In 1940, Disney laid permanent claim to the feature cartoon market with Pinocchio and Fantasia . Make Mine Music followed the Fantasia format with a series of unrelated sequences, each growing out of a particular musical idea. However, Make Mine Music created no chilling moment of horror, no bizarre bits of Freudian imagery, and thus has never had the appeal of its predecessor. With the tremendous advancements in home recording equipment, most audio buffs today could approximate this effect, but in 1946 it represented the summit of technical artistry. Eddy had a great personal fascination with the project which may have been inspired by his own experiments in his home recording studio.
Newspaper headlines announce that sailors have heard a mysterious singing sea monster.
The Metropolitan Opera impresario, Professor Tetti Tatti, decides that this monster must have swallowed an opera singer. He sets out with a harpoon ship to rescue this modern Jonah. Actually, the singer is Willie, a most remarkable cetacean, who can sing in several voices at once. Willie tracks down the Professor's ship and auditions a half dozen opera arias in dazzling succession. The crew are enchanted and Tetti Tatti leaps up and down with delight.