# Fun and Fancy Free
**Fun and Fancy Free** is a 1947 American animated musical package film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures on September 27, 1947. It combines two featurette-length stories, "Bongo" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk," within a framing narrative hosted by [Jiminy Cricket](https://www.edgepedia.org/jiminy-cricket) and featuring the live-action performers [Dinah Shore](https://www.edgepedia.org/dinah-shore) and [Edgar Bergen](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgar-bergen).[1](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Fun_and_Fancy_Free) • [2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) It was the ninth full-length animated feature from the studio[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1530018/fun-and-fancy-free) and one of the "package features" of the 1940s, made to keep animation production running inexpensively while the studio prepared for a return to full-length fairy tales after World War II.[4](https://jbkaufman.com/making-walt-disneys-fun-and-fancy-free)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | September 27, 1947, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures[1](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Fun_and_Fancy_Free) |
| Structure | Two featurettes, "Bongo" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk," framed by Jiminy Cricket and live-action hosts[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) |
| Runtime | 73 minutes[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) |
| Directors | William Morgan (live action); animation sequences directed by Jack Kinney, Bill Roberts, and Hamilton Luske[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) |
| Voice milestone | Last animated feature starring Walt Disney as the voice of Mickey Mouse; James MacDonald took over the role with this film[5](https://www.disneyanimation.com/films/fun-and-fancy-free/) • [2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) |
| Character milestone | The only film featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, and Jiminy Cricket together[5](https://www.disneyanimation.com/films/fun-and-fancy-free/) |
| Sources | "Bongo" from Sinclair Lewis's 1930 short story "Little Bear Bongo"; "Mickey and the Beanstalk" from the fairy tale "Jack and the Beanstalk"[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1530018/fun-and-fancy-free) |
## Spoilers
### The two segments
**Bongo.** To lift the spirits of a gloomy-looking doll and teddy bear, Jiminy Cricket starts the picture by spinning a Dinah Shore record recounting Bongo's story. Bongo, a circus bear, meets and falls in love with a girl bear named Lulubelle, but must first confront a bear rival, Lumpjaw, before he wins her.[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) The story derives from [Sinclair Lewis](https://www.edgepedia.org/sinclair-lewis)'s short story "Little Bear Bongo," first published in *Cosmopolitan* in September 1930; Bongo is a unicycle-riding bear cub forced to work in a circus who escapes to the forest.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1530018/fun-and-fancy-free) • [6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/25174) Shore sings "Lazy Countryside," "Too Good to Be True," and "Say It with a Slap" and serves as narrator.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1530018/fun-and-fancy-free)
**Mickey and the Beanstalk.** When the Bongo story ends, Jiminy finds himself invited to ventriloquist Edgar Bergen's house, where Bergen is entertaining the young actress [Luana Patten](https://www.edgepedia.org/luana-patten) and his dummies Charlie McCarthy and Mortimer Snerd. Bergen tells the story of Mickey and the Beanstalk, in which [Mickey Mouse](https://www.edgepedia.org/mickey-mouse), Donald Duck, and Goofy climb a beanstalk to rescue a singing harp from a giant and restore happiness to [Happy Valley](https://www.edgepedia.org/happy-valley). As Bergen finishes, the giant appears, lifting the roof in search of Mickey Mouse, then heads toward Hollywood.[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) Billy Gilbert voiced the giant, Willie.[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) The film does not explain how Mickey obtained the magic beans; a planned scene in which he received them from Honest John of *Pinocchio* was cut when the story was tightened for the package film.[1](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Fun_and_Fancy_Free) • [9](https://cinematicnostalgia.com/2020/05/06/fun-and-fancy-free/)
Songs in the film include "Fun and Fancy Free," "My, What a Happy Day," "Fe Fi Fo Fum," and "My Favorite Dream." Jiminy's opening song, "I'm a Happy Go Lucky Fellow," was originally written and recorded for *Pinocchio*.[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/)
## Production history
Both segments began as separate, feature-length projects. According to the [American Film Institute](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-film-institute) catalog, Disney originally intended to produce "Bongo" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk" as individual feature-length cartoons, with news items from April and August 1941 recording the plans; the Mickey Mouse feature was called *Legend of Happy Valley* in an August 1941 item.[6](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/25174) [Animation](https://www.edgepedia.org/animation) work on the Mickey feature began in 1941, but both productions, like others at the studio including *Alice in Wonderland* and *Peter Pan*, were suspended during World War II.[4](https://jbkaufman.com/making-walt-disneys-fun-and-fancy-free) • [7](https://yesterday-tomorrow-and-fantasy.blogspot.com/2016/07/walts-era-part-4-post-war-recovery-1947.html?m=1)
After the war, with foreign markets closed to Disney films for years and full-length features costly to produce, [Walt Disney](https://www.edgepedia.org/walt-disney) turned again to package films, which could be made more quickly and cheaply than classic features requiring highly skilled artists over several years.[8](https://mouseplanet.com/walt-talks-about-the-disney-package-features/5025/) Long before either story was finished, Walt decided not to release them separately but to combine them in a single picture, mounting the two stories within a framing story featuring Jiminy Cricket, in his first screen appearance since *Pinocchio* (1940).[4](https://jbkaufman.com/making-walt-disneys-fun-and-fancy-free) Disney historian J.B. Kaufman, author of *The Making of Walt Disney's Fun and Fancy Free* (Hyperion Historical Alliance, 2018), describes the final film as blending prewar and postwar scenes in a patchwork of classic animation drawn by some of the studio's top artists.[4](https://jbkaufman.com/making-walt-disneys-fun-and-fancy-free)
Walt reportedly judged that the animation of *Bongo* and *The Legend of Happy Valley* (renamed "Mickey and the Beanstalk") was not sophisticated enough for a standard Disney feature, making them more suitable as parts of a package film.[1](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Fun_and_Fancy_Free) When the completed Happy Valley footage was trimmed by a couple of minutes to roughly match "Bongo" in length, Bergen and Shore were enlisted for audience appeal; Bergen, with his puppet Charlie McCarthy, was among the most popular entertainers of the 1940s.[9](https://cinematicnostalgia.com/2020/05/06/fun-and-fancy-free/)
## Voice history and later releases
Walt Disney had provided Mickey Mouse's voice since the character's debut in 1928, and *Fun and Fancy Free* was the last animated feature in which he starred in that role; James MacDonald, who voiced Lumpjaw in the film, took over as Mickey's voice from this film onward and continued in the part for the next 30 years.[5](https://www.disneyanimation.com/films/fun-and-fancy-free) • [2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) • [3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1530018/fun-and-fancy-free) [Cliff Edwards](https://www.edgepedia.org/cliff-edwards) reprised his role as Jiminy Cricket, allowing Disney to build on the character's popularity from *Pinocchio*.[3](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1530018/fun-and-fancy-free)
In the 1960s, Disney animated new introductory material featuring [Ludwig Von Drake](https://www.edgepedia.org/ludwig-von-drake) and his pet Herman to replace Edgar Bergen when the Beanstalk segment ran on Disney's television show. The film was released on video in 1982.[2](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/) A featurette version of "Mickey and the Beanstalk" circulated separately in later releases, while the standalone "Bongo" featurette faded from distribution.[1](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Fun_and_Fancy_Free)
## Reception and context
The film belongs to the studio's package-film era of the late 1940s, alongside *[Make Mine Music](https://www.edgepedia.org/make-mine-music)* (1946), *Melody Time* (1948), and *[The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-adventures-of-ichabod-and-mr-toad)* (1949), assembled from projects begun before and during the war to preserve institutional knowledge, keep animators employed, and maintain the Disney brand in theaters.[10](https://books.brightlearn.ai/Mickeys-Battlefront-Disneys-Secret-Role-in-World-War-8a0f72161-en/page38.html) A *TIME* retrospective of the period grouped it with *Melody Time* as "pleasantly unexceptional fare" in the doldrums years before *Cinderella* (1950) restored the studio's fortunes.[11](https://time.com/4326360/walt-disney-world-war-ii-excerpt/) On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 73% Tomatometer from 11 reviews and a 57% audience score from more than 5,000 ratings; the site's critics consensus calls it "a rare opportunity to see Mickey, Donald, and Goofy together."[12](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fun_and_fancy_free)
## References
1. [Fun and Fancy Free, Disney Wiki (Fandom)](https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/Fun_and_Fancy_Free)
2. [Fun and Fancy Free (film), D23](https://d23.com/a-to-z/fun-and-fancy-free-film/)
3. [Fun and Fancy Free, by Lorraine LoBianco, Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/1530018/fun-and-fancy-free)
4. [The Making of Walt Disney's Fun and Fancy Free, J.B. Kaufman](https://jbkaufman.com/making-walt-disneys-fun-and-fancy-free)
5. [Fun and Fancy Free, Walt Disney Animation Studios](https://www.disneyanimation.com/films/fun-and-fancy-free/)
6. [Fun and Fancy Free (1947), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/25174)
7. [Yesterday, Tomorrow and Fantasy: Walt's Era, Part 4: Post-War Recovery (1947-1950)](https://yesterday-tomorrow-and-fantasy.blogspot.com/2016/07/walts-era-part-4-post-war-recovery-1947.html?m=1)
8. [Walt Talks About the Disney Package Features, MousePlanet](https://mouseplanet.com/walt-talks-about-the-disney-package-features/5025/)
9. [Fun and Fancy Free, Cinematic Nostalgia](https://cinematicnostalgia.com/2020/05/06/fun-and-fancy-free/)
10. [The "Package Film" era as a survival strategy, Mickey's Battlefront (BrightLearn)](https://books.brightlearn.ai/Mickeys-Battlefront-Disneys-Secret-Role-in-World-War-8a0f72161-en/page38.html)
11. [How World War II Changed Walt Disney, TIME](https://time.com/4326360/walt-disney-world-war-ii-excerpt/)
12. [Fun and Fancy Free, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fun_and_fancy_free)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Animated films by source material and subject › Films based on folklore and religion*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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