"A Silly Symphony"

Release Date June 21, 1930

Running Time 6:04

Synopsis

Title tells all here, until the festivities are interrupted by a "scary" octopus.

Credits

Director : Bert Gillett

Animation

Norm Ferguson

Les Clark

Ben Sharpsteen

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #13 : Silly Symphonies Get Wet

DVD

United States

Disney Treasures : More Silly Symphonies

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Black and White

Animation type : Standard

Sound mix : Cinephone; mono

Aspect ration : 1.33 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by Columbia Pictures

Gallery

Click on the thumbnail for the full-sized picture

Comments

A Silly Symphony

"Frolicking Fish" marks a turning point in animation style. Beforehand, characters would start and stop almost mechanically. Norm Ferguson developed a style where the characters never completely stopped, but when one part would stop another part would start moving, making the whole movement much more fluid. Disney liked the effect so much he made all the other animators study Ferguson's style.

From Tom Wilkins : Can't really expect much from this cartoon, because the Silly Symphony was only in its second year when this came out. The fish were the centerpiece here, but the octopus showed early on that it was going to be around before the cartoon was over. Add some lobster and starfish and you have an early lunch buffet at Red Lobster on screen. But I wonder... why such a dark, bad-quality screening?

From Jerry Edwards : All types of sea creatures amuse themselves by singing and dancing. A fish escapes a pursuing octopus by dropping an anchor on its head. In a common animation goof, the fish earlier escapes, after being swallowed, through a gap in the octopus's teeth. Of course, before and after, the octopus is shown with no gaps. Generally a rather boring cartoon with nothing really special. The prints shown on the Disney Channel don't help due to the poor picture and sound quality of the print.