"A Silly Symphony"
Synopsis
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Released by United Artists Pictures
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From Jerry Edwards : This short is well done and nicely animated. But I've never cared much for the original Pied Piper story.
From Bryan Hensley : This Silly Symphony was a great one. I have 2 slightly different versions of The Pied Piper on Disney DVD; Disney's Timeless Tales Volume 1 and volume 3 of Disney's Animation Collection. Even though both discs have an unrestored cut of this short, I've noticed something funny between them. The Timeless Tales version had the short with enhanced music (It sounded crystal clear to my ears!), and the new Animation Collection version had the whole short with its original soundtrack. As in, no enhanced music. That's no real biggie to me, it's still a classic story nonetheless! If any of you have both of these discs at once, or the Disney Treasures tin it was in for you collectors, just listen and you'll see what I mean. Something similar happened in Father Noah's Ark in 1933 as well; on VHS and on TV years ago.
Referenced Comments
In the town of Hamelin, many years ago, the citizens were crying out a tearful tale of woe. Yes, Hamelin was contaminated with more rats than you can count! The townspeople had no prayer getting rid of all the rats because they were severely outnumbered; food establishments had no chance because the rats were always hungry and eating everything in site - don't ask me how cheese companies would fare. Needless to say, the rats certainly were never hungry. However, the people literally cried out, "enough is too much."
Everyone in Hamelin rallied together and got the message across loud and clear to the mayor, "We gotta get rid of the rats!" Well, the mayor speaks out (well, sings out) about the serious dilemna; which the rats took very unkindly by hissing at him. At this point, the Pied Piper walks into town with the community pleading for someone to do something, while the mayor offers a shiny bag of gold as a reward for whomever gets rid of the rats. (Thank heavens they weren't guinea pigs!)
Out of nowhere, the piper speaks out and promises the mayor that he would single-handedly get rid of the rats. He fulfills what he said, begins to swoon his harmonic pipe (shaped like the cheapest recorder you could find at any elementary school), marches like John Phillip Sousa while playing like Benny Goodman standing up - and the rats follow him out of the town gates. The community goes nuts, except they forgot to let one rat out after a few people closed the gates. Those same people were much obliged to reopen the gates and let the last rat out of town, to the community's delight. The piper subsequently uses his own imagination by picturing an imaginary large chunk of cheese. To the rats' surprise, they run into the cheese, wanting whatever was there in this enormous snack - then the piper musically plays his pipe and makes the cheese (and the rats) disappear.
The piper returns to supposedly collect his bag of gold - and the mayor decides to join the townspeople in some advanced Benedict Arnold politicing. To the piper's dismay, the mayor and his townspeople show their true colors by hysterically mocking him all because the piper played a tune while leading the rats out of town, so all the cheapskate mayor flipped to him was one gold coin. The piper vehemently exclaims the dishonesty and promises to save the children of Hamelin before they get vacuumed into such tyranny. After flipping the coin away, the piper decides to pipe away again - only this time he leads the children out of town to some unknown destination. The music immediately delights the overworked children and they come running to follow the piper - even the stork, who was about to make a delivery, was following the fold. A disadvantaged child could not keep up with the rest of the crowd of youngsters but wanted every part of this journey. All the mayor and all the townspeople could do was watch in disbelief.
When everyone arrived at the mountain, the piper tooted one more time and the mountain opened, and the children ran with exhilaration into a picturesque toyland, where there would be nothing but happiness for all. Even the disadvantaged child was instantly healed when he saw this happy place. He threw down his crutches. The piper picked up after him, but figured he did not need them - so he threw the crutches away as he closed the mountain and this cartoon.
--- Tom Wilkins