A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.
A jolly moon announces the beginning of NIGHT. Owls, mosquitoes, fireflies & frogs all join in the evening's romantic, tuneful frolics.
A humorous black & white cartoon. The Symphonies reliance on music to motivate action is clearly seen (and heard) here, with `The Beautiful Blue Danube Waltz,' `Glow-Worm,' `The Mosquito Parade,' `Rock-a-bye Baby,' & `Go To Sleep, My Baby' all heard on the soundtrack in rapid succession.
The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.