Goliath II

A Special Cartoon

Release Date : January 21, 1960

Running Time : 15:00

Synopsis

Goliath is a miniature elephant who is ostracized from the herd because of his size. But his size comes in handy when he has to rescue the herd from an invader : a mouse!

Characters

Goliath II
Goliath I
Mrs. Goliath
Raja
Mouse

Credits

Director
Wolfgang Reitherman
Animation
Hal King
Cliff Nordberg
John Sibley
Amby Paliwoda
Eric Cleworth
Blaine Gibson
Bill Keil
Dick Lucas
Backgrounds
Richard H. Thomas
Gordon Legg
Thelma Witmer
Layout
Basil Davidovich
Vance Gerry
Collin Campbell
Story
Bill Peet
Music
George Bruns
Narration
Sterling Holloway
Directing Animator
John Lounsberry
Color Styling
Ralph Hullet

Awards

Nominated for an Academy Award (Short Subjects - Cartoons)

Video

United States
Cartoon Classics : Limited Gold Editions II : How the Best Was Won : 1933-1960
Germany
Donald Superstar and Co.
Italy
Cartoon Classics : Limited Gold Editions II : Cartoni Animati da Oscar

Laserdiscs

United States
Cartoon Classics : Limited Gold Editions II : How the Best Was Won : 1933-1960
Japan
Disney Cartoon Festival 5

DVD

United States
Walt Disney Animation Collection : Volume 6 : The Reluctant Dragon
It's a Small World of Fun Volume 1
Disney Rarities: Celebrated Shorts, 1920s - 1960s

Television

The Ink and Paint Club: Episode 42: Goin' to the Zoo

Technical Specification

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

Comments

From Jerry Edwards : One of my favorite Disney shorts. I've always considered this a minor classic and never understood why the short isn't better known and more highly regarded. The short combines humor, drama and pathos in telling the story about a tiny child elephant who grows up to be no larger than a mouse - a huge disappointment to his father, the huge leader of the elephant herd. Goliath's fight with a mouse, who has the rest of the herd scared silly, is very well done. I've always enjoyed Goliath II's answer when the mouse asks why Goliath II isn't also afraid of the mouse - Goliath II's answer, "Why should I be afraid of you? I'm just as big as you are!" The continual misadventures of a scraggly old tiger trying to catch and eat Goliath II add a great deal to the humor of the short.
From Jeremy Fassler : I liked this short very much. I thought the xerox process brought out a lot of the color in the cartoon. I also liked when "Goliath II" battled the mouse with a new york accent. This short really shows what Disney could do in 1930 something and brought it out in 1960, a time when the cartoon was dying out. "Goliath II" was up for the Academy Award in 1960, and lost to "Munro," the better short. But "Goliath II" comes very close to being better.
From Sara : This short was adorable, but the most fascinating thing about it was how there were bits of other disney animation movies in it--I couldn't help exclaiming over little parts that I watched hundreds of times in Sleeping Beauty, Lion King, Jungle Book, Peter Pan, and more. That drew me most to the short.
From Sam : It is really great short movie, especially suitable for young kids. And it is funny, though. I used to watch it when I was a kid and I remember that I was really worried about little Goliath II during the show, because the tiger Raja was trying to eat him all the time.

My favorite part was the part when the tiger finally catches poor Goliath II and Goliath's mother comes to rescue her little son. She grabs the tiger and throws him into the river where a crocodile is waiting with his mouth wide opened. The crocodile swallows the tiger for launch before he could run away. So that Goliath II is saved once again.

But not for long. Later, when the movie goes on, the crocodile is shown again, lying on his back with his fully belly. But the tiger inside his stomach is still alive. When the crocodile opens his mouth the tiger Raja suddenly jumps out of the crocodile's mouth and runs away.

From Fred : I really like this movie. Goliath II is one of the greatest Disney's short movies so far. And is full of humor, especially at the parts when the old tiger Raja is trying to catch little Goliath II. However, he is not successful and later in the movie he is eaten by a hungry crocodile. With tiger Raja inside crocodile's stomach, Goliath II's life is much easier, but still not without danger...But in the end the little Goliath II saves the day and made his father proud of him.
From Baruch Weiss : This short was okay, but not one of my favorites. However, the scenes with that crocodile (who looks similar to the one from "Peter Pan") added some enjoyment. This short is not one of my favorites as the plot is similar to other shorts and movies where a character is rejected by the group for doing something bad but they later on redeem themselves. In this case, Goliath runs off and deserts the heard which was a major offense, but later he saves the elephants from a mouse. I read that elephants are afraid of mice because they are afraid that the mouse will get stuck in their trunk.
From Billy Joe : This short is similar to "Dumbo" in a way. I think this short has a wonderful story and an important lesson.

This is a actually the first Disney short to have Xerography. It was not limited animation, it was a process that a machine inked and painted the celluiods (similar to today's animation which the celluiods are computer colored). The final look is that the characters are still animated in pencil form. The first feature which fully used the process was "One Hundred and One Dalmatians." The process was developed by Ub Iwerks, who was the first person to draw Mickey Mouse.

From Bryan Hensley : This is the first Disney short I know of to use all-Xerox technology. The first whole movie to use it would 101 Dalmatians the following year. It was briefly used in Sleeping Beauty when Maleficent turned into a dragon. This particular short was an Oscar nominee as well. It seems to have reused animation from different movies at times, such as The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Bambi, Dumbo, and Alice In Wonderland! (And the 1945 short Tiger Trouble besides.) The two scenes in this short where the elephants crash in a pile-up were reused once in The Jungle Book seven years later! It's A Small World of Fun volume 1 and Disney's Animation Collection volume 6 feature this legendary 2-reeler short! Most of the Oscar-winning shorts from 1960 to the 1980's were all Foreign shorts. (MGM's The Dot and The Line from 1965, and Winnie the Pooh and The Blustery Day from 1968 were 2 exceptions!) I hope you folks enjoy this Oscar-nominated pioneer for The Jungle Book about a tiny elephant trying to have his own place in the Indian jungle! I've heard Goliath the first, his father, speak only a few times in this whole short! (Especially about the mouse that scared off the herd!) Never underestimate a small package.
From j.p.hope : I LIKE the part in which Goliath l is startled by a mouse and shouts "M-M-MOUSE!" the first, second, and third time in a row. I also like when the mouse scare the elephants silly and out their wits, and when the crocodile is startled at the site of elephants landing on him, and when the entire jungle shakes up in mass hysteria, along with the owl and the irritated mother bird.

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