Shortly after the rough animation on Dumbo was complete in May 1941, The Legend of Happy Valley went into production, using many of the same cast, although RKO doubted it would be a success. Since it was a simple, low budget film, in six months up to fifty minutes were 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 foreign release market caused serious debts so Disney put The Legend of Happy Valley on hold.
Meanwhile, production was starting on Bongo, a film based on the short story written by Sinclair Lewis for Cosmopolitan magazine in 1930. It was suggested that Bongo could be a prequel to Dumbo and some of the cast from the 1941 film would appear as supporting characters, 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 the character was ultimately dropped when condensing the story. Bongo and Chimpy also encountered two mischievous bear cubs who were dropped.
Originally, the designs for the characters were more realistic, but when paired for Fun and Fancy Free the designs were simplified and drawn more cartoony. The script was nearly completed by December 8, 1941, the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
On that same day the army came into the studio and would take over all production. 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 asked the Disney studio to produce instructional and propaganda films. During and after the war Walt stopped producing single narrative feature films due to costs and decided to "package" animated shorts to make feature films, a package film. He did this during the war on Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros and continued after the war until he had enough money to make a single narrative feature again.
Walt felt that since the animation of Bongo and The Legend of Happy Valley (renamed Mickey and the Beanstalk) was not sophisticated enough to be a Disney animated feature film, the artists decided to include the story in a package film.
At first Walt wanted Mickey and the Beanstalk 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 re-titled The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad.
Celebrities Edgar Bergen and Dinah Shore introduced the segments in order to appeal to a mass audience. Jiminy Cricket from Pinocchio sings "I'm a Happy-go-Lucky Fellow", a song written for and cut from Pinocchio before its release.
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