| Merbabies | |
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| Directed by | |
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| Produced by | |
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| Music by | Scott Bradley |
| Animation by | |
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| Color process | Technicolor |
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| Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
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Running time | 8:34 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Merbabies is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It was released on December 9, 1938. [2] It is a collaboration between Walt Disney and Harman and Ising, the latter studio having donated artists to Disney to work on the production of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). It is one of the last shorts of the Silly Symphonies series.
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A large number of identical redheaded "merbabies" materialize out of the crashing surf and are summoned to a playground on the ocean floor for an underwater circus in which marine creatures such as seahorses and starfish also take part, beginning with a parade. When a whale blows all the merbabies to the surface inside bubbles, they disappear into the waves from which they came. [3]
The short was released on the DVD of The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea and again on December 19, 2006, on Walt Disney Treasures: More Silly Symphonies, Volume Two . [2] It was released to Disney+ on September 8, 2023, with a 4K restoration. [4]
Silly Symphony is an American animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the Silly Symphonies were originally intended as whimsical accompaniments to pieces of music. As such, the films usually did not feature continuing characters, unlike the Mickey Mouse shorts produced by Disney at the same time. The series is notable for its innovation with Technicolor and the multiplane motion picture camera, as well as its introduction of the character Donald Duck, who made his first appearance in the Silly Symphony cartoon The Wise Little Hen in 1934. Seven shorts won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
Donald's Nephews is a 1938 Donald Duck animated cartoon which features Donald being visited by his three nephews, Huey, Dewey, and Louie. This cartoon is Huey, Dewey, and Louie's first appearance in animation. Al Taliaferro, the artist for the Silly Symphony comic strip, proposed the idea for the film, so that the studio would have duck counterparts to Morty and Ferdie Fieldmouse, the nephews of Mickey Mouse. The Walt Disney Productions Story Dept. on February 5, 1937, sent Taliaferro a memo recognizing him as the source of the idea for the planned short.
The Skeleton Dance is a 1929 Silly Symphony animated short subject with a comedy horror theme. It was produced and directed by Walt Disney and animated by Ub Iwerks. In the film, four human skeletons dance and make music around a spooky graveyard—a modern film example of medieval European "danse macabre" imagery. It is the first entry in the Silly Symphony series. In 1993, to coincide with the opening of Mickey's Toontown in Disneyland, a shortened cover of the cartoon's music was arranged to be featured in the land's background ambiance. The short's copyright was renewed in 1957, and as a published work from 1929 it will enter the US public domain on January 1, 2025.
Walt Disney Treasures is a series of two-disc DVD collections of Disney cartoons, television episodes and other material. They cover material from the studio's earliest days to its more recent work. There were nine waves, each containing two to four sets, for a total of 30 titles. All content is presented uncensored and uncut with digitally restored picture and remastered sound.
Happy Harmonies is a series of thirty-seven animated cartoons distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising between 1934 and 1938.
Three Little Pigs is a 1933 animated short film released by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by Burt Gillett. Based on the fable of the same name, the Silly Symphony won the 1934 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film. The short cost $22,000 and grossed $250,000.
Playful Pluto (1934) is a Walt Disney cartoon, directed by Burt Gillett. It was the first cartoon to showcase Pluto as a major character. It was the 65th Mickey Mouse short film, and the third of that year.
Three Orphan Kittens is a 1935 animated short film in the Silly Symphonies series produced by Walt Disney Productions. It was the winner of the 1935 Oscar for Academy Award for Best Short Subject (Cartoons). It was followed in 1936 by a sequel, More Kittens.
The China Shop, based on the fairy tale "The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep" by Hans Christian Andersen, is a short animated Disney cartoon, part of the Silly Symphonies series. The cartoon was released on January 13, 1934. The short was directed by Wilfred Jackson.
Three Blind Mouseketeers is a Silly Symphonies cartoon based on the nursery rhyme Three Blind Mice and the 1844 novel The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas. Directed by Dave Hand and Jack Cutting, it stars Billy Bletcher.
Wynken, Blynken & Nod is a 1938 Silly Symphonies cartoon, adapted from Eugene Field's poem of the same name. Like other Symphonies at the time, it utilized the multiplane camera. It was directed by Graham Heid, produced by Walt Disney Productions, and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. The three children bore similarities to Michael Darling in the 1953 Disney feature film, Peter Pan.
The Robber Kitten is a 1935 Walt Disney Silly Symphonies cartoon, directed by David Hand.
George Vernon Stallings was an American animation director and writer. He started working for Bray Productions in 1916 where he directed the Colonel Heeza Liar series of shorts, and the Krazy Kat shorts. He invented "the animation disk placed in the centre of the drawing board" in the 1920s. Its primary use by 1930 was as an aid in inking cels. He then worked for Van Beuren Studios from 1931 through 1934.
The Busy Beavers is a 1931 Silly Symphonies animated film, directed by Burt Gillett.
Cannibal Capers is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It was released on March 13, 1930.
Arctic Antics is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It was released on June 26, 1930.
Monkey Melodies is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It was released in 1930 as the 13th film in the Silly Symphony Series.
The Cat's Out is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It was released in 1931. The Cat's Out was a working title that survives on an existing vault print; the short was originally copyrighted and released as The Cat's Nightmare.
Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics is a book series which reprints Walt Disney's Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip, drawn by several different Disney artists from 1932 to 1945. The strip was published by King Features Syndicate. The strip often introduced new Disney characters to the public, including its first comic character, Bucky Bug. The series was published by The Library of American Comics from 2016 to 2019.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) Silly Symphony film series | |
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