AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Brenda The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Sherrill777 The Bad:This film is divided up into two animated segments, with live-action intermission, so it doesn't feel like a full-length feature. The first animated piece, staring Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, is a retelling of Jack and the Beanstalk. The second, an original story about a dancing bear, Bongo, that discovers the wilds of nature. The live animation pieces are down right awful. It is a birthday 'party' consisting of two children and an adult who is a ventriloquist. First, ventriloquism is not an act that translates well to a TV medium. Especially when you can see the human's mouth move. Second, these live-action scenes feel heavy-handed, not natural and certainly not funny or enjoyable. If you bought this video, you'd probably end up fast forwarding past these parts every viewing to get to the animation. Which brings me to the animated parts. The first one is decent (I'll get to that in a minute), but the second one, centering around Bongo is especially cringe- worthy. Over the course of the short, Bongo discovers a female bear, falls in love, and learns that the best way to show love to someone is to slap them. Wow. What a lesson. There's even a whole song dedicated to showing someone you love them "with a slap". Can I just take a moment to wonder what the script writer was thinking here? The Good:The saving grace of this film is the first animated segment. Mickey and pals go on a semi-epic quest, and it's honestly fun and humorous, and enjoyable. If I were rating just this part of this video, I'd give it a solid 7 or 8 stars.The Mom View:Two-thirds of this movie is not worth watching, but I really like the Mickey and the Beanstalk part. That makes this a tough one for me. For just that one animated segment, I'd say this is appropriate for pre-schoolers and up and that it's certainly a recommended show. However, since that cartoon comes attached to the rest, I can't recommend anything more than a rental (or perhaps YouTube). That's what I'm planning with my kids – try to stream it somewhere and skip everything that's not Mickey and the Beanstalk.

preppy-3 Two shorts strung together with material involving Jiminy Cricket and Edgar Bergen and his dummies. The two stories are--"Bongo" about a circus bear escaping and his "comic" misadventures in the wilderness and "Mickey and the Beanstalk" with Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy recreating "Jack and the Beanstalk". The animation is great (that's why this gets three stars) but the stories are trite, padded and downright boring! They're also full of songs so unmemorable, bland and sweet that you'll be thinking cutting off your ears! To make matters unendurable Edgar Bergen has got to be the world's worst ventriloquist! His lips are plainly moving when his dummies "talk". A sleep-inducing mess. VERY patient young kids might go for it.

tvnutboy I was almost tempted to put in a spoiler for this one, (A Key one, not the minor ones I have in here) but Somebody was kind enough to go into more than great detail about "Bongo" and anyone who was a kid once already knows the story of "Jack & The Beanstalk", so going over the plot of "Mickey & The Beanstalk" would seem a little frivolous. So instead, I will say that this was just an OK Disney film for the era which it came from.I do have a soft spot for Bongo, 'cause we could use a sweet story during times like these. The only downfall is that sometimes it gets so sweet, I need one of those OneTouch machines to keep track of my insulin levels. One such example (MINOR SPOILER) is when Bongo meets Lulubelle and they go into this whole sequence where just about every single love cliché/device/gimmick is being shown. Which begs me to wonder how much sugar the animators had in their coffee during the making of it. Otherwise, it's a cute story that goes beyond cute.Afterwards, The live action stuff with Edgar (Candace's Father) Bergen boosts the film a little. Albeit, it's filler when you stop to think about it. Also, not a lot of people this day and age knows who he and his dummy co-horts are unless you did a little researching. Apparently, they were huge back in the day.Enter Mickey & The Beanstalk and it's essentially the same story as the one we read as kids (CONTINUITY SPOILER). Only there's three heroes instead of just one, and A Golden Harp, but no goose that lays golden eggs. Other than that, nothing to write home about.All in all, it's a crowd pleaser at best. No "Shooting Through the Roof" deal, but still just OK for a 1940s Disney Animated film.

Spleen "Bambi" (1942) was the last REAL animated feature the Disney studio released in the 1940s. Until 1950, there would only be shorts - which in general weren't as good either as the innovative ones made in the 1930s, or Jack Hannah's comic masterpieces of the 1950s - and compilation features: "The Reluctant Dragon" (1941), "Saludos Amigos" (1943), "The Three Caballeros" (1945), "Make Mine Music" (1946), "Fun and Fancy Free" (1947), "Melody Time" (1948), "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad" (1949). You're unlikely to have seen ANY of these. All of them were stripped apart into their component pieces long ago, largely because, with the exception of "The Three Caballeros", there's no reason to keep any of them in one piece. ("Fantasia" is another exception, so much so that I've left it off the list altogether - it's a completely different kind of endeavour.)I say this even though "The Three Caballeros" is the only one I'VE seen. I have seen most of the material that went into these movies, though, and trust me: it's uneven, and there's no coherent way of gluing most of it together. -"Fun and Fancy Free", in any event, consists of just two extended shorts: "Bongo" and "Mickey and the Beanstalk". I'm writing mainly to defend the latter. People are much too hard on it. There's a marked similarity between it and the winning short cartoon "The Brave Little Tailor" (1938), another fairytale with Disney characters taking the lead roles, and while "Beanstalk" lacks the earlier short's freshness, it has the advantage of having Donald and Goofy in it, two terribly under-rated cartoon stars who, although capable of sustaining shorts on their own, play off well against one another. (That's why it's impossible to make a Mickey/Donald/Goofy cartoon that's a TOTAL failure.) "Mickey and the Beanstalk" is one of the few post-war cartoons to recapture the spirit of Disney's depression-era stuff."Bongo" is of almost no interest - a vapid, directionless account of a circus bear who must adapt to life in the wild, complete with songs. People interested in the history of animation should see every Disney production they can get their eyes on; there's no other reason to see this one. The sheer POINTLESSNESS of pairing "Bongo" with "Mickey and the Beanstalk" makes this Disney's most bizarre compilation feature of the decade. -I wish I'd seen the linking segments. They can't possibly JUSTIFY the film's arbitrary nature, but it might be entertaining to see them try.