The Walt Disney Company has released over sixty animated movies since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937. As such, fans and critics have created seven eras to divide them based on common trends and historical moments. Their second era is referred to as the Wartime Era, which ran from 1943 to 1949
Due to World War II, an animators' strike in 1941 and America joining the conflict in 1942, the company's workforce was severely reduced. To adapt to these changing times and save production costs, Walt Disney released anthology movies blending old and new characters and exploring new visual and narrative techniques. Although often overshadowed by the Mouse House's greatest classics, these anthologies remain worthy of attention from modern audiences, even if some are not as good as others.
6 'Saludos Amigos' (1942)
As part of its Good Neighbor Policy, the United States government hired Disney to create a movie about Latin and South America. They paid for Walt and some of his animators to tour numerous countries and get footage and ideas for the project. The result was Saludos Amigos, Disney's shortest film to date at forty-two minutes.
RELATED: 10 Worst Walt Disney Animated Movies of All Time, Ranked According to IMDb
The movie consists of four shorts: two feature Donald Duck (Clarence Nash) sampling local culture, one has Goofy (Pinto Colvig) learn to be a Gaucho, and one has an airplane named Pedro make delivers across the Andes Mountains. The shorts are all fun and funny, but beyond that, it's one of Disney's most forgettable films. That said, it did introduce José Carioca (José do Patrocínio Oliveira), a Brazilian Parrot who became friends with Donald.
5 'The Three Caballeros' (1944)
Pleased by the reception of Saludos Amigos, Walt created a follow-up film. Through the framing device of Donald's birthday, he opens numerous gifts that educate him about South America and Mexico. Alongside his friend, José, Donald meets a Mexican rooster named Panchito Pistoles (Joaquin Garay).
Like its predecessor, The Three Caballeros is relatively obscure nowadays thanks to its pacing and emphasis on crazy imagery over storytelling. It does have a few redeeming qualities, such as the chemistry between the three main characters and its early blending of live-action and animated characters. While not rich in content, The Three Caballeros is a Disney classic worthy of a 4K restoration, thanks to its surreal imagery inspired by Mary Blair, a longtime concept artist who also inspired Disneyland's It's A Small World ride.
4 'Make Mine Music' (1946)
For his third film, Walt released Fantasia, an ambitious project that combined Disney animation with classical music. Though it underperformed, Walt wanted to experiment more with music and animation, and the wartime era proved ideal. For Make Mine Music, Disney used more contemporary music than classical and even included narrators to tell some segments' stories.
RELATED: 10 Iconic Disney Roles Voiced by Sterling Holloway
Due to its lower budget, none of Make Mine Music's segments match Fantasia's grand spectacle. That's not to say they're bad: a fair few segments are enjoyable, such as "Peter and the Wolf," narrated by Disney Legend Sterling Holloway, and "The Whale Who Wanted To Sing at the Met," voiced and sung by famous baritone singer Nelson Eddy. While the film saw only limited home release, the segments have aired individually over the years, and many of them work much better as stand-alone shorts.
3 'Melody Time' (1948)
Once the war was over and Disney's animators were back home, Walt made plans to return to adapting fairytales and telling a single story in his animated films. He still had a few anthology films in production and intended to see them through to finance his return to form, Cinderella. For Melody Time, Walt decided to let his animators have free rein.
The film is an improvement over Make Mine Music, sharing a similar structure but cutting the number of shorts from ten to seven. The animators took advantage of their freedom to create some very surreal imagery, best seen in "Bumble Boogie" and "Blame It On the Samba." Its two narrative segments, "The Legend of Johnny Appleseed" and "Pecos Bill," are probably its most famous due to their catchy songs, engaging narratives, and Wand Kimball's fantastic animation on Pecos.
2 'Fun and Fancy Free' (1947)
By the late 1930s, Mickey Mouse's popularity was in decline, so Walt began producing new shorts to help him regain his status. After "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" appeared in Fantasia, Disney decided to make a movie featuring Mickey (Walt Disney and Jimmy McDonald), Donald, and Goofy in a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. To save costs during the wartime era, Walt shrunk the idea down and merged it with another film concept, "Bongo," to create Fun and Fancy Free.
RELATED: The 10 Most Underrated Disney Animated Films, According to Reddit
Since this film is only two segments with a bridge featuring Jiminy Cricket (Cliff Edwards), they're given more attention and development than previous package films. Bongo's segment is good, showing the struggles of a circus bear to survive in the wild, but Mickey's is superior thanks to these iconic characters and a fun antagonist in Willie the Giant (Billy Gilbert). It's also notable for being the last film where Walt voiced Mickey Mouse.
1 'The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad' (1949)
The final film of the wartime era began its life in the 1930s when Disney toyed with the idea of adapting The Wind in the Willows. The project was shelved due to the war but picked up again in 1946. After Fun and Fancy Free's release, Walt decided to pair the British Wind in the Willows with an American story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
The benefit of all these delays is that The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad learned from previous package films' mistakes. Its two stories have the best pacing and funniest characters, with the bridge being a library framing device narrated by Basil Rathbone and Bing Crosby. Though Wind in the Willows has plenty of laughs, Sleepy Hollow is among the best and darkest Disney movies, thanks to a truly terrifying portrayal of the Headless Horseman (Billy Bletcher).
NEXT: Every Disney Animated Movie Ever Made, Ranked From Worst to Best
