While the shorts "contrast in length, form, and style", a common thread throughout is that each "is accompanied by song[s] from musicians and vocalists of the '40s"[9] – both popular and folk music.[18] This sets it apart from the similarly structured Fantasia, whose segments were set to classical music instead.[19] As opposed to Fun and Fancy Free, whose story was bound to the tales of Bongo and Mickey and the Beanstalk, in this film "Walt Disney has let his animators and his color magicians have free rein".[20]