Fun and Fancy Free

FUN AND FANCY FREE links together mostly animated stories with figures familiar to 1947 audiences, including the popular Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Jiminy Cricket, voiced by Walt Disney, Clarence Nash, and Pinto Colvig, and Cliff Edwards respectively, and live-action performance by the famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his puppets Mortimer Snerd and Charlie McCarthy. Bergen narrates the story of what happens when Happy Valley turns into Gruesome Gulch after a giant steals the magic harp that keeps everyone in the valley so cheerful and prosperous. Bergen spews multisyllabic sentences -- Mortimer doesn't always understand and Charlie mocks his pretension, all of which is meant to entertain both grownups and children at the same time. When Mortimer fears for the poor giant's welfare, Bergen tries to soothe him by explaining that the giant isn't real but rather "a metaphysical phenomenon of your subconscious mind, a phantasmagoria of your mental faculties." The story of a circus bear named Bongo is narrated by the singer Dinah Shore who trills that "When bears are in love, they say it with a slap." The cartoon bears actually slug and wallop each other for comic effect while halos of hearts fly above. Now that the seriousness of domestic violence is a commonplace subject of discussion on every talk show, this "cute" joke about hitting people we love may alarm some parents working to teach their small kids to "use your words" for expressing strong feelings.