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Silly Symphonies: Difference between revisions
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* [[The Skeleton Dance]]: August 22, 1929, Walt Disney: The first of the series. The bulk of the cartoon was animated by [[Ub Iwerks]], with one part (with a Skeleton playing a rib-bone xylophone) animated by [[Disney's Nine Old Men|Les Clark]]. One of [[The 50 Greatest Cartoons]].
* El Terrible Toreador: September 7, 1929, Walt Disney
* Springtime: October 24, 1929, Ub Iwerks
* Hell's Bells: October 30, 1929 Ub Iwerks
* The Merry Dwarfs: December 16, 1929, Walt Disney
== 1930 ==
* Summer: January 6, 1930, Ub Iwerks
* Autumn: February 13, 1930, Ub Iwerks
* Cannibal Capers: March 13, 1930, Burt Gillett
* Frolicking Fish: May 8, 1930, Burt Gillett: The first cartoon that introduced continuous movements or "[[The Twelve Principles of Animation|overlapping action]]" in animation, instead of the old stop-and-go movements.
* Arctic Antics: June 5, 1930
* [[Midnight In A Toy Shop]]: July 3, 1930, Wilfred Jackson
* Night: July 31, 1930, Walt Disney
* Monkey Melodies: August 10, 1930, Burt Gillett
* Winter: November 5, 1930, Burt Gillett
* Playful Pan: December 28, 1930, Burt Gillett
== 1931 ==
* Birds of a Feather: February 10, 1931, Burton Gillett
* Mother Goose Melodies: April 17, 1931, Burton Gillett
* The China Plate: May 25, 1931, Wilfred Jackson: A creative retelling of the Willoware legend.
* The Busy Beavers June 22, 1931, Burton Gillett
* The Cat's Out: July 28, 1931, Wilfred Jackson
* Egyptian Melodies: August 21, 1931, Wilfred Jackson
* The Clock Store: September 30, 1931, Wilfred Jackson
* The Spider and the Fly: October 16, 1931, Wilfred Jackson
* The Fox Hunt: November 18, 1931, Wilfred Jackson
* The Ugly Duckling: December 16, 1931, Wilfred Jackson: Based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen. Featuring Clarabelle Cow. A much more comprehensive, colorized version would be made in 1939.
== 1932 ==
* The Bird Store: January 16, 1932, Wilfred Jackson: The last Silly Symphony distributed by Columbia Pictures.
* The Bears and the Bees: July 9, 1932, Wilfred Jackson: The first Silly Symphony distributed by [[United Artists]].
* Just Dogs: July 30, 1932, Burton Gillett: Featuring the first starring role of [[Pluto the Pup|Pluto]] (Mickey Mouse does not appear).
* [[Flowers and Trees]]: July 30, 1932, Burton Gillett: First cartoon produced in full-color three-strip Technicolor. First cartoon to win the [[Academy Award]] for Best Animated Short Film.
* King Neptune: September 10, 1932, Burton Gillett: Featuring Neptune (mythology) as the "King of the Sea".
* Bugs in Love: October 1, 1932, Burton Gillett: Last Silly Symphony shot in black-and-white.
* Babes in the Woods: November 19, 1932, Burton Gillett: Featuring Hansel and Gretel.
* Santa's Workshop: December 10, 1932, Wilfred Jackson: Featuring [[Santa Claus]].
== 1933 ==
* Birds in the Spring: March 11, 1933, David Hand
* Father Noah's Ark: April 8, 1933, Wilfred Jackson: The "building the ark" music is an adaptation of Beethoven's Contradanse in C Major, [[Wo O]] 14 No. 1.
* [[Three Little Pigs (Disney film)|Three Little Pigs]]: May 27, 1933, Burton Gillett: Featuring the namesake characters and the Big Bad Wolf. Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. One of [[The 50 Greatest Cartoons]].
* Old King Cole: July 29, 1933, David Hand
* Lullaby Land: August 19, 1933, Wilfred Jackson
* The Pied Piper: September 16, 1933, Wilfred Jackson: According to "Too Funny For Words", the short was a flop.
* The Night Before Christmas: December 9, 1933, Wilfred Jackson: A follow up to "Santa's Workshop".
== 1934 ==
* The China Shop: January 13, 1934, Wilfred Jackson
* [[The Grasshopper And The Ants]]: February 10, 1934, Wilfred Jackson: Based on a fable by Aesop. Pinto Colvig (Goofy) provides the voice for the grasshopper.
* Funny Little Bunnies: March 24, 1934, Wilfred Jackson: Featuring the Easter Bunnies.
* The Big Bad Wolf: April 14, 1934, Burton Gillett: A follow up to the [[Three Little Pigs]]. Was considered a failure.
* The Wise Little Hen: June 9, 1934, Wilfred Jackson: Featuring the debut of [[Donald Duck]].
* [[The Flying Mouse]]: July 14, 1934, David Hand
* Peculiar Penguins: September 1, 1934, Wilfred Jackson
* The Goddess of Spring: November 3, 1934, Wilfred Jackson: Featuring Persephone and a version of her uncle/husband Hades/Pluto, identified here with Satan. The Disney animators' first attempt to create visually realistic human characters, although the short was considered a flop.
== 1935 ==
* [[The Tortoise and the Hare]]: January 5, 1935, Wilfred Jackson: Featuring Max Hare and Toby Tortoise. Won the 1935 [[Academy Award]] for Best Animated Short Film.
* [[The Golden Touch]]: March 22, 1935, Walt Disney: Featuring Midas and Goldie the elf. Also the last short Walt ever directed, due to how much he loathed it.
* [[The Robber Kitten]]: April 13, 1935, David Hand: According to "Hollywood Cartoons", the short was considered a failure when released.
* Water Babies: May 11, 1935, Wilfred Jackson
* [[The Cookie Carnival]]: May 25, 1935, Ben Sharpsteen: A homage to the Atlantic City boardwalk parade and bathing beauty contest (what eventually became the Miss America pageant) of the 1920s and 30s. Pinto Colvis (Goofy) provides the voice for the gingerbread man.
* [[Who Killed Cock Robin]]: June 26, 1935, David Hand: Includes caricatures of Mae West (Jenny Wren), Bing Crosby (Cock Robin), Harpo Marx (the cuckoo), and Steppin Fetchit (the blackbird).
* [[Music Land]]: October 5, 1935, Wilfred Jackson
* [[Three Orphan Kittens]]: October 26, 1935, David Hand: Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
* Cock o' the Walk: November 30, 1935, Ben Sharpsteen
* Broken Toys: December 14, 1935, Ben Sharpsteen
== 1936 ==
* [[Elmer Elephant]]: March 28, 1936, Wilfred Jackson
* Three Little Wolves: April 18, 1936, David Hand: Another follow up to [[Three Little Pigs]]. Another failure.
* [[Toby Tortoise Returns]]: August 22, 1936, Wilfred Jackson: Featuring Max Hare and Toby Tortoise. It is a sequel to The Tortoise and the Hare. It's also one of Disney's most cartoony short subjects, doing [[Zany Cartoon|zany antics]] way earlier than in the [[Looney Tunes]] shorts that would make this style of cartoon famous.
* Three Blind Mousketeers: September 26, 1936, David Hand
* The Country Cousin: October 31, 1936, David Hand: Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
* Mother Pluto: November 14, 1936, David Hand: Featuring [[Pluto the Pup]] mothering a number of newly-hatched chicks.
* More Kittens: December 19, 1936, David Hand: A sequel to Three Orphan Kittens.
== 1937 ==
* Woodland Café: March 13, 1937, Wilfred Jackson: Contains animator [[Disney's Nine Old Men|Ward Kimball's]] first animating assignment.
* Little Hiawatha: May 15, 1937, David Hand: The last Silly Symphony distributed by [[United Artists]].
* [[The Old Mill]]: November 5, 1937, Wilfred Jackson: Disney's first use of the Multiplane Camera and the first Silly Symphony distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
== 1938 ==
* Moth and the Flame: April 1, 1938, Burton Gillett
* Wynken, Blynken, and Nod: May 27, 1938, Graham Heid
* Farmyard Symphony: October 14, 1938, Jack Cutting
* Merbabies: December 9, 1938, [[Harman and Ising|Rudolf Ising]]: Vernon Stallings Outsourced to Harman and Ising after the studio donated inkers and painters to the Disney studio to complete Snow White.
* Mother Goose Goes Hollywood: December 23, 1938, Wilfred Jackson: Like Toby Tortoise Returns, this short is another [[Something Completely Different|oddball in the series]], parodying the fairy tale stories of the series with caricatures of many Hollywood celebrities from the time period inserted into those classic stories.
== 1939 ==
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* [[Anti-Villain]]: King Midas from "The Golden Touch" arguably fits this category.
* [[Art Evolution]]: The series initially started off with the standard issue rubberhose limb art style of the time period, but life drawing classes gradually evolved the series into a more naturalistic, lively art style that would go on to define Disney.
* [[Art Shift]]: A very mild example, but in the follow ups to [[Three Little Pigs]], animator [[Grim Natwick]] managed to bring some of the East Coast style of design into the shorts, as evident in the designs of Little Red Riding Hood and the Three Little Wolves, which wouldn't look so out of place in a [[Fleischer Studios|Fleischer cartoon.]] The girl from "Cookie Carnival" also has a Fleischer-esque look, due to her also being drawn by Grim.
* [[Babies Make Everything Better]]: Thrives in "Wynken, Blynken and Nod".
* [[Baleful Polymorph]]: "Babes in the Woods" has the witch use potions to turn her captive children into all sorts of assorted creatures. They get better in the end, thankfully.
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* [[Bragging Theme Tune]]: "The World Owes Me A Living" from "The Grasshopper and the Ants".
* [[Breakout Character]]: [[Donald Duck]], incidental character in "The Wise Little Hen", would become one of (if not THE) most famous and beloved characters in the Disney pantheon. And according to the book "Mickey and the Gang: Classic Stories In Verse", [[Walt Disney]] even had the foresight to realize Donald could be his next big star, having press kits ready by the time "The Wise Little Hen" hit the theaters.
* [[The Cameo]]: Pluto (the character from "The Goddess of Spring") would make a cameo in a Floyd Gottfredson [[Mickey Mouse]] comic, when Mickey was trying to call Pluto (the dog), who had been spirited away by a magic spell. This comic can be found in the book "Mickey and the Gang: Classic Stories in Verse".
** Toby Tortoise Returns has several cameos of characters from the Silly Symphonies series.
** Some Silly Symphonies characters would also make cameos in the [[Mickey Mouse]] short "Mickey's Polo Team".
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* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In "Babes in the Wood", the witch uses a potion to turn a child-turned-cat into stone. At the climax of the short, the creatures-turned-back-into-children use it to defeat her when she falls off her broom and into the cauldron containing it.
* [[Clumsy Copyright Censorship]]: From comments gathered from some sources, in old VHS releases of "Cock O' The Walk", the song used in the middle of the the short, "The Karaoka", was dubbed out of those prints and replaced with a much more generic instrumental tune due to copyright issues. Fortunately, the original print and song was brought back for the ''Walt Disney Treasures: More Silly Symphonies'' DVD set.
* [[Country Mouse]]: Used in "The Country Cousin". Abner Mouse even provides the page image.
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Toby Tortoise is pretty much hopeless against beating Max Hare in "Toby Tortoise Returns"--it's only when Max Hare stuffs him full of fireworks and firecrackers and accidentely turns Toby into a makeshift rocket that the turtle finally gets the upper hand.
* [[Dead Baby Comedy]]: In the climax of "Who Killed Cock Robin?", when the three suspects are going to be hanged, the jury sings an eager ditty about hanging them, all to the tune of "The Farmer in the Tell".
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* [[Disney Death]]: Done in the end of "The Busy Beavers".
* [[Disneyfication]]: The fairy tales presented are toned down from their source material. Justified, as Walt claimed in one interview that times and tastes were changing and the stories couldn't have been presented as they originally were.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: The Pied Piper, from the eponymous short, is so angered at being swindled out of his money, that he uses his music to ''take their children away forever.''
* [[Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud]]: Demonstrated in the 1931 version of "The Ugly Duckling".
* [[Earn Your Happy Ending]]: Demonstrated in "King Midas" (where Midas is forced to give up his kingdom--castle and all--just for a burger) and the 1939 version of "The Ugly Duckling".
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* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: This gem from "Toby Tortoise Returns", when Toby is knocked out of the ring and falls onto Jenny Wren's lap and needs some, er, encouragement:
{{quote|''"I like a man that takes his time."''}}
** In "Santa's Workshop", in the first minute or two, if you look in the background, you can see er...[[Unusual Euphemism|reindeer chocolate]] being scooped out of one of the stalls.
* [[Good Is Dumb]]: Toby Tortoise, although its arguable whether he's genuinely stupid or just slow to act.
* [[The Grim Reaper]]: A ''golden'' version of him appears in the climax of "The Golden Touch".
* [[Hammerspace]]: In "Toby Tortoise Returns", his small shell is demonstrated to be able to hold himself, a mouse-trap, dozens of fireworks and firecrackers, and a '''diving helmet'''.
* [[Hijacked by Jesus]]: In a feat that would be echoed [[Hercules (
* [[Hoist by His Own Petard]]: Demonstrated in "Flowers and Trees" and "Toby Tortoise Returns".
* [[Instant Plunder, Just Add Pirates]]: Done in "King Neptune".
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* [[Turtle Power]]: Toby Tortoise from "The Tortoise and the Hare" and it's follow-up "Toby Tortoise Returns".
* Anti-[[Villainous Breakdown]]: King Midas goes through this in "The Golden Touch" when he discovers ''everything'' he touches will turn to gold.
* Anti-[[Villain Song]]: King Midas' song from "The Golden Touch".
** "You're nothin' but a nothin'" from ''The Flying Mouse'' (although the bats are more along the lines of bullies).
** "Hades" from ''The Goddess of Spring''.
* [[Visual Pun]]: In "Cookie Carnival", we get a glimpse of two figures representing the Devil's Foodcake--they being actual devil like figures.
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[[Category:The Great Depression]]
[[Category:Western Animation]]
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