Studio: Walt Disney Studio (Silly Symphonies)
Distributor: Celebrity Productions
Produced by: Walt Disney
Short Synopsis
Caterpillars dance toward a bed of flowers, crawl in and come out as butterflies, which fly on and pollinate every bloom they pass. On a branch they disturb a stick insect, which bares its teeth at them, dances and falls into a stream. A dragonfly escorts two ladybirds over the water. Two dung beetles play with their ball until it rolls away, hits a tree and explodes into a cloud of small flying insects, which dance. Four flies on a flower borrow a spider's web and play leapfrog with the spider, who eats them and dances on. The cycle of insect life goes round to the music, with each creature's number leading to the next, until the season turns.
Why It Matters
- It is the second of the four seasons and the most insect-centred of the Silly Symphonies, with the dung beetles and their ball an unusually earthy gag for Disney; Variety objected that it resembled Springtime "too keenly", which it does, but allowed that it had its snickers, and the caterpillar-to-butterfly opening is handled with real grace.
- The film is in the public domain in the United States as a 1930 publication, one of the Disney films that entered the public domain on 1 January 2026. It was the last Silly Symphony Ub Iwerks directed before leaving the studio that month to set up on his own with Pat Powers's backing.
Notes and Trivia
- Iwerks's departure took the studio's best animator; Disney promoted Burt Gillett and Wilfred Jackson to fill the gap.
- The seasons cycle was completed by Autumn in February and Winter in October 1930.
- See also: Springtime (1929), Autumn (1930), Winter (1930).