"A Silly Symphony"

Release Date July 28, 1931

Running Time 7:16

Synopsis

A cat, being sent out for the night, begins to make trouble for some birds. He later has a nightmare that the birds grow and begin to extract their revenge.

Credits

Director : Wilfred Jackson

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #46 : Disney Dreams

The Ink and Paint Club : #58 : Silly Symphonies Go To the Birds

DVD

United States

Disney Treasures : More Silly Symphonies

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Black and White

Animation type : Standard

Sound mix : Mono

Aspect ration : 1.33 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by Columbia Pictures

Comments

Also known as "A Cat's Nightmare."

From Jerry Edwards : A very thorough description has already been done. I really like this short - a lot of fun weirdness. The scene of the live trees taking turns in throwing the cat into each other's mouths was particularly grotesque.

From Ryan : This is one of my favorite Silly Symphony shorts. I enjoy all the weird scenes such as anthropomorphic trees that appear in the cat's nightmare. This is also the only Silly Symphony that uses its original title when shown on TV.

I wonder who directed this film, since the title of this cartoon can be taken in two ways ... and both ways are clearly exposed.

A clear signal to this film was the very first scene ... a full moon with a brisk wind outside. Something clearly was in store for the cat, who was let out for the night (first title explanation). With no milk in the bottle, the cat limps onto the picket fence with his sluggish moves and meows before getting struck by a shoe that blindfolds it. The cat runs feverishly off the end of the fence and summersalts his way into a wooden water bucket.

After drying itself off, the cat hears a mockingbird chirping on the weathervane of a house. (Although already in existence, little did Disney realize that the Three Stooges were only 3 years away from short-subject legacy.) The cat sneaks on top of the roof, trying to attack the mockingbird from the blind side. The cat grabs the bird's rear while wrapping his tail around the weathervane as the bird tries to fly away. Eventually, the feathers get plucked off, the cat falls off the house, bringing the weathervane with it. This time, the cat's really OUT (second title explanation) by getting hit square in the head by the top of the weathervane and taking more than eight of its nine lives. (The ninth life was saved by his tail grabbing the ghost in the nick of time, but keep in mind that since the cat is "out", it's dreamtime, and the cat is going to pay dearly for this.)

The bird is mad at the cat, growing to four times the cat's size. The cat tries to punch away, only to multiply the problem sixfold ... now, six birds surround this poor cat, similarly reminding it of what he did to the poor bird. The birds eventually disappear, but the cat finds itself in a spooky forest with at least eight owls and two very ugly ground creatures coming from the bottom of the trees. Needless to say, it sure scared the wits out of the cat. Even the water pump soaks the cat, causing it to roll on a bucket until it crashed on a scarecrow.

I make no bones (really?) about it, but this "Silly Symphony" lived up to its name as the scarecrow dances in the "look mom, no pants" part of the film. It then multiplied fourfold into a similar style of "The Skeleton Dance" used two years earlier. A bat then spreads his wings and dances on the support of the scarecrow. With that, the cat throws a pumpkin at the scarecrow and seemingly endless bats come flying in its direction. There was still no escape when the cat's next predicament occurred: this time six spiders surround this poor creature and eventually pounce on it! Luckily, a small hole in the fence proved to be the cat's friend that time.

Finally, the cat tried to find comfort by jumping on personified trees ... just as bad as jumping on a cactus. In the cat's case, it was nearly digested by both trees during a tree squabble! As the trees were beating the cat senseless, the bird reappears to seemingly get the last laugh. At that point, the dream ends.

It's now morning back at the ranch, and the cat was asleep ... seemingly comforted with two wide tree branches with leaves as covers. The cat awakens, but this time his mood is a complete 180 compared to the night before. It eventually returns to the owner's house, this time with bottled milk on the porch. Unfortunately, the cat loses again as the owner takes the milk and throws the cat out ... again. Hey - it doesn't matter now ... the cat could care less.

--- Tom Wilkins