Studio: Walt Disney Productions (Silly Symphonies)
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Produced by: Walt Disney
Short Synopsis
On the polar ice a mother bear lets her cub play, then kicks him off his ice floe; the cub motors another floe with his tail. Polar bears, seals and walruses dance and swim. A walrus chases a mischievous fish and loses his temper when it escapes. Four seals dance and dive; another seal plays with its food before eating it; a seal uses the walrus as a musical instrument. Finally a troop of penguins parades across the ice to "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers", in step and in formation, and the penguins whistle the ending as the ice fades into darkness.
Why It Matters
- The penguin parade is the first of Disney's many penguin routines and the direct ancestor of Peculiar Penguins and the waiters in Mary Poppins; Variety called it "a sure laugh anywhere", and the nine credited animators, including the future directors David Hand and Jack King and the future Pluto specialist Norm Ferguson, show the staff Disney had built in two years.
- The copyright on this 1930 release expired in January 2026, so it is public domain in the United States. It carries one of the strangest credits in the series, with Ub Iwerks named as co-director on a film released five months after he left the studio, presumably for work done before his departure.
Notes and Trivia
- Gilles de Trémaudan, among the animators, was a French Canadian who later worked on Fantasia.
- The film was one of the first Silly Symphonies distributed by Columbia after Disney's break with Pat Powers.
- See also: Frolicking Fish (1930), Winter (1930).
