Disney Canon-Forgotten/Minor Characters #8: Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet

Next up is Disney’s 8th feature and 3rd package film, “Make Mine Music”. Released in 1946, the film is somewhat like “Fantasia” in that it’s a collection of unrelated shorts set to music. This time, most of the music is actually lyrical and popular (for the time, at least). And like I’ve said before, I actually prefer this film over “Fantasia”.

ANYWAY, this film is composed of 10 segments in its entirety.

The first one, “The Martins and the Coys“, based on the famous family feud, was edited out from the film in the NTSC format because it was deemed as having too much shooting and inappropriate. So, the characters from that segment are probably a better candidate for the forgotten/minor characters of this film than the ones I’ve chosen. But, I decided not to go with them and instead will leave this screenshot as an honorary mention of them.

So, like most of the package films, some of the segments are more famous than others and have been released separately to theaters/TV/DVD compilations, etc. Some of the more famous ones include “Casey at the Bat”,

“Peter and the Wolf”,

and “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met”.

But, my favorite segment by far is the “Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet” one. The segment is about two hats (only Walt Disney can animate and personify hats) who fall in love in a department store. After the female hat (I can’t believe I just wrote that) is bought by a customer, the male hat (oh boy) has to go and find her. And based on a hat’s inability to walk, he has to depend first on being bought by someone. And once outside he looks everywhere for his love and gets around mostly due to wind.

The segment is about 7 minutes long and is sung as a ballad by The Andrews Sisters (one of whom is still alive at the age of 94)! The ballad is sweet and catchy; mainly due to The Andrews Sisters’ amazing voices. And because it’s a love ballad, I consider this to be my favorite Disney love song!

I’m sorry Princess Jasmine! “A Whole New World” is amazing; but a love song sung over two anthropomorphic hats actually is more endearing to me.

So as you can see, this segment is not well-known; hence its characters are not well-known. The story is sweet, the song is catchy, and the animation is great. Not so much as it’s amazing animation; but only Walt and his crew can make inanimate fashion statements move about and seem alive and actually cause you to fall in love with them. So for this and many more reasons, Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet are my forgotten characters of this film.

Oh, fun fact: The name Johnny Fedora was actually used by author Desmond Cory for the name of a fictional British secret agent in a series of novels. Sounds like a James Bond ripoff,  I hear you say? Well, Johnny Fedora made his appearance in a 1951 novel; whilst James Bond’s first appearance was in 1953! So I wonder who’s the copycat?