El Terrible Toreador
26 Sep 1929 00:07:00
In a Spanish tavern a barmaid carries a mug of beer to the music of Bizet's Carmen, swaying as she goes, and a man in a white suit tips her and gets a quick dance for his money.
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22 cartoons tagged Silly Symphonies
Autumn
13 Feb 1930 00:06:00
The animals of the wood lay in stores for winter. Squirrels gather nuts and corn; one struggles to knock a nut down from a tree, and when he finally cracks it open a caterpillar struts out.
Night
31 Jul 1930 00:07:00
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.
The Merry Dwarfs
19 Dec 1929 00:06:00
In a village of bearded dwarfs everyone dances as he works: sweeping, hammering, carrying.
Santa's Workshop
10 Dec 1932 00:07:00
At the North Pole, Santa's elves wash and polish the sleigh and groom the reindeer, singing as they work, in preparation for Christmas Eve. Inside the workshop, Santa sits at his desk and reads the letters from children aloud, one rhyming request after another, while an elf secretary takes notes.
Cannibal Capers
13 Mar 1930 00:06:00
On a tropical island a tribe of cannibals, drawn in the thick-lipped, bone-through-the-nose caricature of the period, gathers for a dance around a cooking pot.
The Pied Piper
16 Sep 1933 00:07:30
The town of Hamelin is overrun with rats, which breed and eat every scrap of food. The mayor offers a bag of gold to anyone who can get rid of them. A piper appears and takes the job. He plays a tune that hypnotises the rats into following him out of town.
Birds of a Feather
10 Feb 1931 00:08:00
The film opens on a lake, where swans honk in harmony as they swim, and a black swan gets her head stuck in an old shoe. Along the shore a peacock struts and spreads his tail, and a duck takes him down a peg.
Monkey Melodies
10 Aug 1930 00:07:00
The animals of the jungle sing and dance, mostly monkeys and apes, with birds and crocodiles taking their own numbers. Two young monkeys are in love and express it in dance, swinging through the trees together, courting on a branch and cavorting with the rest of the troop.
Frolicking Fish
08 May 1930 00:06:00
On the sea floor the fish dance and make music. One rides a seahorse; another plays with an anchor; a school dances round a sunken chest until an octopus bursts out of it and chases them, and they escape.
The Tortoise and the Hare
05 Jan 1935 00:08:00
Max Hare, cocky, athletic and the crowd's favourite, faces Toby Tortoise in a race. Toby is slow and clumsy and gets laughed at, though he has a useful ability to stretch his neck and legs. Max promises to play fair, but clearly just wants to humiliate him.
The Skeleton Dance
22 Aug 1929 00:05:30
An owl sits on a branch in front of a full moon. Below, a church clock strikes midnight, the bell sends bats out of the belfry, a dog howls, and two cats fight on a gravestone. A skeleton climbs out of a grave and dances.
Playful Pan
27 Dec 1930 00:07:00
Pan, the goat-legged god, plays his pipes in a forest, and the creatures of the wood come out to dance: the trees sway, the flowers bob, the animals form rings and the whole glade keeps time with the music.
Summer
16 Jan 1930 00:06:00
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.
Springtime
24 Oct 1929 00:06:00
Spring comes to a wood and everything in it dances. Trees sway, flowers open and bob, butterflies and birds circle to the music. Three flowers do a chorus-line routine and part to reveal two ladybirds dancing.
Winter
30 Oct 1930 00:06:00
Snow falls on the forest. When the wind blows the animals sleep; when it drops they come out, and the small trees and every creature of the wood dance and play in the snow. Animals skate on the frozen pond, singly and in pairs, with the falls and collisions that skating cartoons require.
The Goddess of Spring
03 Nov 1934 00:09:00
Persephone, the Goddess of Spring, lives in a garden of eternal spring, where flowers dance around her and little elves attend her throne. Pluto, god of the Underworld, drawn as a red, horned, operatic devil, bursts out of the earth and carries her off. The elves try to defend her and fail.
The Flying Mouse
14 Jul 1934 00:09:00
A young mouse longs to fly, singing "I Would Like to Be a Bird". He makes wings from two leaves, to the amusement of his brothers, but the wind blows him backwards on to a thorn, and he falls into the washtub just as his mother finishes dressing his sister, soaking them both.
Three Little Pigs
27 May 1933 00:08:00
Three pig brothers each build a house. Fifer Pig throws one together from straw and Fiddler Pig from sticks, so they can get back to playing music. Practical Pig builds his slowly and solidly from bricks, and warns his brothers about the Big Bad Wolf.
Flowers and Trees
30 Jul 1932 00:08:00
It is spring in the forest. Flowers, mushrooms and trees wake up and do their morning exercises; trees use vines as harp strings while a chorus of robins sings. A young, healthy tree falls for a slender female tree and courts her.
Hell's Bells
30 Oct 1929 00:06:00
Fire fills the screen and burns away to reveal Hell: a cavern with a pit of flame, bats circling, a spider swinging over the pit on its thread and swallowing the camera until the fire drags it down, an alligator that snarls and crawls into the pit, a three-headed dog, a snake that eats a bat and…
Midnight in a Toy Shop
03 Jul 1930 00:07:00
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.