Goliath II is an 1960 animated short from Disney, the result of an idea by Bill Peet. It tells the story of a very small and curious elephant child trying to survive the jungle and get the approval of his pompous father. That is not easy for someone as tiny as his father's toenail.
The short is notable for using a gratuitous amount of recycled animation, and is the first Disney film to make extensive use of the xerography process of transferring animation drawings to cels, which would later be put to use in Disney's feature 101 Dalmatians. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, losing to Gene Deitch's Munro.
This short contains examples of:
- Always a Bigger Fish: The crocodile is involved in defeating both villains, Raja the tiger and the mouse.
- Animals Not to Scale: Goliath II is as small as his father's (a normal-sized elephant's) toenail.
- Artistic License – Biology: Elephant herds in Real Life are led by females; male elephants are solitary. (Of course, there are no mouse-sized baby elephants either...)
- Balloon Belly: After the crocodile swallows Raja whole, he’s seen happily massaging a huge stomach. That is, until Raja sneaks out of his mouth while he’s not looking, and the crocodile disappointedly notices his now empty belly.
- Break the Haughty: After dismissing Goliath II the entire film, the elephant herd are reduced to screaming wimps before a mouse.
- The Bully: The mouse, who torments Goliath II for no particular reason other than him being an elephant.
- Chasing a Butterfly: Goliath II goes after one and almost gets eaten as a result. Later, he follows some snails into a hole and gets stuck.
- Collective Death Glare: After Goliath is rescued after attempting to run away, he is met with hateful glares from the rest of his herd for what was tantamount to treason in their culture.Narrator: You see, according to the elephant law, deserting the herd is a major offense. And the deserter is branded a scoundrel, a rogue elephant, a traitor to that high and imperial order of pompous pachyderms.
- Counting to Three: After scaring off all the elephants but not Goliath II, this happens:Mouse: Look, kid, I'll give you a break. I'm going to count to three, and then if you're not gone, I'LL TEAR YA TO SHREDS!! Here goes... one.
(Goliath II stands his ground)
Mouse: Better get moving... Two... I'm warnin' ya, kid... Three!
(sees Goliath II still there)
Mouse: OKAY — YOU ASKED FOR IT, BUSTER!!!
(charges at Goliath II and headbutts him, causing a tussle between the two) - Disc-One Final Boss: Raja serves as this. After he is defeated by Goliath II's mother and the crocodile, the Mouse takes over as the cartoon's main antagonist.
- Early-Bird Cameo: The elephants in Goliath II's herd look identical to those in The Jungle Book (1967).
- Elephants Are Scared of Mice: Elephants all have a phobia of mice, which the mouse takes advantage of to scare their herd senseless for his own amusement. The only elephant who isn't scared of him is the miniature baby elephant Goliath II, despite only being the same size as the mouse.
- Getting Eaten Is Harmless: Raja spends some time in the crocodile’s belly, but when the crocodile falls asleep, he quickly climbs out completely unharmed.
- Honorable Elephant: Goliath I, Goliath II's father is the proud and pompous leader of the herd, while Goliath II's mother is a protective Mama Bear who'd do anything to defend her child. Goliath II wants to be honorable too, but he's ridiculously small. He gets the herd's and his father's respect after defeating the mouse.
- Human Traffic Jam: An elephant traffic jam, which was later reused in The Jungle Book (1967).
- Just Desserts: Narrowly averted for the antagonists. Raja is swallowed and eaten by the crocodile, but manages to climb out of him. The mouse is also threatened with being fed to the crocodile by Goliath II.
- Mama Bear: Goliath II's mother fights tigers and crocodiles to protect her son.
- Momma's Boy: Goliath II is strongly attached to his mother, since Goliath I is a distant and disapproving father.
- Large Ham: The mouse, who is more of a tiny ham. Overlapping with Evil Is Hammy.
- The Napoleon: The mouse is tiny, but he makes up for it with his violent and rude behavior.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: One that looks identical to the Trope Namer from Peter Pan.
- The Quiet One: Goliath I's only lines are the ones he screams upon seeing the mouse.
- Recycled Animation: A lot of animation is recycled from earlier Disney films; most notably, the crocodile is from Peter Pan and Raja the tiger is from the Goofy short Tiger Trouble. Background animals are borrowed from Bambi (Bambi's mom and Friend Owl), Sleeping Beauty, and Alice in Wonderland (the hornbill trying to save her eggs from falling out of the nest, based on the mother bird who mistakes Alice for a snake). Also, lot of the elephant animation would be reused in The Jungle Book in 1967.
- Much of the elephant footage, as well as some of the mouse's animation, is reused from Dumbo and a chunk of Goliath alone in the jungle at night was originally Ichabod from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (the owl is especially recognizable).
- Reused Character Design: Most obviously, the crocodile is based on Tick Tock from Peter Pan. Raja the tiger reuses the design of the tiger from the Goofy short Tiger Trouble (who, in turn, is designed after Louie the Mountain Lion, a recurring antagonist of Donald Duck), and the female elephants are designed after the those in Dumbo.
- The Runaway: After being tired of being treated like a baby, Goliath II decides to run away in the middle of the night. But he soon gets taken back by his mother, and he gets punished.
- The Runt at the End: Exaggerated with Goliath II; while he does bring up the end of the column of marching elephants, he is the size of a mouse.
- Save the Villain: Goliath promises not to feed the mouse to the crocodile if he promises never to bother the herd again.
- Shamed by a Mob: Goliath II gets spanked by his mother for leaving the herd and gets disapproving glares from everyone, even by his parents. To the elephants, a deserter from the herd is branded a "scoundrel, a rogue elephant, a traitor to that high and imperial order of pompous pachyderms", and to make it worse, he had let his great father down.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Raja the tiger. He wants to taste elephant flesh, but Goliath II is the only one that is small enough for him to eat.
- Too Dumb to Live: Despite having just been saved by his mother from being eaten by Raja, after his mother scolds him for wandering off, Goliath II decides the best course of action is to leave and never come back. Naturally, he quickly gets scared being on his own and nearly gets eaten by Raja again.
- Villainous Glutton: Raja is already at the top of the jungle’s food chain barring the crocodile, but he loves to eat so much that he wants to up his game to eating elephants. Goliath II is his only chance at it though due to being so small. The crocodile is also always ready for a meal.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Goliath I disapproves of his son for being so tiny, and also for his tendency to wander off. It’s only after Goliath II saves the herd from the mouse that he wins his father’s (and the entire herd’s) approval.
- You Dirty Rat!: The mouse actually fits this stereotype, scaring the elephants just for his own pleasure.
- Your Size May Vary: Goliath II's small stature is exaggerated between shots for comedic effect.
