Summaries

Synopsis

The seven "mini-musical" stories outlined:

Once Upon a Wintertime:This "Mansley" segment features Frances Langford singing the title song about two romantic young lovers on a winter day in December, during the late 19th century. The couple are Jenny and Joe who are taking a ride on their Sleigh. This is intertwined with a similar rabbit couple who is riding underneath the sleigh.Joe shows off on the frozen lake for Jenny, drawing a heart with an arrow through it on the frozen ice. Love is in the air, as the rabbit couple also enjoys the frozen lake.

In an effort to impress Jenny, Joe skates really fast and scrapes ice from the floor, that falls on Jenny as snow. Jenny slips and falls on the ice as a result. Jenny is offended and walks away from Joe. She ventures into an area of the lake with thin ice, but she cannot see the warning sign as it is also covered with snow. The rabbit tries to warn Jenny, but neither Jenny nor the female rabbit take any notice.

The rabbit throws the sign into the ice, inadvertently cracking it. Jenny gets stranded on a small piece of ice that flows down the river with the current. Joe follows frantically.Jenny falls unconscious on the iceberg, while Joe follows on the bank with his sleigh. The sleigh strikes a stone, throwing Joe and the rabbit off and they fall unconscious too.The female rabbit works with the birds and the horses to lasso the iceberg, just before it is about to go over a waterfall. The horses pull back the iceberg and Jenny back to safety of the shore.Jenny reunites with Joe, and so does the male rabbit with the female rabbit. Jenny and Joe return home, giving their thanks to the animals who helped in their rescue.

Bumble Boogie:This segment presents a surrealistic battle for a solitary bumblebee as he tries to ward off a visual and musical frenzy. The music, courtesy of Freddy Martin and His Orchestra (with Jack Fina playing the piano), is a swing-jazz variation of Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, which was one of the many pieces considered for inclusion in Fantasia.The bee is attacked by flowers who respond to the musical notes, and the instruments themselves as it tries to fly through the room. A giant piano keyboard takes the shape of a cobra and pursues the bee.Musical butterflies, and the notes from a piano all try to squish the bee from above as it continues to run.

The Legend of Johnny Appleseed:A retelling of the story of John Chapman (Dennis Day), who spent most of his life (Between 1774 and 1865 AD) roaming the Midwestern United States (mainly Ohio and Indiana) in the pioneer days, and planting apple trees, thus earning his famous nickname, Johnny Appleseed. He also spread Christianity. John was always seen with a tinpot hat, a bag of Appleseeds and a Bible.

John lived on his apple farm in Pittsburgh in 1806 and was a God loving man. He thanked the Lord daily for His merciful bounty on his farm. John watches the wagon trains going out West to reclaim the new lands. That's when Johnny's guardian angel appears and encourages him to become a pioneer himself. John says that he not strong enough, but the angel says that John can do a lot of good by planting Appleseeds in the new world and by spreading the word of the Lord.

John sets off with a tinpot hat, a bag of Appleseeds and the Bible, all handed to him by the angel. John travels through rivers, mountains, waterfalls and forests all alone. When he finds the right soil for Apple trees, he plants his seeds. John ignores the bears and the jaguars who come to attack and continues to plow the land to plant his seeds. The animals are also confused and don't attack John.A Skunk ventures into the land and eats at John's seeds, but John and kind to it and befriends him. Seeing this, the animals accept John as one of them.

With time the land was full of Apple trees and attracted a human colony around it. John came by from time to time and was happy that his effort brought people together and made them good neighbors to each other. John planted land of 100,000 Sq miles with his apple seeds. When John dies, the angel comes to receive John and says that his next assignment is to plant apple trees in heaven.

Little Toot:The story of Little Toot by Hardie Gramatky, in which Little Toot, a small tugboat in New York City, wanted to be just like his father Big Toot, but could not seem to stay out of trouble. He made the ocean liners wait till he made a bigger eight in the water.One day Little Toot swam too close to Big Toot, forcing Big Toot to break, and causing the massive ship behind him to crash into him.Then Little Toot tries to help his father by pushing the massive ship from behind, but Little Toot ends up shifting the rudder and makes the ship go round and round and it eventually gets out of control and crashes into the city.Little Toot is arrested by police patrol boats and deposited outside the 12-mile nautical limit of the city. Big Toot was demoted to towing garbage barges.

Out in the ocean, a storm strikes, and Little Toot is the first to see a flare go up from a ship in distress and an SOS being issues. Little Toot braves huge waves and treacherous underwater mountains to reach the ship. Little Toot shows great strength in pulling the massive ship to safety and brings It back into harbor where it is welcomed as a hero.

Trees:A recitation of the 1913 poem "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer, featuring music by Oscar Rasbach and performed by Fred Waring and the Pennsylvanians. The setting accompanies animation of bucolic scenes seen through the changing of the seasons, with an extended break between the sixth and seventh lines of the poem to accommodate a storm scene.The tree provides shelter in the rains, protection from the winds. Only God can make a Tree.

Blame It on the Samba:Donald Duck and José Carioca meet the Aracuan Bird, who introduces them to the pleasures of the samba.The bird infuses energy in the guests with the liveliness of the Samba. A local artist plays the Samba music on a multi-keyboard piano with one note being controlled by the foot.Cultural elements from South American intersperse the Samba performance.

Pecos Bill:The finale follows about Texas' famous hero Pecos Bill. Raised by coyotes, he became the biggest and best cowboy that ever lived. Pecos' horse named Widowmaker, saved him from vultures that tried to eat him. He then goes on to become the most famous cowboy in folklore.

The story recounts the ill-fated romance between Bill and a beautiful cowgirl named Slue Foot Sue, with whom he fell in love at first sight. This made Widowmaker so jealous of Sue that he caused her to get literally stranded on the moon on their wedding day.

Heartbroken, Bill leaves civilization and rejoins the coyotes who now howl at the moon in honor of Bill's loss.