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"A Silly Symphony"
Synopsis
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Television
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Released by United Artists Pictures
Gallery
Model sheet for "Babes in the Woods"
Courtesy of Wonderful World of Animation
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From William Sommerwerck : This is a violent, nasty film, quite unlike most of Disney's creations. (You can easily imagine Disney viewing the finished result and vowing "never again.") For that reason alone, it deserves 10 stars.
From Josef : Great short with wonderful animation. This was the third Silly Symphony made in color. I noticed that the dwarfs were similar to the ones in "Santa's Workshop."
From John Baker : The original "Babes in the Wood" poem, available here and other locations on the web, is an obscure nursery rhyme that tells the story of two little children who were stolen and left in a wood, where they died; the robins covered them with leaves and sang about the poor babes in the wood. I believe it is the saddest poem in all of Mother Goose's oeuvre. It was a safe bet that Disney would, at a minimum, change the ending.
The Disney version mixes this story up with the evil witch from Hansel and Gretel who lives in a cottage made of candy. The cartoon is not an adaptation of Hansel and Gretel and does not use any other parts of that story: There are no unfit parents or breadcrumbs, the witch is not a cannibal, and the children do not push her into the oven. There is also a village of friendly elves, and it is they who rescue the children. Friendly elves are not in the classic stories like The Babes in the Wood and Hansel and Gretel, but they were a frequent feature of children's stories in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
As one might expect with this kind of mixmash, this is not one of the great Disney cartoons, but it's still fun to watch the kids and the elves fighting with the witch.
From Gijs Grob : This re-telling of Grimm's classic tale of Hänsl and Gretel introduces many story ideas that made it into Snow White five years later. I find the pretty scary scene inside the Witches house particularly gripping.
One trivial remark: Hänsl and Gretel are wearing traditional costumes typical for some old Dutch fishing-villages (I can tell, I am Dutch). However, the landscape looks anything but Dutch (in fact, it looks pretty Mid-European). Talking about being lost!
From Lawrence Abbott : I remember seeing this when I was small (I was still in kindergarten, I think). It made quite an impression on me, but I found it rather sad and disturbing. What especially got to me, was the part where the cat gets turned to stone.
I found this cartoon to be very interesting because the storyline not only follows the "traditional" Silly Symphony, but adds a lot of other flavors. The film explains, in song form, the legend of "The Witch Rock."
Two kids, paralleling the Hansel and Gretel story, wander away from where they are supposed to be and land themselves in some very dark, spooky woods. The animals colorfully add some spicy scares in many forms as the children are walking through. One set of animals provide creepy images for the eyes for the tree, bats fly in the children's faces from a short, hollow stump, and black birds (one of which looked like the face of an owl), blended in perfectly with the old, black tree. The howling wind and bunnies running under the children did not help their mood any, but there was a light at the end of the woods ... the children hear happy noises from a distance and notice many merry dwarfs cheerfully springing all around having a good time while they work. (Coincidental idea for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs five years later?)
Immediately the mood of the children reverses gears as they watch the dwarfs enjoying themselves ... even when cleansing their beards. They approached the children and welcomed them by merrily dancing around them while four others tooted "Little Brown Jug" with objects of the aforementioned title. The fun goes on for a little while until a strong wind blows in ... a witch was flying on her broomstick, circling over them several times. Obviously the dwarfs took cover instantaneously, but had some trouble fitting the children into one of their hiding places.
When this clear-cut "Wizard Of Oz" reject landed, she offered the children a ride on her broomstick. The dwarfs were surprised that they went, but more surprising was the safe travel to what the children thought was a dream destination ... a house only the Gingerbread Man would love (since it was made out of candy). To their delight, the children snack a little on the house; then were invited inside for more "sugar and spice and everything nice." Needless to say, it was an obvious trap.
The inside of the house was gutted with rats, spiders, cats, mice, bats, and any other animal that would make a normal being cringe. The witch's sugar and spice was to transform the children into creepy animals ... and that is nowhere near nice. When the children try to run away they both get stopped by a very strong spiderweb, giving the witch a great advantage. She first takes the boy, and to the animals' delight, pours potion over him and turns him into a spider, then handcuffs him (it) across from the cat. The witch proceeds to take a yellow potion from the fireplace and throws it on the cat, causing it to turn to stone. However, three was not the charm when the witch tried to pour potion on the girl. An arrow hits the bullseye (the potion, that is), and as the witch hides the girl in a door on the floor, she goes outside to see what the commotion was. It was a dwarf making fun of the witch, signaling that it was time to save the children. There's no need to say how prepared all the dwarfs were for this attack.
Two dwarfs trip the witch, then other shower her with arrows from all directions. Meanwhile, the spider (the boy) pulls open the door so the girl could escape. As he is doing so, he hits his head on the table leg, enabling a returning formula to strike him on the head, transforming back to his old self. The witch tried an air assault but the dwarfs were one step ahead of her, continuously showering her with not just more arrows, but also pumpkins.
Back at the house, the girl took some of the returning formula, poured it on all the animals and turned them back into the children they were. In short, they were not the first ones to fall for the witch's trap. The trapped children celebrate their freedom, while back outside, the relentless attack continues as the dwarfs pelt the witch with pies from the top of the house. One dwarf finally lassoed her reliable transportation (the broomstick) away from the witch, so it was nowhere but downhill for her, however, the children wanted a piece of the action. All of them bring the yellow potion from the fireplace (used to turn the cat into stone) outside, and the witch landed perfectly into the gook. She was able to move a few steps until she completely froze ... and all the children took pride by dancing around the newly formed "Witch Rock", just like the dwarfs danced around the boy and girl earlier. Of course the dwarfs joined in outside the children's circle.
This was not a bad attempt in retelling Hansel and Gretel, especially with this being one of the first 5 cartoons ever released in color. This cartoon will test how strong a child's stomach is ... only to realize later in life that this story simply crosses over with Halloween. Just don't fall for a stranger's offer!
--- Tom Wilkins