Oh my I am gonna come off as such a crabcake in this review, because I'm afraid that this short really doesn't work for me at all. It's not very fun, it doesn't have any real charm that I could see, and I know it was only the third ever Silly Symphony to be put out and it was all still very much a work in progress as far as the quality and very art of the animation was concerned, but the sound is just awful. As the creatures dance around there is so much tinny klop klop klopping noise that just to me sounded horribly cheap and brutal, like someone is tapping a pan with a teaspoon, it just doesn't sound good at all. I also don't like the more weird unnatural touches like when the caterpillar separates its body segments and the stretchy limbs of the bird, that kinda thing is much more Fleischer than Disney. And I know it was perfectly mild but I really didn't like the animals eating each other, and it wasn't like they all come back alive and well at the end either. I mean I get that in their own way the animators were probably trying to show what really happens in nature from the animals that they doubtlessly observed, but I didn't like that! Thank goodness it didn't become a regular thing! I didn't mean for this to be so negative but I'm only being honest. In fact I've been getting back into these shorts a lot lately, but this is as poor a short as I remembered it, I'd rank it among the series' worst. Most of what is in it was later done again more effectively in later Symphonies like "Flowers and Trees", and even the 1930 "Summer" short. And much like Summer it feels more like a depiction of the animal life of a swamp environment than anything to do with Spring, apart from the opening flowers and hatching chicks at the beginning. It's not even remotely a good tribute to the first season. So to me at least the third time is not always the charm. Oh well, it's still a part of the rich evolving tapestry of a series that had far greater animated wonders yet to come... Not their best!
Review of Springtime
