I've been really enjoying these lately.....really take me back to my childhood!
The three little pigs and wolves series are of course fantastic, as are Toby Tortoise and Max Hare - hilarious!
I think my favourites though would be the Happy Little Bunnies and The Water Babies...I've loved them since I was really little, they always bring a smile to my face
The first time I posted here it was also a question about favourite silly symphonies. Unfortunatley I got little response. Wonder If you will get more. (Is there still a major interes for Silly Symphoies among Disney fans???)
Several of my favourites: the skeleton dance, flowers and trees, music land, coocy carnival, lullaby land.
The first time I posted here it was also a question about favourite silly symphonies. Unfortunatley I got little response. Wonder If you will get more. (Is there still a major interes for Silly Symphoies among Disney fans???)
Several of my favourites: the skeleton dance, flowers and trees, music land, coocy carnival, lullaby land.
Well I got very excited at seeing the Silly Symphonies collection on DVD, I don't follow the Disney DVD releases too closely and when I came across it I couldn't believe it as I didn't think they'd release them!
Love many of the ones you mentioned too, Flowers and Trees especially as it also was one of the first examples of revolutionary cartoon animation from Disney...and just a joy to watch!
No, no one cares about the Silly Symphonies anymore, and it's a crying shame. The company should just start a Vault Disney network so under-apreaciated works in the legacy can find new audiences.
I see some of these fairly often because the kids are quite fond of my Treasures collection. "The Skeleton Dance," "The Old Mill" and "The Three Little Pigs" are my perennial favorites, but the kids' requests frequently include "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod," "Merbabies," "The Ugly Duckling," "Little Hiawatha," and "Funny Little Bunnies."
Fflewduur wrote:No, no one cares about the Silly Symphonies anymore, and it's a crying shame. The company should just start a Vault Disney network so under-apreaciated works in the legacy can find new audiences.
You seem to be right, as this thread also gets little response. You can get more fans interested in a lame DTV-sequel than in a classic silly symphony cartoon these days.
The Silly Symphonies, "special" shorts, and package film segments tend to be among my favorite Disney shorts! I do enjoy the character series, but they tend to be more formulaic and gag-driven then the Symphonies and one-off shorts. I really like the creativity allowed by a series like the Symphonies and also the way they are music-driven!
The songs frequently stick in my head and the arrangements of some these scores as heard in Toontown at the WDW Magic Kingdom is one of my favorite music loops in any of the parks!
Here are some favorite Silly Symphony shorts off the top of my head:
Ugly Duckling (new version) - very touching, has great heart, a lovable title character, and I LOVE the score!
Old Mill - I love the score, the atmosphere, the mood, and those multiplane camera shots!
Funny Little Bunnies - What a cute and charming short, with a catchy song that easily sticks in my head!
Wise Little Hen - Donald's Debut!!! What a fun and funny short, again, with an irrasistably catchy song and score.
Pied Piper - my favorite scene is when the child with the crutches is able to get rid of them to enter the magical land the Piper takes the kids to, as he doesn't need them anymore.
Country Cousin - A very charming short, again, with an awesome score.
Farmyard Symphony - Very cute, I love the musical animals!
"Feed the birds, tuppence a bag"- Mary Poppins
"How high does the sycamore grow? If you cut it down, then you'll never know"- Pocahontas
"I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether he be six or sixty. Call the child innocence." - Walt Disney
I appreciate the Silly Symphonies a lot. I've got the Walt Disney Treasures DVD sets and I just recently got the book by Russell Merritt and J. B. Kaufman. Disney used the Silly Symphonies as a sort of "testing ground" for innovation, and the shorts are very rewarding to viewers who are ready to understand that. But even back in their day, the Silly Symphonies basically had to be paid for by the Mickey Mouse shorts.
Could you please tell me where you got the book Lars?
I like the Silly Symphonies and own both treasures. I have been looking for the book on Amazon, but it's currently unavailable.
In fact I did get it from amazon.com, but only after waiting for months to get notified about a new supply, that was probably quite small. So I guess you could place a "wait-and-see" order or a "notification order".
I suspect, though, that a reprint could be coming up, possibly in Europe. A while ago amazon.co.uk listed a publishing date in June of this year for this title. Then nothing happened, but eventually they came up with a new date in October. I'm not sure, but I think a pre-order from amazon.co.uk would be the safest bet.
Thanks for the information.
As I am living in Europe, an order from Amazon.uk wouldn't be a problem.
How is the book by the way? Is it as great as it seems?
As for "greatness" - difficult to measure exactly...
I'd say it's definitely better than merely "worthwhile", possibly "great". And it's certainly "essential", in the sense that most of the book is a filmography of the Silly Symphonies - quite thorough, as far as I can tell. Some might find it particularly interesting that the musical bits and pieces used in the shorts are identified. The only downside to this is the impression that most of the book (roughly 200 out of 250 pages) is more of an encyclopedia than a "book to read" - although I am reading even that right now. But there are also about 50 pages of introduction to the Silly Symphonies series.
The complete title is "Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies - a companion to the classic cartoon series". Or we could even say a companion to the two Walt Disney Treasures DVD sets.
If you have anything close to a serious interest in the Silly Symphonies, which I'm sure you have, I'll definitely recommend this book. In some ways just as "definitive" as the book on Disney's silent cartoons by the same authors.
