"A Silly Symphony"

Release Date December 27, 1930

Timing 6:57

Synopsis

The God Pan flits through the fields, coaxing music and dance out of the flora and fauna, who cooperate well. Maybe too well when a dancing thundercloud bumps together, producing a lightning strike that threatens to burn everything down. Fortunately, Pan's musical charms are able to lure the flames into a nearby pond where they are safely extinguished.

Characters

Pan

Credits

Director : Bert Gillett

Videos

Cartoon Classics : First Series : Volume 13 : Silly Symphonies - Fanciful Fables

Laserdiscs

Cartoon Classics : First Series : Volume 13 : Silly Symphonies - Fanciful Fables

DVD

United States

Disney Treasures : More Silly Symphonies

France

Peter Pan

Television

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

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.

Very similar to the later award-winner "Flowers and Trees."

From Jerry Edwards : One of my favorite Silly Symphony cartoons. Excellent descriptions are already listed, so I won't repeat a description here. The scene in which the animals swim to the safety of a tiny island is similar to the later scene in the 1942 Bambi. A bear cub fleeing the flames looks and sounds almost exactly like Mickey Mouse. This is one of 47 shorts that Disney colorized. Although I don't care for colorization, the color did add a great deal to this short, especially during the fire scenes.

From Per Nilsson : This is one of the better shorts of early silly symphonies. This cartoon has at least some sort of plot, not only dancing rhythmically to music.

At first you think this will be another boring affair like "Springtime", but then it betters itself. I like the bellydancing worm, and how the lightning strikes the tree. (It cuts like a saw slicing the tree in half) I don't remember seeing that joke reused later on. Otherwise you have to say it's rather similar to "Flowers and Trees." Or the other way around since this cartoon came before "Flowers and Trees."

Referenced Comments

Hells Bells (1929)

This cartoon can easily be considered one of the more "transitional" ones in Disney's history. Although the first and second halves of the cartoon were of total contrast, Disney probably did not realize back then that "Playful Pan" would have an incredible impact on the cartoon industry.

Many gags were used in later cartoons. The climatic action scene (the fire in the woods) was replicated in "Flowers and Trees" only two years later; the instrument playing and subsequent subliminal music were replicated in the Mother Goose era of the Silly Symphony in "The Pied Piper" only a year after that. The "Playful Pan" himself was replicated by MGM in "Tale Of The Vienna Woods (1934)."

The first half of the cartoon provided very little interest but a lot of silliness from Playful Pan's music and the outside creatures. It was a little intriguing for him to go from flutist to conductor of the percussion ensemble. Once the lightning sawed the tree and started the forest ablaze, all the animals prayed for Smokey The Bear's arrival. (He should have talked to the clouds since they provided the sparks.) A raccoon finally awakens the Playful Pan from his slumber and goes back to work, doing a great job leading the personified fire into the lake, except for one stubborn flame, who gets extinguished by blowing water through his flute with pinpoint accuracy.

This was certainly a fine cartoon, but I still wonder ... how can fire tickle and not burn?

--- Tom Wilkins