1 One of Disneys most whimsical films.
In this film Disney dishes out two more stories that are very charming. In feature one you meet lovesick Bongo the Bear, and in the second feature Mickey fills Jack's shoes and climbs the beanstalk with Donald and Goofy behind him. The animation is good, and the music is great. A definate must see. I reccomend this film.
2 Mickey's Second Time On The Big Screen
The Disney Studios didn't have much money at the time of this release, so Disney made two short films, "Bongo" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk," and packaged them together with in between animation featuring Jiminy Cricket, Figaro, and Cleo from "Pinocchio." This formula works if your a fan of the old Mickey Mouse cartoons. If you aren't, I don't recomend that you buy this film. The picture and sound isn't much better than the home video release.
3 The Fancy may be Free, but it's not all Fun
In this, the ninth feature animation film of Disney's Canon classics, we are treated again to two featurettes - "Bongo" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk".
"Bongo", with narration by Doris Day (a rather unusual choice for this story) is the story of a circus bear who dreams of life in the wild. But when he finally gets his wish, he finds he is unprepared for that life. The story of how he adapts to his new situation is priceless. This is a story that, even though made in 1947 has relevance today.
The version of "Bongo" that I remember best is the one from "The Wonderful World of Disney", which, if I can remember that far back, did not have Doris Day doing the narrating chores, and was a much better cartoon for it.
The other featurette, "Mickey and the Beanstalk", marks the final time that Walt Disney himself will create the voice of Mickey Mouse. The story of "Jack and the Beanstalk" retold in a Disney format, it stars Mickey, Donald, Goofy, the Magic Harp (with a wonderful singing voice!) and a wily magical giant named Willy. This is absolutely worth the price of admission. The DVD makes this Disney version of a timeless story watchable over and over again.
"Beanstalk" is also narrated, this time by Edgar Bergan and his cast of marionettes. This exact reproduction of the theatrical release is fun, but not as much fun as it would have been had it included the narrator I remember from showings of the featurette on "The Wonderful World of Disney".
Still a great addition to a collection of Disney classics.
4 Might not be the version you remember...
If like a lot of people you first saw "Mickey & the Beanstalk" not in theaters but on television (usually preceding a feature, like "Dumbo") you are in for a bit of a surprise.
This DVD contains the theatrical version, where the animation is interspersed with live-action footage of people at a party, who are "telling" the story. This also means the wonderfully soothing TV-version narration (provided by Sterling Halloway, also voice of Pooh) is gone. The end result is that the cartoon drags on unnecessarily as the action is constantly interrupted by the live-action segments. Additionally, the live actors tend to get a bit chatty with their narration, and some of the humor they try to inject hasn't aged well. With the capacity of the DVD medium, why couldn't the TV version be tacked on as an extra?
Still worth owning (the beautiful animation and music can't be derailed even by the mediocre live action footage)--but be warned.
5 The title says it all.
Jimminy Crickett is your host for a collection of two stories told in Hollywood, first up Diana Shore ( ...) tells the story of " Bongo", a bear who runs away from Fame and into his own kind, but when he falls in love with an attractive bear, he figures out that the Boyfriend is jealous and wants to duke it out with Bongo.
Then next, famed Ventriloquist Edgar Bergan with his popular charlie Mccarthy and Mortimer Snerd tell the story of " Jack and The Beanstalk" only with Mickey Mouse and Donald with Goofy going to save a Harp from a shapeshifting but witty Giant named " Willy".
A very entertaining collection of stories well drawn and it was known as Disney's list performance as Mickey Mouse. But nevertheless this is a fun movie, but The Harp and Lulu Bear are both preety hot.
6 Only the best movie that I have ever seen
Okay, I have been reading the other reviews on this movie, and they all say things like "went on for too long"..."Way overhyped"...and things like that. I beg to differ. The two movies in this wonderful DVD, Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk, are two family classics. As a child, I watched these two movies (on VHS, of course) over and over and over again. Willy the Giant characterizes my childhood in three words..."Potroast! Chocolate potroast!" And now, I know for a fact that my two little brothers have memorized the whole movie of Mickey and the Beanstalk. I don't want to ramble on forever, but I just want to say that these two are the best movies that I have ever seen, and I have seen a lot of movies.
7 Fun and Fancy Free Gold Collection DVD
"Fun and Fancy Free", is a very good movie. However, the problem with this package feature is that it's first story, "Bongo", seems to outstays it's welcome. The story is well written, but it just seems to last forever sometimes. "Bongo" was actually going to be one of Disney's full length features by it's self (and possibly a follow-up to "Dumbo"), uh, Im glad it wasn't.
"Mickey & The Beanstalk" is really what makes this movie really great. The animation is really terrific, Donald provides his outrageous humor, as always, and the narration has some laughs in it to. Also, the fact that Walt Disney is voicing Mickey, is an added bonus.
The short featurette on the DVD, "The Story Behind Fun And Fancy Free", is very brief, but provides great insight.
8 Where is the Ward Kimball Naration?
The Mickey and the Beanstalk portion of the DVD is fine, except for the fact that the live action keeps popping in. While this is all fine and well for those with nostalgia for that type of thing, it absolutely ruins the flow of the movie. A much better version (the version I remember seeing) had Ward Kimball narating. There were no interuptions in the animation and it flowed a lot better. Unfortunately, there is no DVD out there with the Ward Kimball naration, so if you love the animation like I do, you're kinda stuck.
9 Too Many Forced Previews
The cartoons are okay, but I don't really care for all the previews. I have to hit the next button severl times before I can get to the main menu and if I don't do this I will end up owning the entire Disney library.
10 Great movie; poor marketing tactics
This is one of the old classic Disney movies that were made for the younger audience. If you have small children this is a movie the family will enjoy without the over exposure to adult situations...
Unfortunately, like other Disney movies, the movie previews are forced onto the viewer once the disk starts playing. Tip--To bypass, wait for the logo anouncement (blue screen) to finish playing on each preview and then press the >>| (next) button.
4.5 stars for the movie 0.5 stars for Disney
11 forced to watch commercials
i'm with vince o'sullivan. disney FORCES you to watch their stinking commercials BEFORE you can watch your movie because they're a bunch greedy suits.
12 One of Disney's most under-rated classics.
Actually, unknown might be a better word to use. This movie is rollicking fun from beginning to end, and features some wonderful animated moments. This is the original home of the featurettes "Mickey and the Beanstalk" and "Bongo", which are presented in their entirety. If you're looking for something a little different... an alternative to the animated Broadway musical... this is it. Highly recommended.
13 LENT THIS TO A FRIENDS 3 YEAR OLD HE JUST LOVES IT
THIS IS A GREAT ADDTION TO ANY COLLECTION BONGO AND MICKEY AND THE BEANSTALK IN FUN AND FANCY FREE THE EXTRA FEATURES ON THIS DVD ARE EXCELLENT I HIGHLY RECOMEND THIS TO ANY FAMILY I LET MY FRIENDS SON WATCH AND HE TOLD ME ON MY LAST VISIT I'M NOT FINISHED WITH IT YET (A 3YR OLDS WAY OF ASKING TO BORROW IT A LITTLE LONGER) HE LOVES THE GIANT AND WHEN HE WATCHES IT LOVES TO TELL EVERYONE WHATS HAPPENING
14 Fun and Fancy Free
The animation and story aspects of Fun and Fancy Free are as good as I remember them being, except for the annoying snippets of a ventriloquist and his two dummies inserted into the Mickey and the Beanstock segment of the film. The version I remember as a kid had Ward Kimball (the voice similar to Winnie the Pooh) narrating, with no inserts of live action. All in all, not bad, except for all the trailers in the beginning you can't skip.
15 Very Good but not Great.
Fun and Fancy Free is a pairing of two short animations, a forgettable one about a circus bear called Bongo and the much better 'Mickey and the Beanstalk'. Now, having said that Bongo is forgettable I should say that he has proved a great hit with my two young (3 and 4 year old) daughters. Whilst Bongo is something of a throwback to pre-war animation style, 'Mickey and the Beanstalk' is bang up to date (for the time) despite being very much a folk tale. The scene where Mickey and co are so poor they ration out their bread by cutting it into slices so thin they're transparent particularly engauged the attention of my older kid, who immediately wanted me to do it!
Both animations have evidentally been cleaned up and are pretty much flawless, both visually and aurally. There is none of the scratchiness associated with originals of this era. Colours are both vibrant and consistent and the sound quality particularly good and full of body.
Disney animation releases on DVD have been improving (painfully slowly) and this one includes a (very) few welcome extras. The most important extra (for me) is the documentary on the making of F&FF. The kids though prefer the read-along stories that are also included. The Disney archives are massive (I've seen them), one day perhaps they'll see fit to include more related material (stills, deleted scenes, background character info., etc.) on the DVDs. There's certainly plenty of room and since so many of Disneys customers (aka cast) are aficionados, it would do sales no harm at all.
There are still a couple of features I'm not keen on though. Why do Disney releases start with an FBI warning? None of my other DVDs do. Also, why has the ability to skip past the adverts at the beginning been disabled and the adverts not just been placed as a menu option? People will look at them there occasionally but don't need them in their face every time. The DVD has been bought and paid for, so it's not like the adverts are subsidising the price or anything.
Still, over all this is a resonably good package and well worth buying for either Disney fans or young children.
16 A great Clasic Masterpice for Mickey and friends Fans.
This movie release clasic, comes with two special segments as part of a complete movie. Mickey and the Beanstalk, were Walt Disney lended for the last time the voice of Mickey, and appears with his budies, Goofy and Donald. Everyone will love it, all do you may allready saw it. The second story is Bongo, witch I specialy have a lot of memories of my childhood. With some more shorts and music it mackes a lovable great movie for all.
17 Great, Feel-Good Movie
My son has loved this movie since he was less than 2 years old. It's a wonderful, sweet story, and it's lovely to hear Dinah Shore's sweet voice narrating the segment. This video is safe and enjoyable for young children and nostaligic for their parents. I love Edgar Bergman with Charlie Sneed and Mortimer and even Louanna Patton. If you even feel the slightest desire to get this movie, do. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
18 Fun & Fancy Free - Vintage Disney Animation
This 10th Disney classic packs in 2 stories -- Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk. The movie is pure Disney animation in its classic style. Sure to warm the youngest hearts, but may cause nausea in those who do not like non-stopping music. It is, nonetheless, a classic, and deserves a place in every collector's shelf. **Plus! The DVD brings added segments as a bonus. An excellent deal!
