Fun and Fancy Free

Fun and Fancy Free (1947)

Fun and Fancy Free is the ninth animated film released by Walt Disney Productions.

The movie featured two animated segments packaged together with live-action hosted by Jiminy Cricket (animated) and Edgar Bergen (human ventriloquist).

The Story (SPOILERS)

The film begins with Jiminy Cricket singing to himself. He then leads into the first of the animated segments, Bongo.

Bongo is the story of a circus bear cub who escapes from the circus into the wilderness. Bongo escapes from the circus train and falls in love with a female bear cub named Lulubelle.

They slap each other. The slapping is meant as a sign of affection.

Bongo challenges a large bear named Lumpjaw in order to have Lulubelle as his mate.

He outwits Lumpjaw for much of their fight with his unicycle until the two fall into a river and go over a waterfall.

Bongo’s hat saves him from the fall and Lumpjaw is swept away with the river.

Bongo, Lulubelle, and other woodland bears celebrate as Bongo and Lulubelle announce their love to each other.

After the segment ends, Jiminy Cricket transitions from listening to a record to reading a little girl’s mail.

He reads a birthday party invitation, reads the guest list (insulting Edgar Burgen by claiming to have never heard of him), and goes next door across the street.

He then sneaks in uninvited through the window, accompanied by a brief musical interlude.

The party’s guests mingle and then transition into the imagined locale of “Happy Valley”, thus beginning the second animated segment.

This is the Mickey and the Beanstalk portion of the film.

Happy Valley falls into a drought after a singing harp is stolen from the castle by a shadow. Goofy, Donald, and Mickey are farmers that are driven into poverty and have little to eat.

Mickey decides to sell their only cow for money to buy food. Mickey returns and claims that he sold the cow for magic beans.

Donald flips out and throws the beans onto floor, causing them to fall through a hole. Later that night, the beanstalk sprouts from under the house and lifts it into the sky.

The next morning, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy climb the beanstalk. They enter a kingdom of enormous size, now tiny compared to their surroundings.

They break into a castle and help themselves to giant food. They then find the harp locked in a box, explaining that she was kidnapped by a giant.

The group retrieves the harp and the giant chases them back to the beanstalk. Mickey stalls him and the trio cuts down the beanstalk, causing the giant to fall to his apparent death.

The narrator finishes his story and claims that the giant was a fictional character. The giant rips the roof off the narrator’s house, questioning about Mickey’s whereabouts.

Fun and Fancy Free ends as the giant stomps off into the background.

Film Notes