Silly Symphony Thread

One of the most influential cartoon shorts, before they were overshadowed by Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, and other shorts. What are your favorites?

The Skeleton Dance, hands down. Used to dance along when I was a kid. Plus, I'm of the opinion that Dark Disney is Great Disney.

Egyptian Melodies is worth watching if only for that amazing 3D-esque opening that's completely handmade. Going by the "WOAH LOOKIT DAT ANIMATION" factor, be sure to check out The Old Mill.

The Grasshoper and the Ants is a favorite of my brothers and I, if only because the newest mexican dub infuses the Grasshoper with such a stupidly amusing singing voice.

The Wise Little Hen it's historically important as Donald Duck's first cartoon, and its a charming effort on its own.

I'm indifferent to the Three Little Pigs' cartoons. Some fun ideas but repetition harms them greatly. The very last short, The Practical Pig, gave them a title card and everything, makes one wonder how a proper series featuring them would have been.

Now, a promising set of characters had to be Max Hare and Toby Tortoise; their second short, Toby Tortoise Returns, showed great promise by taking the Zany Cartoon route that completely stood out among the studio's works. A shame they didn't give us more.

Finally, 1939's The Ugly Duckling is definitely worth your watch; a very polished cartoon with genuine pathos.

edited 30th Jul '12 12:22:19 PM by Richie

Decided to bump this since I saw no other thread about it.

My favs would be Toby Tortoise Returns and Mother Goose Goes Hollywood. The former is cartoony and fun and latter, while dated since it caricaturizes many 30s celebrities, is very entertaining and clever.

Despite those two and some others though, I find the majority of Silly Symphonies beautiful but not that intriguing. Especially compared to other cartoons made by the Fleischers, Ub Iwerks', and etc. Honestly prefer Merrie Melodies.

edited 25th Dec '14 4:09:12 PM by Teddy

"Toby Tortoise Returns" is a fun little short, yeh...

Probably the best Silly Symphony is the first, "The Skeleton Dance." Inimitable to this day. Clever and scary in its own wonderful way. (I want to know what the skeleton dance music even is!)

"The Wise Little Hen" is another rather entertaining effort. It was Donald Duck's first appearance and gives you a good answer as to why he speaks so unintelligibly... everyone in that film did. All the other animals' speech sounds like the noises they make.

"The Three Little Pigs", of course, is a bona-fide classic. It tells the story and tells it well, plus it gave us a terrific theme tune in "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf." Admit it, you're singing it in your head right now, and you don't even know the verses.

I am depressed, though, that nobody remembers "You're Nothin' But a Nothin'" and "The World Owes Me a Living."

Oh! I forgot about The Skeleton Dance. That cartoon's delightfully creepy.

I haven't watch The World Owes Me a Living, but I have seen the latter. Another example of entertaining and fun Silly Symphony.