Autumn

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

AUTUMN has arrived and the leaves are falling furiously. The beavers are patching their dams & lodges, while skunks and porcupines, and especially the squirrels, are working feverishly to store food for the coming cold months...

More action/reaction animation in this black & white cartoon. Also more posterior gags, in dubious taste, from the Disney animators.

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.

There is really not too much to see here, just a bunch of animals and nature stuff moving to music as Autumn approaches. Plenty of clever sound and visual effects, but not much in exciting entertainment value. But, if you're into just music and animation itself, than this cartoon is for you.

Grade C-

This is one of the four shorts about the Four Seasons in the Silly Symphony franchise, and one of the most interesting of the entire series.

We see the adventures of some animals (squirrels that collect nuts and corn cobs and crows that eventually steals them, a skunk that tries to put in a tree trunk a pumpkin, succedding only in smashing it, a porcupine that collects apples in his quills, beavers that build a dam and destroy trees, and, a flock of ducks that after it starts to snow, migrates), and in the background we always see leaves falling and bare trees. And the soundtrack is simply wonderful, back-grounding perfectly the characters' actions.

It's a nice short, after all, and one of the best Black-and-White Silly Symphonies. Highly recommendable for animal and nature lovers, and also for old style cartoon fans.

Autumn was lovely to watch, with stunning black and white animation, that still holds up well after 70+ years. The music is beautiful, especially with the effect of the falling leaves. The characters were a delight, and brought some both funny and subtle touches to the short's proceedings. True, the short doesn't really have a plot, but with everything else so good, one is obliged to overlook. The Silly Symphony is one of four shorts that pay tribute to the Four Seasons in the Silly Symphony franchise. All of them are very funny and charming in their own way, and this is evidence of that. All in all, splendid. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The 'Silly Symphonies' were a long series of short films by Disney in which songs were used to tell stories. However, despite the popularity of Mickey, Donald and the rest, the Symphonies were devoted to a wide variety of one-shot characters. Most were animals but skeletons and even demons were used on occasion. In "Autumn" a wide variety of cutesy animals roam about--mostly getting ready for the winter. While I like the Silly Symphonies, this one was awfully bland--with art that wasn't quite as good as the norm and too much saccharine. There just isn't much of an edge as the industrious animals cavort about--all set to music. My advice is that this one is worth seeing but there are MANY cartoons that are better that you might want to see first--unless you are a nut like me who watches EVERYTHING!