Silly Symphony

Silly Symphony is an American animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the Silly Symphonies were originally intended as whimsical accompaniments to pieces of music.^[1] As such, the films usually 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. Seven shorts won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.^[1]

1935 series poster

The series also spawned a Silly Symphony newspaper comic strip distributed by King Features Syndicate, and a Dell comic book series Silly Symphonies, as well as several children's books, many of which were based on Silly Symphony cartoons.

The Silly Symphonies returned to theaters with its re-issues and re-releases, and eventually tied with Joseph Barbera and William Hanna's Tom and Jerry's record for most Oscar wins for a cartoon series in the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film category.

Production

While Walt Disney and Carl Stalling, a theatre organist from Kansas City, were in New York to add sound to the Mickey Mouse shorts The Gallopin' Gaucho, The Barn Dance and Plane Crazy, Stalling suggested the idea of making a series of musical animated shorts that combined the latest sound technology with storytelling. At first Walt did not seem interested, but when they returned to New York in February to record the sound for a fifth Mickey Mouse cartoon, The Opry House, they also recorded the soundtrack for The Skeleton Dance, the type of short that Stalling had suggested and the first Silly Symphony cartoon.^[2]

Within the animation industry, the series is known 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, such as Technicolor, special effects animation, and dramatic storytelling in animation, that would be crucial to Disney's plans to eventually begin making feature-length animated films.^[1]

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.^{[citation needed]} Flowers and Trees was the first animated film to use the three-strip Technicolor process,^[3] and was a phenomenal success. 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.^[4]

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".^[5] 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.^[6] Disney ceased production of Silly Symphonies in 1939.^[7]

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.^[8]

Columbia Pictures

After viewing "The Skeleton Dance", the manager at Columbia Pictures quickly became interested in 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 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. United Artists also agreed to double the budget for each cartoon from $7,500 to $15,000.^[9]

RKO Radio Pictures

In 1937, Disney signed a distribution deal with RKO Radio Pictures to distribute the Silly Symphony cartoons, along with the Mickey Mouse series. RKO would continue to distribute until the end of the series in 1939.

Home media

Several Symphonies have been released in home media, most of the time as bonus shorts that relate to something within various Disney films. 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 "Storybook Favourites Shorts" volumes released included among others, Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare and the remake of The Ugly Duckling.

On December 4, 2001, 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.^[1]

Some Disney Blu-ray discs includes Silly Symphonies as high definition special features.^[10] Show White and the Seven Dwarves includes six, Beauty and the Beast and Dumbo both contain two and Pixar's A Bug's Life contains one.

The Silly Symphony shorts originally aired on Turner Classic Movies' period program block "Treasures from the Disney Vault".

List of films

The Silly Symphonies are listed here in production order.

#	Film	Original release date	Director	Music	Notes	Running time (minutes)	Based on
1	The Skeleton Dance	August 22, 1929	Walt Disney	Carl Stalling	First entry in the Silly Symphony series. The soundtrack was recorded in February 1929 in New York.	5:31
2	El Terrible Toreador	September 26, 1929			The first Silly Symphony to have its soundtrack recorded in Los Angeles.	6:14
3	Springtime	October 24, 1929	Ub Iwerks		Scenes from this film appeared in the 1961 film One Hundred and One Dalmatians.	6:14
4	Hell's Bells	November 21, 1929				5:49
5	The Merry Dwarfs	December 19, 1929	Walt Disney			5:57
6	Summer	January 16, 1930	Ub Iwerks			5:51
7	Autumn	February 13, 1930			The last Silly Symphony to be completed before Ub Iwerks and Carl Stalling left the studio. Their sudden departures caused delays in production.	6:24
8	Cannibal Capers	March 20, 1930	Burt Gillett	Bert Lewis	Production on this and several other Silly Symphonies were delayed due to the sudden departures of Ub Iwerks and Carl Stalling. The version that aired on the Mickey Mouse Club was cut short at the end. The version that is on the "More Silly Symphonies" DVD includes the original ending along with the cut ending	6:15 (5:56 cut)
9	Night	July 31, 1930	Walt Disney		Originally released with blue tinting.^[11] Due to production delays, this film was postponed from its original announced release date of April 10.	6:53
10	Frolicking Fish	June 21, 1930	Burt Gillett		Originally released with green tinting.^[11] It was on this film that animator Norm Ferguson discovered the "follow-thru" animation technique that allowed for characters to move more naturally. Due to production delays, this film was postponed from its original announced release date of May 8.	6:02
11	Arctic Antics	June 26, 1930	Ub Iwerks (Possibly) Burt Gillett (Possibly)^[clarification needed]		The animators' draft lists Ub Iwerks as the director, even though he left the studio before animation began. Due to production delays, this film was postponed from its original announced release date of June 5.	7:00
12	Midnight in a Toy Shop	August 16, 1930	Wilfred Jackson		Due to production delays, this film was postponed from its original announced release date of July 3.	7:34
13	Monkey Melodies	September 26, 1930	Burt Gillett		Due to production delays, this film was postponed from its original announced release date of August 10.	7:00
14	Winter	October 30, 1930				6:53
15	Playful Pan	December 27, 1930				6:59
16	Birds of a Feather	February 3, 1931				8:04
17	Mother Goose Melodies	April 16, 1931		Bert Lewis Frank Churchill		8:10	Mother Goose
18	The China Plate	May 23, 1931	Wilfred Jackson	Frank Churchill		7:32
19	The Busy Beavers	June 30, 1931	Burt Gillett			7:07
20	The Cat's Out	July 28, 1931	Wilfred Jackson		The film's working title was The Cat's Out, and the current vault print features that title in its credits. However, it was copyrighted and released as The Cat's Nightmare.	7:20
21	Egyptian Melodies	August 27, 1931				6:20
22	The Clock Store	September 28, 1931				7:12
23	The Spider and the Fly	October 23, 1931				7:14
24	The Fox Hunt	November 20, 1931		Frank Churchill		6:22
25	The Ugly Duckling	December 17, 1931			This short would be remade in color in 1939, also titled "The Ugly Duckling"	7:11	The Ugly Duckling
26	The Bird Store	January 16, 1932		Frank Churchill		6:52
27	The Bears and the Bees	February 15, 1932				6:18
28	Just Dogs	May 16, 1932	Burt Gillett	Bert Lewis	The first appearance of Pluto without Mickey Mouse. The last Silly Symphony to be distributed by Columbia Pictures.	7:13
29	Flowers and Trees	July 23, 1932			Winner of the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The first film to be produced in three-strip Technicolor. The first Silly Symphony to be distributed by United Artists.	7:49
30	Bugs in Love	October 1, 1932		Bert Lewis	The last Silly Symphony to be produced in black-and-white.	7:04
31	King Neptune	October 15, 1932				7:11
32	Babes in the Woods	November 19, 1932			The last Silly Symphony to be recorded with Cinephone.	8:14	Hansel and Gretel
33	Santa's Workshop	December 10, 1932	Wilfred Jackson	Frank Churchill	The first Silly Symphony to be recorded with RCA Photophone.	6:37
34	Birds in the Spring	March 13, 1933	David Hand	Bert Lewis Frank Churchill		7:32
35	Father Noah's Ark	April 8, 1933	Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline		8:24	Noah's Ark
36	Three Little Pigs	May 25, 1933	Burt Gillett	Frank Churchill Carl Stalling	Winner of the 1932–33 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. From this film came the Disney studio's first hit song, "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?". Originally had a scene where after Practical Pigs asks "Who's there?" then cuts to the Wolf disguises himself as a Jewish peddler and saying "I'm the Fuller Brush Man...I'm giving a free sample!" in a Yiddish accent. This scene was edited in 1948 and changed the Wolf's disguise along with the dialog. This is the version that's on home releases (The R2 release of "Walt Disney Treasures - Silly Symphonies" DVD includes the original animation with the altered dialogue.^[citation needed])	8:41	Three Little Pigs
37	Old King Cole	July 29, 1933	David Hand	Frank Churchill Bert Lewis		7:28	Old King Cole
38	Lullaby Land	August 19, 1933	Wilfred Jackson	Frank Churchill Leigh Harline		7:22
39	The Pied Piper	September 16, 1933		Leigh Harline		7:32	Pied Piper of Hamelin
40	The Night Before Christmas	December 9, 1933			Was originally supposed to be released after The China Shop, but production was moved ahead in order to have it ready for a Christmastime release. As a result, both films were given each other's production numbers.	8:27	A Visit from St. Nicholas
41	The China Shop	January 13, 1934				8:23
42	The Grasshopper and the Ants	February 10, 1934			The song featured in the film, "The World Owes Me a Living", would become a recurring theme for Goofy. Coincidentally, Pinto Colvig, the voice of Goofy, also voiced the Grasshopper in this film.	8:24	The Ant and the Grasshopper
43	Funny Little Bunnies	March 24, 1934		Frank Churchill Leigh Harline	It's 1950s reissue was distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. Was originally supposed to be released after The Big Bad Wolf, but production was moved ahead in order to have it ready for an Easter release. As a result, both films were given each other's production numbers.	7:10
44	The Big Bad Wolf	April 14, 1934	Burt Gillett	Frank Churchill	A sequel to "Three Little Pigs"	9:21	Little Red Riding Hood
45	The Wise Little Hen	May 3, 1934 (Carthay Circle Theatre)^[12] June 7, 1934^[12]	Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline	The debut appearance of Donald Duck. Was originally supposed to be released after The Flying Mouse, but production was moved ahead for reasons unknown. As a result, both films were given each other's production numbers.	7:43	The Little Red Hen
46	The Flying Mouse	July 14, 1934	David Hand	Frank Churchill Bert Lewis		9:17
47	Peculiar Penguins	September 1, 1934	Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline		9:21
48	The Goddess of Spring	November 3, 1934		Leigh Harline		9:48
49	The Tortoise and the Hare	January 5, 1935		Frank Churchill	Winner of the 1933–34 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.	8:36
50	The Golden Touch	March 22, 1935	Walt Disney			10:34
51	The Robber Kitten	April 20, 1935	David Hand			7:48
52	Water Babies	May 11, 1935	Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline		8:17	The Water-Babies
53	The Cookie Carnival	May 25, 1935	Ben Sharpsteen	Leigh Harline	According to the Film Superlist: 1894–1939, this cartoon entered the public domain in 1963 when its copyright was not renewed.	8:00
54	Who Killed Cock Robin?	June 29, 1935	David Hand	Frank Churchill	Nominated for the 1935 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Named one of the ten best films of 1935 by the National Board of Review. Scenes from this film appeared in the 1936 film Sabotage.	8:30	Cock Robin
55	Music Land	October 5, 1935	Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline		9:34
56	Three Orphan Kittens	October 26, 1935	David Hand	Frank Churchill	Winner of the 1935 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.	8:55
57	Cock o' the Walk	November 30, 1935	Ben Sharpsteen	Frank Churchill Alfred Hay Malotte		8:23
58	Broken Toys	December 14, 1935	Ben Sharpsteen	Alfred Hay Malotte	Was originally intended to follow Elmer Elephant and Three Little Wolves, but production moved ahead to have the film ready for a Christmastime release. As a result, this and the latter film switched production numbers.	7:53
59	Elmer Elephant	March 28, 1936	Wilferd Jackson	Leigh Harline		8:29
60	Three Little Wolves	April 18, 1936	David Hand	Frank Churchill		9:26	The Boy Who Cried Wolf
61	Toby Tortoise Returns	August 22, 1936	Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline		7:34
62	Three Blind Mouseketeers	September 26, 1936	David Hand	Alfred Hay Malotte		8:43
63	The Country Cousin	October 31, 1936	David Hand Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline	Winner of the 1936 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.	9:15
64	Mother Pluto	November 14, 1936	Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline	Originally designated part of the Mickey Mouse series, it was reclassified as a Silly Symphony just before release, with its original production number going to Don Donald.	8:35
65	More Kittens	December 19, 1936	David Hand	Frank Churchill	The film's production number was originally assigned to the Donald Duck short Don Donald.	8:11
66	Woodland Café	March 13, 1937	Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline		7:37
67	Little Hiawatha	May 15, 1937	David Hand	Alfred Hay Malotte	The last Silly Symphony to be distributed by United Artists.	9:12	The Song of Hiawatha
68	The Old Mill	November 5, 1937	Wilfred Jackson	Leigh Harline	The first Silly Symphony to be distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. Winner of the 1937 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. First use of the multiplane camera	8:42
69	Wynken, Blynken and Nod	May 27, 1938	Graham Heid			8:52
70	Moth and the Flame	April 1, 1938	David Hand Burt Gillett Dick Heumer	Alfred Hay Malotte		7:45
71	Merbabies	December 9, 1938	Rudolf Ising, Vernon Stallings	Scott Bradley	Production was outsourced to the Harman-Ising Studio, as part of an agreement that included the studio loaning some of its artists to Disney's to help complete Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.	8:37
72	Farmyard Symphony	October 14, 1938	Jack Cutting	Leigh Harline		8:11
73	Mother Goose Goes Hollywood	December 23, 1938	Wilfred Jackson	Edward Plumb	Nominated for the 1938 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The most expensive Silly Symphony produced, its negative cost totaling $69,307.87.	7:32
74	The Practical Pig	February 24, 1939	Duck Rickard	Frank Churchill Paul Smith	The Silly Symphony name does not appear on the opening titles, and is instead labeled a Three Little Pigs cartoon.	8:21
75	The Ugly Duckling	April 7, 1939	Jack Cutting Clyde Geronimi	Alfred Hay Malotte	The last Silly Symphony to be distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. Winner of the 1939 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. Final entry in the Silly Symphony series, though some releases label it as a one-shot cartoon instead.	8:59	The Ugly Duckling

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

The Symphonies 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.^[13]

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.

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 "Specials" have a narration, usually by Disney legend Sterling Holloway.

The 1999–2000 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.

As of 2021, three of the Silly Symphony shorts (Three Little Pigs, The Old Mill, and Flowers and Trees), have been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".^[14][15][16]

Comic adaptations

A Sunday Silly Symphony comic strip ran in newspapers from January 10, 1932, to July 12, 1942.^[17] The strip featured adaptations of some of the Silly Symphony cartoons, including Birds of a Feather, The Robber Kitten, Elmer Elephant, Farmyard Symphony and Little Hiawatha.^[17] This strip began with a two-year sequence about Bucky Bug, a character based on the bugs in Bugs in Love.

There was also an occasional Silly Symphonies comic book, with nine issues published by Dell Comics from September 1952 to February 1959.^[18] The first issue of this anthology comic featured adaptations of some Silly Symphony cartoons, including The Grasshopper and the Ants, Three Little Pigs, The Goddess of Spring and Mother Pluto, but it also included non-Symphony cartoons like Mickey Mouse's Brave Little Tailor.^[19] By the third issue, there was almost no Symphony-related material in the book; the stories and activities were mostly based on other Disney shorts and feature films.

See also

• Golden age of American animation
• List of Disney animated shorts
• Silly Symphonies the newspaper comic strip, featuring adaptations of the animated shorts

References

1. Merritt, Russell; Kaufman, J. B. (2016). Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (2nd ed.). Glendale, CA: Disney Editions. ISBN 978-1-4847-5132-9.
2. Davis, Amy M. (20 February 2007). Good Girls & Wicked Witches: Women in Disney's Feature Animation. ISBN 9780861969012. from the original on 2021-11-19. Retrieved 2021-11-19.
3. Robertson, Patrick (2011). Robertson's Book of Firsts. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781608197385. from the original on 29 July 2020. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
4. "Glorious Technicolor 1932-1955". Widescreenmuseum.com. from the original on 2015-10-02. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
5. "Three Little Pigs at the Disney archives". from the original on 2007-10-06. Retrieved 2007-11-27.
6. Lenburg, Jeff (2006). Who's Who in Animated Cartoons: An International Guide to Film and Television's Award-Winning and Legendary Animators. ISBN 9781557836717. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
7. "Silly Symphonies at". Toonopedia.com. 1929-05-10. Archived from the original on 2012-09-15. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
8. "The Birth of the Silly Symphonies, by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman". Disney.go.com. from the original on 2011-05-20. Retrieved 2018-03-14.
9. Mosley, Leonard (1990). Disney's World. Scarborough House. p. 135. ISBN 9781589796560. Retrieved 9 December 2017.
10. "Blu-ray Forum - View Single Post - List of Disney Animated Shorts on Blu-ray". forum.blu-ray.com. Retrieved 2021-02-24.
11. 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.
12. Kaufman, J.B. (June 8, 2020). "When's Your Birthday?". Cartoon Research. from the original on October 1, 2020. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
13. Walt Disney: The Animated Man by Michael Barrier
14. "Librarian of Congress Announces 2007 Film Registry" (Press release). Library of Congress. December 27, 2007. from the original on July 22, 2014. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
15. Morgan, David (December 16, 2015). ""Shawshank Redemption," "Ghostbusters" added to National Film Registry". CBS News. from the original on May 14, 2019. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
16. Hinckle, Jessica (December 21, 2021). "2021 National Film Registry Selections Reflect Diversity & Challenge Stereotypes". ComingSoon.net. from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2021.
17. Holtz, Allan (2012). American Newspaper Comics: An Encyclopedic Reference Guide. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press. p. 351. ISBN 9780472117567.
18. "Silly Symphonies - Inducks". Inducks. from the original on 10 June 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2019.
19. "Silly Symphonies #1 - Inducks". Inducks. from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 14 July 2019.

Further reading

• Maltin, Leonard: The Disney Films. (Fourth edition.) New York: Disney Editions, 2000. ISBN 0-7868-8527-0.
• Merritt, Russel – Kaufman, J. B.: Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoons Series. Gemona: La Cinecita del Friuli, 2006. ISBN 88-86155-27-1.

External links

• Silly Symphonies at The Big Cartoon DataBase
• Markstein, Donald D. "Silly Symphony". Toonopedia.
• at The Encyclopedia of Disney Animated Shorts
• Silly Symphony at Inducks