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Lullabye Land

A Silly Symphony

Release Date : August 19, 1933

Running Time : 7:22

Synopsis

A baby falls asleep and dreams of a land where powder puffs and binkies grow on trees and all the standard nursery paraphernalia comes vividly to life. But look out! Stay out of the Forbidden Garden, where "things are sharp and things are hot, and baby mustn't touch!"

Characters

Baby (unnamed)
Boogie Men
Sandman

Credits

Director
Wilfred Jackson
Animation
Hamilton Luske
Art Babbitt
Ben Sharpsteen
Leonard Sebring
Louie Schmitt
George Drake
Ed Love
Bob Kuwahara
Roy Williams
Marvin Woodward
Dick Heumer
Layout
Charles Philippi
Hugh Hennesy
Ferdinand Horvath
Music
Frank Churchill
Leigh Harline
Voices
The Rhythmettes
The Three Rhythm Kings
George Gramlich

Video

Germany
Verrückte Musikanten
France
Silly Symphonies Volume 1
Italy
Silly Symphonies Volume 2

Laserdiscs

Japan
More Silly Symphonies

DVD

United States
Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies
Germany
Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies
France
Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies
Italy
Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies
Sweden
Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies
United Kingdom
Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies

Television

The Ink and Paint Club: Episode 46: Disney Dreams
The Ink and Paint Club: Episode 33: In the Nursery with the Silly Symphonies
Mickey's Mouse Tracks: Episode 33
Donald's Quack Attack: Episode 42
The Mickey Mouse Club : February 29, 1956
The Mickey Mouse Club : February 8, 1957

Technical Specification

Color Type: Black & White
Animation Type: Standard animation
Sound Mix: Mono
Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1
Negative Format: 35mm
Print Format: 35mm
Cinematographic Process: Spherical
Original Language: English

Released by United Artists Pictures

Comments

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project : If you’re going to follow up Old King Cole, which was a Silly Symphony that I did not like, with another Silly Symphony, then it better be a good one. Lullaby Land is that, and in spades. It is an absurdist dream, full of creativity and extremely engaging.

So what makes this one so good? Let’s start with the main character – it’s a baby. A toddler if you want to split hairs, but the design is more of a baby. But rather than go with the overstated features and out there designs of Old King Cole or King Neptune, this child is designed with realistic features and proportions. It makes a huge difference.

Taking an exaggerated child and placing him in a surreal world would not have worked. By having the child be realistic and the environment around him change into fantastic visions, the animators made each of them better. And boy, did they ever come up with some amazing things in the Lullaby Land.

Everything from the moment the child falls out of a tree and lands in Lullaby Land is absurd on a whole different level. This is somewhat new territory for the Disney crew, as most of their past films have dealt with real world situations, or fantasies established by fairy tales. This is a completely new world, developed by the animators, and it shows an amazing amount of creativity.

Here we get to see trees made of rattles or pacifiers, a parade of diapers and accessories, a room filled with sharp objects that attack each other and giant matches that spark, then turn into smoke and finally green monsters.

These monsters are probably the most amazing creation of all. As I said, it begins with the baby sparking a couple matches, which sparks many of the other matches. Then, the matches chase him, finally falling into a lake. But they don’t die. Oh, no. The steam from the matches becomes clouds with faces that follow the baby, before then evolving into large green monsters. It’s crazy, but it works.

When the Sandman appears to finally put the baby back to sleep, it’s almost a relief. The short moves so quickly that you get drawn in, your eye drawn to several different things every second. It moves fast, keeps the viewer engaged, and manages to be both funny and thrilling at the same time. That’s quite a feat.

From RJ : Definitely visually engaging. It's a crazy mixture of unprecedented realism in the animation/design of the child with completely unreal and bizarre concepts and plots. Subtle early shades of Fantasia I'd say.
From Mac : I really like this unusual cartoon which uses a baby's dream to present an oddball procession of weirdness. The baby's quilt becomes an entire world in which everything from the real world is distorted to fit the baby's subconscious. As usual the creativity and imagination of the artists combined with the catchy music (this time suitably dreamy) make this one a winner.
From Jerry Edwards : I only had a black and white version of this short from the Mickey Mouse Club for years before I found the original color version. The color adds a great deal to the cartoon, with numerous bright colors, especially for the patchwork quilt. The normally inanimate objects, such as the penknives and scissors, are animated in interesting ways.
From Andy de Paoli : I have loved this animation ever since I saw it as a child.
From Gijs Grob : With cartoons like Lullabye Land Disney set new standards for animation that are still thrilling today.

Don't get me wrong, the cartoon is rather patronizing and sugary cute, but this is compensated by wonderful surrealistic images, beautiful artwork and superb animation. (And, hey, this way of warning against sharp things and matches just may work with small children).

The dance of the Boogie Men contains some striking use of color that anticipates similar surreal images in Dumbo. In all, Lullaby Land left all competitors far behind. It is also the first of a whole series of Silly Symphonies obsessed with little babies, and their bare behinds in particular.

From Baruch Weiss : This short is cute, too cute, way way too cute.

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