Disney’s Homage to New York City’s Old Metropolitan Opera House

Make Mine Music is one of the lesser known Disney animated features, but features one prominent New York City location that has since been lost to the wrecking ball. The film was released in 1946 and was Disney’s eighth animated feature. Like the other Disney animated features from the mid to late 1940s, Make Mine Music was an anthology film, composed of numerous short subjects, including one based on the Hatfields and the McCoys, which Disney has deleted from the film’s VHS and DVD releases.

The ultimate segment, “The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met,” is about Willie, a whale who dreams of singing at New York City’s original Metropolitan Opera House, and the impresario who seeks out the Whale, convinced that he is able to sing only as a result of having swallowed opera singers. Here at Untapped, we were especially enamored with the scene depicting the luscious interior of the Old Metropolitan Opera House in all of its glory.

Check out our previous coverage of the Old Metropolitan Opera House where we traced its history and its eventual demise as a result of inaction on the part of the Landmarks Preservation Commission, despite widespread opposition.