Studio: Walt Disney Productions (Silly Symphonies)
Distributor: Columbia Pictures
Produced by: Walt Disney
Short Synopsis
Ripples dance on a pond under a moon that sings along. A male owl flies to a female owl's tree and courts her; when he kisses her she punches his feathers out. Moths circle a candle flame; one taunts the flame and is burnt. Fireflies blink in rhythm and two of them dance together. Three mosquitoes stalk a frog, bite him, and are eaten. The frog finds a female of his own kind and gets up an orchestra of a thin frog, a toad and three small frogs to serenade her, until fish interrupt. He tries a solo, and unlike the owl he succeeds: the two frogs leap and kiss and go over a waterfall together as the film ends.
Why It Matters
- Night is the gentlest of the early Silly Symphonies, a nocturne of small creatures in the dark with the moon as chorus, and its two courtships, the owl's failure and the frog's success, give it a shape most of the dancing-animal films lacked; the fireflies blinking in time to the music are an early experiment in animating light.
- As a 1930 publication it entered the US public domain in January 2026. It is one of the last Silly Symphonies Walt Disney is credited with directing himself before he gave up the role to Gillett and Jackson and became producer alone.
Notes and Trivia
- The singing moon was reused, in refined form, in later Disney films.
- Bert Lewis's score uses Schubert's Serenade for the frog's solo.
- See also: Midnight in a Toy Shop (1930), Springtime (1929), Monkey Melodies (1930).