Studio: Walt Disney Productions (Silly Symphonies)
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Produced by: Walt Disney
Short Synopsis
In a snowstorm a spider clings to its web beside a toyshop sign until the wind blows it loose. It creeps in through the keyhole and finds itself among the toys. It mimics the ticking of the cuckoo clock, hides in a box when the bird pops out to strike the hour, backs into a tower of alphabet blocks and brings them down, trips a wind-up car that circles it, and, delighted, begins to explore. The toys wake: dolls dance, a toy band plays, soldiers march, a jack-in-the-box jumps, and the spider joins the party, dancing with the dolls and conducting the band, until a toy cannon or a rolling ball brings the night to an end and the spider scuttles back out into the snow, with the shop silent again behind it.
Why It Matters
- The toys-come-alive-at-night cartoon was a staple of every studio in the early 1930s, and this is Disney's version, told from the point of view of an outsider, the spider, whose curiosity drives the film; Wilfred Jackson, in his first solo directing credit, keeps the shop's shadows and the toys' movements musical throughout.
- Its 1930 copyright lapsed in January 2026 and the film is public domain in the United States. Jackson, who had worked out the synchronisation method for Steamboat Willie, went on to direct The Old Mill and sequences of most of the features; this was his start.
Notes and Trivia
- The Fleischers' Parade of the Wooden Soldiers in 1933 and Van Beuren's toy-shop cartoons used the same premise.
- A spider as sympathetic hero is unusual for Disney, which usually made spiders villains.
- See also: Parade of the Wooden Soldiers (1933), Arctic Antics (1930), Night (1930).