"A Silly Symphony"
Release Date January 5, 1935
Running Time 8:37
Synopsis
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Technical Specifications
Released by United Artists Pictures
Comments
OK, so this is one of the very few Silly Symphonies where we all know what is going to happen. Usually, there is some tense drama that occurs during the second half of those cartoons, however, this one is an exception even if Aesop doesn't say so.
We all know that it's a simple race between Toby Tortoise (slow but sure) and Max Hare (blue streak). The animals are all on the hare's side - even the skunks who received special seating. Toby, meanwhile, stumbles out of the gate and gets mocked by all in attendance. Toby wishes Max well, but Max arrogantly tells him that he won't beat him too bad, so as they shake, Max pulls the hand away twice on the poor turtle.
The raccoon signals the start of the race and Max gets off to a flying start, leaving Toby spinning at the starting gate. The raccoon assists by shooting a few pellets at his shell and Toby finally gets going, but not until Max leaves a tree, a stork, an owl, and almost anything in his path in the dust. Max decides to pull under a little tree and take a nap while Toby is casually galloping with the snails around him. To Toby's disbelief, he sees Max sleeping, so quietly he tip-toes by Max and takes the lead. Little does Toby know that Max was playing possum with him, so once Toby got out to what looked to be a safe lead, Max ignored all speed limit rules and nearly broke the sound barrier by whizzing by Toby. It was such a gust of speed that Toby's hat remained airborne for at least 10 seconds!
The biggest mistake Max made (which later cost him the race) was stopping in front of four female bunnies (possible Funny Little Bunny rejects) who called him over. They all think that Max is handsome, so Max decides to impress the bunnies - but before he does, Toby passes Max and ignores all calls by the bunnies even though he did crash into a tree stump. Thinking that he still has this race in the bag, Max decides to put on a one-hare show by playing solitare Robin Hood (he shoots the arrow at an apple he puts on his head and splits it in two), solitare baseball, and solitare tennis. By the time his show is finished, the bunnies have won him over. However...
... a huge scream comes from the crowd as they see a shocker in the making. The tortoise is way ahead of Max at this point, so Max has to go and finish Toby off. Max makes one last mistake by blowing kisses at the bunnies as he speeds his merry way. The gap would close very quickly for sure.
Toby sees Max come from nowhere, so Toby had to pull off a trick of his own to fend him off. Toby pulls up his shell and stretches his legs and runs for the finish line. Max closes the gap very quickly, and just as they saw the finish line, Max thought he had closed the entire gap, but Toby stretches his neck as long as he could and crossed the finish line before Max did - by a foot and a half (well, I meant a neck and a half). To the crowd's delight, and Max's disbelief, Toby was carried off by the animals as the cartoon closes. Replays of the finish clearly showed that Toby did cross the finish line before Max did.
The moral? Slow and steady wins the race ... most of the time. If Max's racing career was that short-lived, imagine what his boxing career was like two years later.
-- Tom Wilkins
Gallery
Sketches of Toby Tortoise and Max Hare courtesy of Van Eaton Galleries.
Click on the thumbnail for the full-sized picture
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