Silly Symphony

1935 series poster

Silly Symphony is a series of 75 animated short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As their name implies, the Silly Symphonies were originally intended as whimsical accompaniments to pieces of music. As such, the films usually had independent continuity and did not feature continuing characters, unlike the Mickey Mouse shorts produced by Disney at the same time. (Exceptions to this include Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, and Three Orphan Kittens, which all had sequels.) The series is notable for its innovation with Technicolor and the multiplane motion picture camera, as well as its introduction of the character Donald Duck making his first appearance in the Silly Symphony cartoon The Wise Little Hen in 1934.

Silly Symphonies won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film seven times.

The series also spawned a Disney media franchise that included the newspaper comic strip Silly Symphony, the Dell comic book series Silly Symphonies, as well as several children's books, many of which were based on Silly Symphony cartoons.

Production

Within the animation industry, the Silly Symphonies series is most noted for its use by Walt Disney as a platform for experimenting with processes, techniques, characters, and stories in order to further the art of animation. It also provided a venue to try out techniques and technologies that would be crucial to Disney's plans to eventually begin making feature-length animated films. Among the innovations developed and/or improved upon in the series are Technicolor film-making, true and believable character animation, special effects animation, and dramatic storytelling in animation.

Shortly after the switch to United Artists, the series became even more popular. Walt Disney had seen some of Dr. Herbert Kalmus' tests for a new three-strip, full-color Technicolor process, which would replace the previous, two-tone Technicolor process. Disney signed a contract with Technicolor which gave the Disney studio exclusive rights to the new three-strip process through the end of 1935, and had a 60% complete Symphony, Flowers and Trees, scrapped and redone in full color. Flowers and Trees was a phenomenal success, and within a year, the now-in-Technicolor Silly Symphonies series had popularity and success that matched (and later surpassed) that of the Mickey Mouse cartoons. The contract Disney had with Technicolor would also later be extended another five years as well.[1] The shorts began to have stronger plots too,[2] and the success of Silly Symphonies would be tremendously boosted after Three Little Pigs was released in 1933 and became a box office sensation; the film was featured in movie theaters for several months and also featured the hit song that became the anthem of the Great Depression, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf".[3] Several Silly Symphonies entries, including Three Little Pigs (1933), The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934), The Tortoise and the Hare (1935), The Country Cousin (1936), The Old Mill (1937), Wynken, Blynken, and Nod (1938), and The Ugly Duckling (1939, with an earlier black-and-white version from 1931), are among the most notable films produced by Walt Disney. Due to problems related to Disney's scheduled productions of cartoons, a deal was made with Harman and Ising to produce three Silly Symphonies; Merbabies, Pipe Dreams, and The Little Bantamweight. Only one of these cartoons, Merbabies, ended up being bought by Disney, the remaining two Harman-Ising Silly Symphonies were then sold to MGM who released them as Happy Harmonies cartoons.[4] Disney ceased production of Silly Symphonies in 1939.[5]

Distribution

The series was first distributed by Pat Powers from 1929 to 1930 and released by Celebrity Productions (1929–1930) indirectly through Columbia Pictures. The original basis of the cartoons was musical novelty, and the musical scores of the first cartoons were composed by Carl Stalling.[6]

Columbia Pictures

After viewing "The Skeleton Dance", the management at Columbia Pictures quickly became interested in directly distributing the series, and gained the perfect opportunity to acquire Silly Symphonies after Disney broke with Celebrity Productions head Pat Powers after Powers signed Disney's colleague Ub Iwerks to a studio contract. Columbia Pictures (1930–1932) agreed to pick up the direct distribution of the Mickey Mouse series on the condition that they would have exclusive rights to distribute the Silly Symphonies series; at first, Silly Symphonies could not even come close to the popularity Mickey Mouse had. The original title cards to the shorts released by Celebrity Productions and Columbia Pictures were all redrawn after Walt Disney stopped distributing his cartoons through them. Meanwhile, more competition spread for Disney after Max Fleischer's flapper cartoon character Betty Boop began to gain more and more popularity after starring in the cartoon Minnie the Moocher; by August 1932, Betty Boop even became so popular, that the Talkartoon series was renamed as Betty Boop cartoons.

United Artists

In 1932, after falling out with Columbia Pictures, Disney began distributing his products through United Artists. UA refused to distribute the Silly Symphonies unless Disney associated Mickey Mouse with them somehow, resulting in the "Mickey Mouse presents a Silly Symphony" title cards and posters that introduced and promoted the series during its five-year run for UA.

Home media

Several Symphonies have been released in home media. For instance, the original Dumbo VHS included Father Noah's Ark, The Practical Pig and Three Orphan Kittens as bonus shorts to make up for the film's short length. In the UK, several Symphonies were released in compilations under Walt Disney Home Video's "Storybook Favourites" brand. The three volumes released included among others, Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare and the remake of The Ugly Duckling. Most home media releases of various Disney films also include Symphonies as bonus shorts.

On December 3, 2001 - two days before the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney's birth - Disney released "Silly Symphonies" as part of its DVD series "Walt Disney Treasures". On December 19, 2006, "More Silly Symphonies" was released, completing the collection and allowing the cartoons to be completely available to the public.

List of films

No. Title Release date Director Notes
1 The Skeleton Dance August 22, 1929 Disney, WaltWalt Disney Clips of this short have been featured in both Disney and non-Disney productions.
2 El Terrible Toreador September 7, 1929 Disney, WaltWalt Disney
3 Springtime October 24, 1929 Iwerks, UbUb Iwerks Seen in One Hundred and One Dalmatians
4 Hell's Bells October 30, 1929 Iwerks, UbUb Iwerks Featuring Satan, the Grim Reaper, Cerberus, and various unnamed demons of Hell.
5 The Merry Dwarfs December 16, 1929 Disney, WaltWalt Disney
6 Summer January 6, 1930 Iwerks, UbUb Iwerks
7 Autumn February 13, 1930 Iwerks, UbUb Iwerks
8 Cannibal Capers March 13, 1930 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett
9 Frolicking Fish May 8, 1930 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett Introduced continuous movements or ’overlapping action’ in animation, instead of the old stop-and-go movements. Originally released with green tinting[7]
10 Arctic Antics June 5, 1930 Iwerks, UbUb Iwerks
11 Midnight in a Toy Shop July 3, 1930 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
12 Night July 31, 1930 Disney, WaltWalt Disney Originally released with blue tinting[7]
13 Monkey Melodies August 10, 1930 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett
14 Winter November 5, 1930 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett
15 Playful Pan December 28, 1930 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett Featuring Pan
16 Birds of a Feather February 10, 1931 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett
17 Mother Goose Melodies April 17, 1931 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett Featuring among others Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Little Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue, Little Jack Horner, Mother Goose, Old King Cole, and Simple Simon.
18 The China Plate May 25, 1931 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Retelling of the Willow pattern legend.
19 The Busy Beavers June 22, 1931 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett
20 The Cat's Out July 28, 1931 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
21 Egyptian Melodies August 21, 1931 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
22 The Clock Store September 30, 1931 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
23 The Spider and the Fly October 16, 1931 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
24 The Fox Hunt November 18, 1931 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Remade in 1938 as the Donald & Goofy film The Fox Hunt
25 The Ugly Duckling December 16, 1931 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen; remade in 1939
26 The Bird Store January 16, 1932 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
27 The Bears and the Bees March 12, 1932 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
28 Just Dogs April 16, 1932 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett Featuring the first starring role of Pluto (Mickey Mouse does not appear)
29 Flowers and Trees July 30, 1932 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett First cartoon produced in Technicolor; won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
30 King Neptune September 17, 1932 Gillett, BurtonBurton Gillett Featuring Neptune as the "King of the Sea"
31 Bugs in Love October 1, 1932 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett Last black-and-white Silly Symphony
32 Babes in the Woods November 19, 1932 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett Featuring Hansel and Gretel
33 Santa's Workshop December 10, 1932 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Featuring Santa Claus. First Silly Symphony to be released with the RCA Photophone optical sound-on-film system, even though the title card implies that this cartoon was recorded with the Powers Cinephone process. This sound system will be used for all remaining shorts to the end of the series.
34 Birds in the Spring March 11, 1933 Hand, DavidDavid Hand
35 Father Noah's Ark April 8, 1933 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Featuring Noah, Ham, Japheth, Shem and their respective wives, as well as a cavalcade of animals. The "building the ark" music is an adaptation of Beethoven's Contradanse in C Major, WoO 14 No. 1. The short itself would be referenced several times in the Pomp and Circumstance segment of Fantasia 2000
36 Three Little Pigs May 27, 1933 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett Featuring the namesake characters and the Big Bad Wolf; won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
37 Old King Cole July 29, 1933 Hand, DavidDavid Hand Featuring the namesake character along with various nursery rhyme characters
38 The Pied Piper September 16, 1933 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Adaptation of the Pied Piper of Hamelin
39 Lullaby Land November 11, 1933 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Featuring the Sandman
40 The Night Before Christmas December 2, 1933 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Featuring Santa Claus, Sequel to Santa's Workshop
41 The China Shop January 13, 1934 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
42 The Grasshopper and the Ants February 17, 1934 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Based on a fable by Aesop
43 Funny Little Bunnies March 10, 1934 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
44 The Big Bad Wolf April 14, 1934 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett Featuring the title character along with the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood, Sequel to Three Little Pigs
45 The Wise Little Hen June 9, 1934 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Debut of Donald Duck
46 The Flying Mouse July 14, 1934 Hand, DavidDavid Hand
47 Peculiar Penguins October 20, 1934 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
48 The Goddess of Spring December 8, 1934 Jackson, WilfredWilfred 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.
49 The Tortoise and the Hare January 19, 1935 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Featuring Max Hare and Toby Tortoise; won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
50 The Golden Touch February 16, 1935 Disney, WaltWalt Disney Featuring Midas and Goldie the elf
51 The Robber Kitten April 13, 1935 Hand, DavidDavid Hand
52 Water Babies May 11, 1935 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
53 The Cookie Carnival June 15, 1935 Sharpsteen, BenBen Sharpsteen A homage to the Atlantic City boardwalk parade and bathing beauty contest of the 1920s and 30s (which became the Miss America Pageant). In the Public Domain.
54 Who Killed Cock Robin? July 6, 1935 Hand, DavidDavid Hand Includes caricatures of Mae West (Jenny Wren), Bing Crosby (Cock Robin), Harpo Marx (the cuckoo), and Steppin Fetchit (the blackbird); incorporated into Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage.
55 Music Land September 14, 1935 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
56 Three Orphan Kittens October 26, 1935 Hand, DavidDavid Hand Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
57 Cock o' the Walk November 9, 1935 Sharpsteen, BenBen Sharpsteen
58 Broken Toys December 14, 1935 Sharpsteen, BenBen Sharpsteen Some toys are caricatures of Hollywood stars.
59 Elmer Elephant January 18, 1936 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson
60 Three Little Wolves March 14, 1936 Hand, DavidDavid Hand Featuring the title characters along with their father the Big Bad Wolf and his rivals the Three Little Pigs
61 Toby Tortoise Returns August 22, 1936 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Sequel to The Tortoise and the Hare; featuring cameos by various other Silly Symphony characters and a parody of Harpo Marx
62 Three Blind Mouseketeers June 20, 1936 Hand, DavidDavid Hand
63 The Country Cousin August 15, 1936 Hand, DavidDavid Hand Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
64 Mother Pluto October 10, 1936 Hand, DavidDavid Hand Featuring Pluto mothering a number of newly hatched chicks
65 More Kittens November 7, 1936 Hand, DavidDavid Hand
Wilfred Jackson
66 Woodland Café January 17, 1937 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Contains animator Ward Kimball's first animating assignment
67 Little Hiawatha February 21, 1937 Hand, DavidDavid Hand The last Silly Symphony distributed by United Artists
68 The Old Mill November 5, 1937 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Disney's first use of the multiplane camera and the first Silly Symphony distributed by RKO Radio Pictures; won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
69 Moth and the Flame April 1, 1938 Gillett, BurtBurt Gillett
70 Wynken, Blynken and Nod May 27, 1938 Heid, GrahamGraham Heid
71 Farmyard Symphony October 14, 1938 Cutting, JackJack Cutting
72 Merbabies December 9, 1938 Ising, RudolfRudolf Ising
Vernon Stallings 		Outsourced to Harman and Ising after the studio donated inkers and painters to the Disney studio to complete Snow White
73 Mother Goose Goes Hollywood December 23, 1938 Jackson, WilfredWilfred Jackson Last film showing a Silly Symphony title card; features multiple caricatures of Hollywood film stars and a cameo by Donald Duck
74 The Practical Pig February 24, 1939 Rickard, DickDick Rickard Featuring the Three Little Pigs, the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Wolves; released as a Three Little Pigs standalone short
75 The Ugly Duckling April 7, 1939 Cutting, JackJack Cutting Remake of the 1931 film and the only Silly Symphony story to be remade; won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Released as a special one-shot cartoon.

Reception

Disney's experiments were widely praised within the film industry, and the Silly Symphonies won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film seven times, maintaining a six-year-hold on the category after it was first introduced. This record was matched only by MGM's Tom and Jerry series during the 1940s and 1950s.

Legacy

Silly Symphonies brought along many imitators, including Warner Bros. cartoon series Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, MGM's Happy Harmonies, and later, Universal's Swing Symphony. The television series Mickey Mouse Works used the Silly Symphonies title for some of its new cartoons, but unlike the original cartoons, these did feature continuing characters. Disney also produced comic strips and comic books with this title.

The Symphonies also changed the course of Disney Studio history when Walt's plans to direct his first feature cartoon became problematic after his warm-up to the task The Golden Touch was widely seen (even by Disney himself) as stiff and slowly paced. This motivated him to embrace his role as being the producer and providing creative oversight (especially of the story) for Snow White while tasking David Hand to handle the actual directing.[8]

Years later after the Silly Symphonies ended, Disney occasionally produced a handful of one-shot cartoons, playing the same style as the Silly Symphony series. Unlike the Silly Symphonies canon, most of these one-shot shorts have a narration, usually by Disney legend Sterling Holloway.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Glorious Technicolor 1932-1955
  2. ↑ The Birth of the Silly Symphonies
  3. ↑ Three Little Pigs at the Disney archives
  4. ↑ Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film and Television's Award-Winning and Legendary Animators
  5. ↑ Silly Symphonies at toonopedia.com
  6. ↑ The Birth of the Silly Symphonies, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman
  7. 1 2 Layton, James; Pierce, Davis (February 24, 2015). The Dawn of Technicolor 1915–1935. Rochester, New York: George Eastman Museum. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-935398-28-1.
  8. ↑ Walt Disney: The Animated Man by Michael Barrier

Further reading

External links

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