Fun and Fancy Free

Fun and Fancy Free
Directed by	Jack Kinney (animation) Bill Roberts (animation) Hamilton Luske (animation) William Morgan (live-action)
Produced by	Walt Disney Ben Sharpsteen
Starring	Cliff Edwards Edgar Bergen Luana Patten Walt Disney Clarence Nash Pinto Colvig Billy Gilbert Anita Gordon
Music by	Oliver Wallace Paul Smith Eliot Daniel Charles Wolcott
Editor(s)	Jack Bachom
Studio(s)	Walt Disney Productions
Distributor	RKO Radio Pictures
Released	September 27, 1947
Running Time	73 minutes
Language	English
Preceded by	Make Mine Music
Followed by	Melody Time
Country	United States

Fun and Fancy Free is a 1947 American animated musical fantasy package film produced by Walt Disney and released on September 27, 1947 by RKO Radio Pictures. It is the ninth Disney animated feature film and the fourth of the package films that the studio produced in the 1940s to save money during World War II. The Disney package films of the late 1940s helped finance Cinderella (1950) and subsequent others such as Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Peter Pan (1953).

The film is a compilation of two stories: Bongo, narrated by Dinah Shore and is loosely based on the short story "Little Bear Bongo" by Sinclair Lewis, and Mickey and the Beanstalk, narrated by Edgar Bergen and based on the "Jack and the Beanstalk" fairy tale. Though the film is primarily animated, it also uses live-action segments to join its two stories.

Rating

Fun and Fancy Free is rated G by the MPAA, making it the ninth Disney animated film to receive this rating, after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Saludos Amigos, The Three Caballeros and Make Mine Music.

Cast

• Edgar Bergen as himself, Charlie McCarthy, and Mortimer Snerd
• Luana Patten as herself
• Cliff Edwards as Jiminy Cricket
• Walt Disney as Mickey Mouse
• Clarence Nash as Donald Duck
• Pinto Colvig as Goofy
• Billy Gilbert as Willie the Giant
• Anita Gordon as the Golden Harp
• Dinah Shore as the Singer and Narrator of Bongo
• Jimmy MacDonald as Mickey Mouse, Bongo the Bear and Lumpjaw (growls)

Credits

Fun and Fancy Free Credits

Gallery

United States

First 1947 original release poster

Second 1947 original release poster

Third 1947 original release poster

Trivia

• The film's copyright was renewed on May 3, 1974.
• The scene where Edgar Bergen was comforting Mortimer Snerd when he was crying because of Willie's supposed death was seen on TV in Disney's 2007 film, Enchanted.
• Originally, Gideon and J. Worthington Foulfellow were set to make an appearance in the film segment of the film as con artists who sell Mickey the magic beans. However, since Walt Disney felt the scene was irrelevant, the scene was dropped. A deleted scene showed that Minnie, as a queen, gave Mickey the magic beans. Another uncovered storyboard revealed that Donald was originally going to have an encounter with Willie's cat, portrayed by an enormous version of Figaro from Pinocchio.
• Disney originally planned to adapt the Jack and the Beanstalk fairy tale once again for the Disney canon film, Gigantic. This means the fairy tale would have been the first tale Disney use more than once in the chain of Disney theatrical canons. It was ultimately cancelled in 2017 due to story problems.
• The only time that Jiminy sings the theme song's reprise is on the Bongo segment released by itself. This happened on the Anthology TV show and Mini Classics releases.
• Mickey's humongous sneezes, both when he is sprayed with pepper when hiding in Willie's sandwich and when accidentally opening Willie's snuff box, as well as his nervous line of "Gesundheit! Heh!" were re-used from Brave Little Tailor.
• The song in the Bongo segment, "Say It With a Slap", has lyrics that are not used in children's movies today as one line, which uses the term "makin' love", is deemed too inappropriate for children.
  • However, back then, "making love" simply just referred to a public display of affection.
• The frowning Charlie McCarthy dummy pretending to be a giant served as the inspiration for Jeff Dunham's dummy, Walter.
• The two chatterbox chipmunks in the Bongo segment may or may not have served as the inspiration for Chip and Dale.
• The animation for the applauding disembodied hands were reused from the "The Whale That Wanted to Sing at the Met" segment of Make Mine Music. Also, some of the thunderstorm animation was reused from the "Little April Shower" sequence of Bambi. The animation of the bulls frolicking during "My, What a Happy Day" is reused from Ferdinand the Bull.
• When Goofy accidentally falls into a giant footprint, Mortimer Snerd wonders aloud who made it, to which Charlie McCarthy snidely remarks, "Well, it wasn't Cinderella." Cinderella was in production at the time of this film's release.
• Some early non-English releases of the film use different instrumental scores of "I'm a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow" for the opening and closing titles, instead of "Fun and Fancy Free", resulting in the middle reprise of the latter song being the only portion dubbed and left intact.
• During production on Mickey and the Beanstalk, the beanstalk growing sequence was jokingly referred to as "Beanero", because Paul Smith's musical score for the sequence was reminiscent of Maurice Ravel's Boléro. It was even released as sheet music under that title.