One of Walt's early package films and not bad at that! Some segments are cloyingly hokey, of course, but most shorts are surprisingly playful and charming. The highlights: "The Martins and the Coys" is full of stereotyping and comic gunplay and simply fun to watch; "Casey at the Bat" is a whirlwind of poem recitation; the two Benny Goodman segments feature nice tunes and "Peter and the Wolf" and, particularly, "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At the Met" are two of Disney's best cartoons.

Just skip the padding and enjoy this compilation!

7 out of 10 triple-voiced Nelson Eddys

An episodic musical tapestry a' la Fantasia, only this one utilizes the pop music of circa 1946. Some are worth viewing, and others are worth fast-forwarding through. My own personal favorites are the two Benny Goodman numbers, "All the Cats Join In" and "After You've Gone". I haven't seen the now-deleted "The Martins and the Coys" sequence, but I do oppose the tampering of classic films in the name of "PC". If I had known this was the case with "Make Mine Music", I would have never bought the VHS tape.

Make Mine Music finds Walt Disney in the midst of the transitional period between his first five animated features (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi) and the post-war revival begun with Cinderella (1950).

The idea of a casual variant of Fantasia featuring popular music was a good one. Even though the segments which comprise the film vary in quality, the film as a whole is a bright, colorful and amusing light entertainment which fit wartime needs ideally.

Highlights include two spirited Benny Goodman swing numbers ("All The Cats Join In" and "After You've Gone") and the unforgettable finale, "Willie the Operatic Whale", narrated and sung by Nelson Eddy. The animation is generally first-rate and the Technicolor film will dazzle any viewer not expecting a genuine masterwork.

Make Mine Music was successful enough to warrant a considerably better follow-up, Melody Time (1948).

The undistinguished but harmless "Martins and the Coys" segment, concerning the gun-feuding backwoods families of American folklore, has idiotically been removed from current editions, evidently for PC reasons. It's scary that Disney may start altering their classics to meet artificial modern standards. (If they had cut anything from Make Mine Music, it should have been the tasteless "Two Silhouettes" ballet, all doilies and valentines and icky fake sentiment.)