DC Fan wrote:No.
Besides, who watches them anyways?; at least as frequently as the others.
We'll I do for one. In fact probably more. The Three Caballeros being one of my most viewed. In terms of enjoyability, creativity and pure artistic merit, I'd personally say it outstripped the likes of 'Cinderella'.
Whilst there are admittedly weaker elements to some of the musical package features like Make Mine Music, and lower production values due to the historical context in which these films were made; they still feature outstanding animation by some of the most legendary artists, animators and creative talent Disney has ever had. I mean if you want to talk about Disney not sticking to its 'formulae' and 'being creative', look at the magnificently animated and sorrow filled morality of the 'Willie the Operatic Whale' segment. You want to see Mary Blair's stunning design work quite literally transferred direct to celluloid, then Once Upon a Wintertime is the only place you will see that; Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland were essentially watered down versions of Blair's designs: 'Disneyfied' by animators, which led to Walt giving such control to Eyvind Earle during the production of Sleeping Beauty' to endure that didn't happen again (even Walt thought Alice, Cinderella and Peter Pan had lost their artistic 'essence' along the way).
If we're throwing out Make Mine Music, why not by the same logic throw out Fantasia too? That's made up of segments? If you're saying 'bye-bye' to Ichabod, then surely it's only fair to send Stokowski and his dancing hippos with them too.
To place some context to my Likes: I grew in the 90s era with Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, The Lion King, The Hunchback of a Notre Dame being the movies I went to see in the theatre (which obviously I loved) on VHS I had all the classics from literally all other eras: Peter Pan, Lady and the Tramp, Bambi, The jungle Book, Snow White, Robin Hood, Many adventures of Winnie the Pooh etc.
When DVD came around and thanks to the internet, I learnt about these films for the first time and Only saw these films for the first time at around about the age of 20. Well, to be plain: I loved them. These days, given the choice of a package feature or a 90s movie: I'd probably go for a package feature.
If I was to say why? They're fresh: Vibrant in some cases. Playful, not contrived in any way and beyond creative.
Yes; they are weak segments. I for one am not going to claim that Melody Time should have outsold The Little Mermaid' on DVD, but that's not to say it should be regarded any less. What I love about Disney (particularly the Walt era, is not the songs, the princesses or the sidekicks) it's the story of an evolving studio, not always evolving because it wants to, but because it HAD to. And that is life.
When you watch the package features you literally see the history of the Disney studio pour at you from every second. The good neighbour program to foster links with South America during a war ravaged world drips out of Saludos Amigos. The beautiful early artistic style of Mary Blair which you just can't avoid in The Three Caballeros. The animation in this film is truly some of the finest work Ward Kimball ever did. Yes; it has less polish due to the War's effect upon the Disney purse strings, but it still has the technique. There is more bittersweet logic and heart in Willie the Operatic Whale that most of the films from the 50s and if you want a master class on tension, staging, suspense and how a story and emotions can be conveyed without a character uttering a single word: then watch the sequence of Ichabod riding his horse through Sleepy Hollow. It's up there in terms of the best sequences in animation with the gorge stampede in The Lion King. The story of Make Mine Music is the story of a studio which has had half it's staff disappear, enlisted by the military to either work away from the studio; or, for those remaining, working night and day on military projects. Make Mine Music was a film born out of necessity: true. But, in life, many choices are made out of necessity.
To be basic:
Walt needed money.
Walt needed to keep the studio open.
Walt needed to put something out for people to see.
Walt needed to keep his animators doing something, or they would probably leave for another studio: after all there were studios with larger reserves of money in the coffers to give more security to their animation departments; like MGM and Warner Brothers. And -leaning into a completely different area of discussion - this was the period when these animation studios did start to become more popular than Disney and have more successful characters. Disney's shorts department never recovered after the war, especially with the stiff competition the other studios eclipsed Disney with.
Now, would these package features have been made if the War had never happened? No, most likely not. But the fact is: these films kept the studio alive. If Walt didn't have 'something' for audiences to see. The studio WOULD have closed.
These films made it possible for the Cinderella and Peter Pan and all the following films to happen. They did keep the studio afloat. Perhaps consider that, when dismissing these films so easily. Maybe without Melody Time; you never would have had Frozen.
It's also worth saying that the idea of a film being made up of a number of smaller segments is not something only Disney did. All studios did it, even live action films made up in this way were far more common in the forties.
To conclude, yes this was a difficult period in history, not just for the Disney studio, but you can't rewrite history. If you lose your job because the company you work for collapses and you have to spend five years stuck in a disastrous job, trying to pay the mortgage: yeah it's tough, but you make the best of a bad situation. That's what Disney did. They made the best of a bad situation.
And I, for one, am extremely thankful.
Some beautiful things happened in the package films, some of which you would never have got in your average short. Willie the Operatic Whale is, simply, one of the finest bodies of work Disney made. It's a shame it's not more widely regarded. Peter and the Wolf, Pecos Bill, Johnny Appleseed: all wonderful. Even in the disastrous sequences, which even a package feature love like me can't deny, you can see the strive for innovation. Two silhouettes, undoubtedly falls flat. Which is a shame, because actually there's a large 'let's be playful and try something different' attitude behind it. 'Without You' I would say is probably the lowest point of anything any of the 53 features has ever presented, but you can at least and appreciate the attempt at least to capture some sort of mood through somewhat unorthodox use of camera techniques.
I honestly watch the package features a couple of times each year, still using the DVDs that were originally released. Whereas: Snow White, Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Cinderella, I have on blu ray and I honestly wouldn't even be able to tell you when I last saw them; being honest, I font think I've watched them since I first got the blu rays, so a few years in some cases.
Perhaps I like them because they are different. They try, they fail, but they strive to be something new and different. I think the one thing we can say about the majority of Disney fans in that they don't like new and different. Another of the most creative and diverse periods of a Disney history is the period from the mid 90s to the mid 2000s. Yes again there were misses. But you get the woefully underrated stylization of Atlantis with such bold ambitions of bringing something different, the unique beautiful styling of Hercules, Home on the Range, Mulan and Lilo and Stitch. Diversity in Disney is what I love. Perhaps I see the striving aims of artists trying to 'break a mould'. So many outstanding artistry is underloved because they have unusual leading characters, no princesses, or the filmmaker went at it with an outlook that was as 'un-Disney' as they could. I think my outlook on what makes a good Disney film looks beyond the characters and the story.
For example: Sleeping Beauty is a film that is quite well recognised as being low on plot, simple on story and having its stlylization as part of what makes it a masterpiece. The design of sleeping beauty is stunning. The backgrounds are stunning. It is beautiful. But, this seems to be an attitude that only Sleeping Beauty is graced with. Read about Sleeping Beauty from the point if view of animators and fil makers and the general consensus is 'Not much going on plot-wise, but beautiful beyond words'. Home on the Range is equally as beautiful in its design, perhaps that's why I don't disregard it as soon as others. Yes, it's weak in other areas, but visually it's stunning. The same goes for much of the creativity of the package films. Yet Atlantis, Home on the Range, Make Mine Music, don't seem to be awarded the same 'get out of jail free card' that Sleeping Beauty does: but that's a discussion for somewhere else.
I for am glad they are included as canon, because maybe it may at least bring more people, like me, to one day see a list of films with a section of unusual titles in between Bambi and Cinderella and then go seek these movies out and see the history of a difficult period before them. Otherwise, they'd go the way of 'The Reluctant Dragon' or 'Victory Through Air Power' and sink into almost complete anonymity. Two more extremely significant films from the same period.
As I said earlier, I award merit to films baed upon more than just story. I find enjoyment in significance; something which anyone who cares about the history of Disney can't erase about the package features: they are significant.
Sometimes being significant, is as much as an accomplishment as being 'good'.
Not only is it dirty and riddled with compression artefacts, but whoever authored the disc even got the frame-rate wrong.
Films like Victory Through Air Power and the Academy Award thing definitely throw a big wrench into things. Ugh, this whole topic is so confusing, I change my mind a thousand times every time I try and put down any cohesive thoughts. 
