Silly Symphony

The Tortoise and the Hare

2 Comments

Original release date: January 5, 1935

Rating: TV-G and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight speedy minutes

Background: “The Tortoise and the Hare” is another Disney Silly Symphony inspired by one of Aesop’s many fables, this one having the same name as the short.

“Tortoise and the Hare” won an Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons) and many think the hare is an early inspiration for Bugs Bunny.

Review:

Unlike many of the earlier Silly Symphony shorts listed as “Mickey Mouse Presents,” this one actually features a headshot of Mickey at the beginning.

We start off with a large crowd and an annoying police dog gathered for a big race: the tortoise vs. the hare. Max Hare enters to thunderous applause and grandstanding while Toby Tortoise gets laughs. Tortoise offers best wishes while Hare acts a fool. There is definitely a Bugs Bunny-style to Hare.

We get the starting whistle and the two take off, one at a much faster speed than the other. Tortoise gets stuck in his shell and laughed off the starting line while Hare races around and blows feathers off animals and leaves off trees. Noticing his lead, he starts to slow down while Tortoise does all he can to keep pace with snails.

Hare takes himself a nap and Tortoise tiptoes by, though Hare catches up and, again, acts a fool. We all know where this story is going, right?

Hare passes a girls’ school full of cute bunnies, which gives him a chance to flirt. The invite both racers in, which I guess means old lookin’ Tortoise appeals to younger women as well. Hare stops to show off, shooting an apple off of his own head via speed and several other tricks. Hare shows off for too long, even too long for me as viewer as I wanted the short to get moving already.

Tortoise hits the finish line first, shocking Hare and delighting the fickle crowd.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

None.

Should you watch it?

Eh, I guess I’ll say watch it. It drags on a bit but it is a good story and Toby reappears in a future short.

Silly Symphony

The Goddess of Spring

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Original release date: November 3, 1934

Rating: TV-Y7 because of I’ll assume Hades. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: nine springy minutes

Background: Another in the long Silly Symphony line, “The Goddess of Spring” focuses on Persephone and Hades of Greek mythology.

While it didn’t win any awards itself, the short helped lead towards the animation style of the upcoming first Disney animated feature, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

Review:

We begin with dancing flowers and fairies and Persephone dancing through the land, having a good ol’ time with nature. Birds do their Disney best and put a flower crown on her head while actual flowers do ballet and fairies dance around her.

Then all hell breaks loose – literally – as fire erupts from the ground, Pluto (in this case in the classic devil and not the dog we haven’t met yet), appears from the ground and… sings to her. He sing-requests her presence as queen of his underworld kingdom, which not surprisingly she denies. Meanwhile, the woodland creatures get into a fight with little devil creatures. Pluto takes her in his arms and down into the fire, sealing the ground. Well, we’re in hell now.

The little devils celebrate the capture of their new queen, who is awarded a nice throne, a tiara, and is surrounded by jewels as they sing and proclaim her queen of Hades. Fire rages. Devils dance. It’s quite the party. Lots of bright colors happen which is quite impressive.

Meanwhile, the fairies mourn near her flower crown and snow falls as she apparently had reverse Elsa powers, instead being able to keep the snow away. Back in hell, Pluto is still singing. He has quite the operatic voice and I’m not sure it’s punishment, really. He’s good. He awards her a giant diamond and she declines. Pluto is kind of a nice guy minus the kidnapping and bringing her down into a giant fire pit.

He sings, as he does, asking what he can do to make her happy. She responds in song – maybe the only way you can communicate in hell is by song? – and tells him that the only way she’ll be happy is to go back. He sings that he will let her go if she will spend six months above ground and six below, creating the seasons (excluding Georgia, where it is just hot except for three weeks of winter).

She returns above ground, snow melts, animals are happy, and birds bring her the flower crown. Sadly this is how it ends instead of with some humorous depictions of what happens when she returns for her time in hell.

Speaking of depictions, I noticed none of the culturally offensive variety.

Extras:

The devil’s singing was extra enough.

Should you watch it?

I enjoyed it as an oddball short, so I’ll recommend you watch it. Your mileage may vary and, depending on religious nature, the devil and hell imagery might not be what you want to see.

Silly Symphony

The Wise Little Hen

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Original release date: June 9, 1934

Rating: TV-G due to the wholesomeness of Donald Duck. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: seven smart minutes

Background: Yet another Silly Symphony, “The Wise Little Hen” is very historic in Disney lore. Why? It was the debut of one Donald Duck. Donald of 1934 looks a bit different than Donald of 2019, as he has a small head and long neck, as you’d imagine from a goose, more so than the bigger head and no neck of today.

Review:

We start with a look at the hen’s house, as she heads out with a basket of corn and her baby chicks feeding in the yard. She cluck-sings about finding someone to help her plant her corn. The first victim is Peter Pig, the less famous of the new characters and a less famous version of Porky. He grunts a “no” to her pleading for corn-planting assistance and then laughs mischievously because he’s a jerk.

Henny finds the home of Donald Duck, who is dancing on top of his houseboat. She asks if he’ll help plant her corn and he, too, says nope. He feigns a bellyache and the Donald voice is immediately loveable and everything we’ve needed in cartoons. He too gives that jerk look as she leaves.

Henny and her chicks work together to plant the corn. Did she really even need help? Probably not. The chicks have little white shoes because… um… reasons, I guess.

The corn sprouts and she goes around to beg for help harvesting the corn. She interrupts Peter and Donald’s dance party, both again feigning those bellyaches. Peter is as annoying as Donald is great, but the way Henny sings the word “corn” is the most annoying of all.

The corn gets harvested, I assume by herself, and she makes cornbread, corn muffins, and regular ol’ cobs of corn. As the boys feign corn, she sings a request for others to help her eat her corn. They magically become healed and then are shut out, left with a basket of castor oil for stomachaches while she and the kids have a corn party. That’ll teach them.

I noticed nothing culturally distracting.

Extras:

There are no extra features.

Should you watch it?

Watch it. It’s the first appearance of Donald, who immediately becomes a great character, and is a fun short as well as one that might lead your kids to help around the house..

Silly Symphony

The Big Bad Wolf

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Original release date: April 13, 1934

Rating: TV-Y7 because of big bad wolves probably. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: nine red riding minutes

Background: After the success of the “Three Little Pigs” short, Disney decided to go back to the well (something the company would become VERY good at) and make a sequel short of sorts.

Part sequel and part adaptation of “Little Red Riding Hood,” “The Big Bad Wolf” carries over the wolf and pig characters and throws in Red Riding Hood and her granny, Grandma Hood.

Review:

The short starts with Little Red skipping along and finding the pigs at Overalls Pig’s brick house, him adding on an addition and the other two being goofy. She tells the pigs she is going into the woods, Overalls Pig telling her there is danger and the other two being obnoxious.

The two pigs and Red go skipping into the woods singing “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf,” apparently learning nothing from their previous battle. Big Bad sees them and dons his fanciest wig and dress, acting as Goldilocks. He is clearly a wolf in a dress but the pigs and Red aren’t quite as observant. Eventually he accidentally unveils himself and they go running.

Big Bad finds a house in the woods, Granny Hood in its bed. He runs in and chases her into a cabinet, while Red comes running home thinking she is safe. Big Bad puts on Granny Hood’s nightgown and hat and calls her in. Red somehow doesn’t notice that Granny’s face is now a wolf’s face because she’s a dummy.

Somehow despite his trick, Big Bad still can’t catch Red. Meanwhile, the two dumber pigs run home and hide under Overalls Pig’s bed. He packs a bag with an ax and several other weapons and runs off (Overalls Pig has a whole section of his house full of weapons for whatever reasons). Naturally he saves the day and Big Bad runs off, never to be seen again until the next short he’s thrown into.

I didn’t notice any cultural depictions.

Extras:

Zero.

Should you watch it?

Why not, watch it. Quality is down from the first short, but it is still entertaining enough.

Silly Symphony

The Grasshopper and the Ants

1 Comment

Original release date: February 10, 1934

Rating: TV-G for grasshoppers of all ages. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight hoppin’ minutes

Background: Another of the many Silly Symphony shorts, this one is an adaptation of Aesop’s fable of similar name. According to Wikipedia, this short was one of the first examples of a character turning blue as a show of being cold.

Review:

We start with Hop the grasshopper, dancing around and playing his fiddle and displaying a nasty habit of spitting chewing tobacco. That can’t be good for a grasshopper.

Hop notices a crew of ants collecting foods and his hungry side hits. He whistles over an ant and teaches him his bad habits, mainly dancing instead of working and spitting (just spit in the ant’s case). The queen of the ants notices and gets onto the little ant, who runs off.

Queen scolds him and he ignores it, saying winter is a way’s off and he has nothing to worry about. This isn’t going to work out for the little guy, of course. Leaves begin to fall and fall becomes winter, and a strong breeze hits, leaving Hop is stuck outside in a snowstorm while the ant crew hang out in their fully stocked anthill of a house, complete with chimney.

Hop walks around discouraged, looking for anything to eat at all. The one leaf he sees blows away and he’s basically screwed. Blue and freezing, he crawls to the anthill where a feast is happening. Knocking on the door and then collapsing, the ants bring him in, warm him up and feed him. Yep, queenie was right but she was also kind. She gives him his fiddle and tells him to do his thing.

For cultural depictions, nothing really stuck out at me. There’s an argument that the ant faces mimic the minstrel look a bit, but I think it was more trying to look like ants than going for stereotypes.

Extras:

There are no extra features.

Should you watch it?

This one could go either way really. I’m going to say skip it, just because there’s so many better things on the service. You’re not losing eight minutes if you do watch it though.

Silly Symphony

The Pied Piper

1 Comment

Original release date: September 16, 1933

Rating: TV-G and “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: seven rat-filled minutes

Background: “The Pied Piper” is a Disney take on the classic short story of the same name released under their Silly Symphony line.

Review:

First note: the color is really great in this short.

The town has a major rat problem with rats eating all the food, running crazy, and general chaos. The townspeople get together and sing “Rats, rats, we’ve gotta get rid of the rats” instead of actually doing anything. The mayor sings back to them, offering a bag of shiny gold to anyone who can get rid of the rats. Just in time, Pied Piper himself walks in with his pipe and says he can do it. He plays a tune which the rats love (because rats love pipe music) and follow him right out of town and to a massive wheel of cheese that is just sitting in the country. Why haven’t I found a massive wheel of cheese somewhere.

Piper returns to town and is laughed away by the Mayor (sigh, government corruption) who offers him one piece of golf because all he did was play a pipe. The townspeople, who ten minutes earlier were singing in protest about their rat problem, also laugh at him. Piper threatens to pipe the children away from the town and away from the cruel townspeople.

Sure enough, he plays his tune and the kids follow him. This is of course kind of shocking in 2019, but I guess in 1933 kids just marching away behind a dude with a pipe seemed safe. They follow him to a land full of candy canes and playground equipment and then CLOSES A MOUNTAIN WALL WHERE THE PARENTS CAN NEVER GET TO THEIR KIDS AGAIN. Holy crap. What a horrifying end.

I noticed no cultural depictions.

Extras:

Why would you even want more after creepster walled off the kids from their parents?

Should you watch it?

I’m throwing a big “skip it” on this one. It’s a classic story and all but it’s also a big creepy. Parents, teach your kids to not talk to strangers… or follow them if they start playing pipe music and offering them giant candy cane-filled playgrounds.

Silly Symphony

Three Little Pigs

1 Comment

Original release date: May 27, 1933

Rating: TV-Y7 due to pig-on-wolf violence. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight blow-away minutes

Background: “Three Little Pigs” is, of course, based on the fable of the same name. It is one of the most well known and classic of the Disney shorts, winning an Academy Award and making “greatest cartoons of all time” lists.

It is also one of the more merchandised of the non-Mickey Disney shorts. I remember having a book with a record of the story when I was a child, and there were walk-around characters of the pigs and wolf at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Review:

I don’t really need to fill you in with storyline for this, do I? Flute Pig builds his house out of straw, Pig Wearing Donald Duck’s Clothes builds his house out of sticks, and Overalls Pig builds his house out of bricks and frowns on the others dancing and singing because he’s a grump.

Flute Pig and Fiddle Pig (formerly known as Wearing Donald Duck’s Clothes Pig) march over to Overalls Pig’s house and sing songs at him while he continues his brickwork. The musical pigs sing about not being afraid of the big bad wolf, while Big Bad himself lurks behind trees and sneaks around like a creeper.

Big Bad finds them mid-song and chases them into their respective houses. He, of course, huffs and puffs and blows down the straw house, then does the same for the stick house. Big Bad really has impressive lung capacity.

They run to Overalls Pig’s house, who lets them in and scolds them. They sing together with the classic portrait of sausages and the caption “FATHER” on his wall, one of the greatest sight gags of early Disney. Big Bad comes by and slapstick violence occurs. He huffs and he puffs and fails to knock down the brick house, eventually going down the chimney right into a boiling pot because he apparently didn’t feel the heat rising like a big dummy. Big Bad’s butt gets burnt and he runs off, never to be seen again (until his own short).

I didn’t notice any cultural depictions and I’m starting to think they just threw that on all of the old shorts to cover their butts.

Extras:

There are no extra features.

Should you watch it?

Absolutely you should watch it. It’s a historical short and one that is incredibly well done at that.

Mickey Shorts

Ye Olden Days

1 Comment

Original release date: April 8, 1933

Rating: TV-PG because Mickey is troublesome. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: eight olden minutes

Background: Our boy Mickey is back! Produced of course by Walt himself, this short film was very loosely based on “Ivanhoe.” It is in black and white, a change from the previous few shorts, and is the first on Disney Plus (as of this writing) to feature Goofy, though he is under his birth name of Dippy Dog.

Review:

It all starts out with King Pete introducing Prince Dippy Dog to Princess Minnie. Minnie doesn’t want to marry Dippy while Dippy tells her, “I know you’ll learn to love me” like any creeper in a female’s Facebook messages would say. She denies, so the King throws her in the attic along with her friend Clarabelle Cow. All the classic characters are here!

Mickey and his lute climb a tree outside the prison and sing to her, then flies up to her window and vows to save her. Meanwhile, Pete brings on the wedding feast anyway because he likes food and why waste good food. He’s not wrong.

Mickey strings together blankets and he and Minnie climb down from the attic window, eventually being caught. Pete puts Mickey in the guillotine, which seems rough, but Minnie begs for his life. Pete calls for a duel between Dippy Dog and Mick, Dippy getting actual armor and a horse and Mickey getting a donkey and not much else. Mickey stabs Dippy in the butt with a spear, the horse and donkey get into it, and Dippy falls assumingly to his death out of a window, never to be seen again.

Mickey, Minnie and donkey get a parade and I assume get married. Or not.

As far as the cultural depictions, I didn’t catch anything. They could be there, but they made it past my bad eyes and good glasses.

Extras:

There are no extra features. You already got Dippy Dog.

Should you watch it?

Yes, absolutely watch it. It’s Mickey, Minnie, and the eventual Goofy in hijinks. It’s an entertaining eight minutes. The violence is slapstick, though Mickey with his head in a guillotine might raise a few questions.

Silly Symphony

Santa’s Workshop

1 Comment

Original release date: December 10, 1932

Rating: TV-G because Santa is safe for all the good little boys and girls. “It may contain outdated cultural depictions.”

Length: six holly jolly minutes

Background: One of many Silly Symphony short films, this was the first Christmas-themed short for Disney. It appears on cue every December, however with cuts for what are said to be culturally inappropriate things.

Review:

Mickey Mouse presents!

This is about as ordinary of a Christmas cartoon as you’d expect out of something made in 1932. Elves dance and make toys. Santa sings and rhymes. Toys march into his bag. He takes off. It is what it is.

As far as the cultural depictions, I see ’em. Just in the lineup of marching toys, there are band members who have the minstrel show-style face as well as very stereotypical-looking Asian dolls. I know it was a “moment in time” thing for the 1930s, but it is fairly glaring almost 100 years later.

Extras:

None. We didn’t make the good list.

Should you watch it?

I’ve been debating back and forth, but I’m going to go with skip it. There are better Disney Christmas things we will reach eventually. In a time where Sirius is throwing ten Christmas music stations at me in November, Hallmark has been showing Christmas movies for seemingly ever, and Disney themselves throws us over a month of Christmas (and Christmas-adjacent, hi “Toy Story” series) movies and shows at us on Freeform, you have to be choosy with just what you consume. You can do better than this one.

Silly Symphony

Babes in the Woods

1 Comment

Original release date: November 19, 1932

Rating: TV-Y7 because of witches. It may contain outdated cultural depictions.

Length: seven minutes full of babes

Background: This short film is a retelling of the British folk tale “Babes in the Wood” with a little Hansel & Gretel mixed in. The title card says it is presented by Mickey Mouse, however the Mouse makes no appearance.

Review:

This is basically the tale of two kids – we’ll call them Smansel and Sretel – going through some horror show stuff.

You know the story, so I’m not going to go into that much detail. Smansel and Sretel are wandering alone in the woods, as children apparently do, when they find a field of gnomes dancing and doing whatever else gnomes do. The gnomes see them and pull them in to play their gnome games. Smansel and Sretel were never taught to not talk to strangers.

A witch flies overhead and lands, inviting Smansel and Sretel to fly on her broom with her. Again having poor parenting, the kids agree and go for a ride with the witch. She takes them to her shack where she turns Smansel into a spider and throws Sretel into a door she has built into her floor because she’s a monster. The gnomes come and attack, eventually helping free the kids. The witch falls into a giant pot of goo which turns her into stone, which the gnomes dance around because they are also slightly monsters.

As far as the cultural depictions, I didn’t see anything and I was trying to find them. Maybe the depiction that witches are old and creepy looking when some in reality are young and hot?

Extras:

There are no extra features, leaving you with gnome nightmares instead.

Should you watch it?

You can skip it and you won’t miss much. Anyone over the age of three has heard the story of Hansel & Gretel a million times.

Riding in the Disney time machine to review everything Disney from 1928 to today!

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