"A Silly Symphony"
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Television
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Released by United Artists Pictures
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From Jerry Edwards : For me, a basically uninteresting cartoon - contains nothing special. A remake of the 1931 "Mother Goose Melodies". Yet another boring "characters singing and dancing" short.
From David Partington : This is a gem! The charm lies partly in the lack of a plot; it's just an explosion of pointless (and therefore pure) high spirits. The music is good and the animation, rubbery and Fleischer-like, is appealing precisely because it is typical of it's period. Also the colours are exceptionally vivid; it's obvious that color film was a novelty and that Disney was making the most of it.
Referenced Comments
Once upon a time in storybookland, we had more action in one large hard-covered book than you will ever find, at least in the 1930's.
The lovely book opens up in the center and rolls out a wonderful castle where Old King Cole (no relation to Nat or Natalie) obviously resides. In succession, centerfolds of the Pied Piper (with mice)--who cameos before he gets his big break later that year, Little Boy Blue (and cow), the Crooked Man, and two elderly ladies known as Mother Hubbard (with dog but no bone) and the woman who lived in a shoe with as many children as the Pied Piper had mice. Needless to say, they were on their way to a wonderful ball, sixteen years before Cinderella got a taste of what a party was like.
Now what is this obsession with big men in the 1930's? Once again, we have King Cole as an overweight figure in a Disney cartoon and the Ink and Paint Club at Disney still have yet to create a show on that subject. But anyway, Cole gives his welcoming speech, introducing his fiddlers three in the process. However, he warns the crowd just like the fairy godmother did to Cinderella...the party is over at midnight. At least in this cartoon there is no chance of the book turning into pumpkin pie.
To begin the show, we see Mary dancing on top of Pandora's Box...not quite the three-album set that rock group Aerosmith put out several years ago. How contrary to see Mary watering dancing roses that line up precisely like the Rockettes at Radio City! Then comes a series of Mother Goose secondary showstoppers that could not make any Broadway Melody or Hollywood Revue stints at MGM. First, Peter dances with his ex-wife in his gig (the wife has a pumpkin outfit on at this point), then Jack Sprat licks the plate clean and gets carried off by his wife; also, Goosey Gander and Humpty Dumpty dance gleefully until being forced off by Simple Simon...or was it Napolean Blown-Aparte? Whatever--Miss Muffet must have given him the spider that scared her out of her wits.
After that, the three little kittens (via MGM mockery) show up and dance a little, then another vision-impaired trio of mice (before they were mouseketeers) show up and snack on the cheese that was set up behind them. Finally, the true showstoppers that arrived were the ten little indians...and they had to have been making Cleveland dance along with the King Cole Club crowd. The crowd could not take it anymore as soon as King Cole started dancing and indian-chanting. Bo Peep sure had a ball dancing on Cole's belly! Even Mother Hubbard spun Cole like a top into the fountain.
As Cole was about to dance again, the bedlam was suddenly put to a halt as Pandora's Box exploded...and a grandfather clock appeared with the three most influential mice of the cartoon. Hickory Dickory had "docked" the party by showing that it was midnight. So, the party was over and everyone headed home, thanking Cole on their way out. After everyone left, Cole make his good-night proclamation, and he closed up shop by closing his castle...and the book as the cartoon ended...but not without leaving the milk bottle out for the morning milkman.
If there was no such thing as Hickory Dickory Dock to enforce a curfew on the party, would the characters be still partying or would they all have passed out by now? I wouldn't be Humpty Dumpty in either case.
--- Tom Wilkins