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Ranking Disney Package Films

Disney’s Package Film period is the era which began after ‘Bambi’ in 1942 and it ended before ‘Cinderella’ in 1949. This was the first true dark age for Disney which thankfully lasted short and is pretty much forgotten nowadays for better and for worse. WWII significantly reduced the budgets and the markets for the studio so Walt opted to make package, anthology films which are features that consist of two or more short films characterized by less artistic animation. Although some of these six films are rather weak, a couple of them are very strong and quite underrated so I wouldn’t personally throw all of them under the same bus. So without further ado, here is my ranking of all six of Disney’s package movies.

6. Melody Time

By far the weakest film on this list and one of the worst Disney films of all time is Melody Time. Now, that is not to say that it is terrible as it is an okay film with a couple of memorable segments such as fun, psychedelic Blame it on the Samba and moving The Legend of Johnny Appleseed. However, all of the other segments are either forgettable or pretty weak with an overemphasis on for its time contemporary musical hits. The film now feels very uneven and dated unfortunately and thus deserving of the last spot here.

5. Saludos Amigos

Saludos Amigos is the shortest film here which barely qualifies as a feature with the runtime of around 40 minutes. That’s why the film is one very slight, forgettable affair which undeniably is terrific in the last segment where Donald Duck meets Jose Carioca and they share some amusing interactions, but the other segments are boring, childish and focusing on live-action segments and pretty forgettable new characters way too much. Its sequel is so much better in my opinion.

4. Make Mine Music

I absolutely love The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met which is simply a classic story so well told and ending in a beautiful, highly emotional finale. I also like Peter and the Wolf which is of course very good and the love story between two hats is pretty charming itself. But other shorts are uninteresting and plain uninspired. This is a better film than Melody Time, but it shares its problems such as an obviously uneven quality to its segments, an over-reliance on contemporary story and a bad pace. Also, ten segments was way too big a number for me.

3. Fun and Fancy Free

This is the part in the list where we shift from weak, just okay and passable to pretty solid or quite good movies. Fun and Fancy Free is certainly a solid flick. Yes, it’s undone by those horrible puppetry live-action sequences which felt dated and are so incredibly annoying. But Bongo is a cute little flick with a fun song at the end while of course Mickey and the Beanstalk steals the show as such a great story very well told and populated by lovable characters. Willie the Giant is great, but watching Mickey, Goofy and Donald all together is simply a blast.

2. The Three Caballeros

This is a film that grew on me upon each subsequent viewing and now I actually rather like it. Yes, the overabundance of live-action material is once again overwhelming. The first half of the film is definitely weaker too. Also, Donald Duck lusting over women was just too much for me. But other than those issues, the film is fueled by highly memorable, even artistic, authentic animation style, a simply fantastic titular song and such an iconic bird duo in Donald Duck, Panchito Pistoles and unforgettable Jose Carioca.

1. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

Easily securing the first spot on my list is this last package film from this period. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad signaled the return to form for the studio and is now unfortunately overlooked in favor of more popular fare when in reality it should belong on any top thirty or even top twenty Disney films list. It features two iconic titular protagonists, a very entertaining first segment and very dark, atmospheric, grey in area and highly original second story. The animation is also quite strong as is its soundtrack with a couple of instant winners. It definitely deserves more praise as it’s such a different, respectable Disney movie.

You can get wonderful The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad on Amazon with a terrific bunch of bonus features. There are other Disney package movies to be found on the website as well.