- “Freddy Martin, an ardent admirer of the classics, inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, has chosen to interpret this lively fantasy in his own unique style. In a flight that is fast and furious, a confused little character tries desperately to escape from the hectic harmony of an instrumental nightmare.”
- ―Melody Time
Bumble Boogie is an animated short and the second segment from both Disney's 1948 (10th) animated feature film Melody Time and the 1955 reissue Contrasts in Rhythm.
Synopsis[]
A surrealistic nightmare for a solitary, tiny, aghast, fast, and desperate bumblebee actually known as Bumble (to a boogie-woogie version of Flight of the Bumblebee) trying to escape the visual display and imminent harmony of a musical frenzy.
Plot[]
This segment features the story of a bumblebee named Bumble trying to escape from an instrumental nightmare. Bumble tries to smell or rest on flowers but the flowers end up attacking him. Fed up with all the flowers attacking him, he gets enraged and smashes the flowers that try to eat him, but their petals made of piano keys form into a giant snake. After avoiding the snake by causing it to separate its keys, the piano keys form back into the same creature later serving as a cage so Bumble won't escape. However, destroying the cage led the piano keys in the form of butterflies surrounding him as Bumble tries to escape from the instrument frenzy. Bumble then avoids the trumpets and piano hammers that try to hit him as he ends up on piano keys falling off a river. Having escaped, Bumble then leaps on the piano keys, restoring the piano and ending the segment.
Releases (standalone)[]
Television[]
- Disneyland, episode #3.11: "At Home with Donald Duck"
- Disneyland, episode #4.22: "Magic and Music"
- Mickey's Mouse Tracks, episode #5
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The music for this animated segment is courtesy of Freddy Martin and His Orchestra and 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. Jack Fina, who played piano in the segment, composed the piece for the orchestra in 1946.
- In the 1998 video preview for Melody Time, the version of "Flight of the Bumblebee" featured in this short plays over a montage of clips from the movie, including "Pecos Bill", "Little Toot", "Once Upon a Wintertime", "Johnny Appleseed", and of course, "Bumble Boogie".
Notes and production[]
- According to the narrator, the work is a "musical nightmare" that allows the viewer to view Bumble in a surreal musical world. This had joined another surreal sequence from All the Cats Join In to Make Mine Music and Toccata and Fugue in D Minor from Disney's 1940 animated feature-film Fantasia.
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