"A Silly Symphony"

Release Date December 14, 1935

Synopsis

A discarded toy soldier tossed onto a junk pile rallies the spirits of his fellow cast-offs and founds an ersatz hospital to repair them.

Credits

Director : Ben Sharpsteen

Animation

Grim Natwick

Art Babbitt

Cut Scenes

Some short scenes featuring Chinese and black dolls have been cut.

Videos

Germany

Verrückte Musikanten

France

Silly Symphonies Volume 1

Italy

Silly Symphonies Volume 2

Laserdiscs

Japan

More Silly Symphonies

DVD

United States

Disney Treasures : More Silly Symphonies

Television

The Ink and Paint Club : #18 : A Bunch of Silly Symphonies

Technical Specifications

Color Type : Technicolor

Animation type : Standard

Sound mix : Mono

Aspect ration : 1.37 : 1

Negative format : 35mm

Print format : 35mm

Cinematographic process : Spherical

Original language : English

Released by United Artists Pictures

Comments

A Silly Symphony.

The Jack-In-the-Box seen here is a charicature of dead-pan film comedian Ned Sparks. The rag-doll is a spoof of character actress Zasu Pitts.

From Jerry Edwards : Discarded toys at the city dump decide to repair themselves. A soldier doll, acting as a surgeon, restores the sight of a girl doll. At the end, the toys march to the orphanage to their new life as toys for the orphans. I enjoyed the imaginative ways the toys repair themselves. I enjoy the sentimentality of the short, even though overdone in spots. I have never seen the original color uncensored short. I have seen it uncensored in black and white.

The black and white copy I previously stated as complete was also censored. I recently received an uncensored copy - it contains some of the most serious black racial stereotype scenes that have appeared in Disney works. It contains about 1 1/2 minutes of Stepin Fetchit type scenes - a lazy, slow black male doll. It also contains a "Mammy" black female doll. The censored version comes across as a sweet, innocent film - the uncensored scenes turns this into a somewhat "mean spirited" cartoon (by today's standards.)

From Ryan : In the opening sequence of this short, we see a truck dumping discarded toys into the junkyard. Refusing to give up hope, the toy sailor proposes they fix each other up. A fat plush police officer gives an old rag doll a sawdust transfusion, a Stepin Fetchit marionette shines his head with shoe polish, and the sailor performs open surgery on the girl doll, giving her a new pair of eyes. While this short doesn't add too much interest for me, I really like the animation. I also enjoy the Stepin Fetchit coon marionette and the mammy rag doll.

Character sketches from "Broken Toys"
Courtesy of Wonderful World of Animation

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