Theodore H. Osborne was an American writer of comics, radio shows and animated films, remembered for his contributions to the creation and refinement, during the 1930s, of Walt Disney cartoon characters.
The Wise Little Hen is a 1934 Walt Disney's Silly Symphony cartoon, based on the fable The Little Red Hen. The cartoon features the debut of Donald Duck, dancing to "The Sailor's Hornpipe". Donald and his friend Peter Pig try to avoid work by faking stomach aches until Mrs. Hen teaches them the value of labor.
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 making 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 Practical Pig is a Silly Symphony cartoon. It was released on February 24, 1939, and directed by Dick Rickard. It was the fourth and final cartoon starring The Three Pigs. Like its predecessors, The Practical Pig incorporates the song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?". Unlike its predecessors however, its title cards labeled it as a standalone Three Little Pigs cartoon, suggesting that they were to get their own series of cartoons. It is also the second-to-last Silly Symphony cartoon.
Elmer Elephant is a Silly Symphony cartoon short produced by The Walt Disney Company, directed by Wilfred Jackson and released on March 28, 1936.
Owen Earl Duvall was an American artist and animator best known for his work on Disney comic strips in the early 1930s and for a handful of animated short films he directed at Warner Bros. Cartoons.
The first wave of Walt Disney Treasures was released on December 4, 2001. It includes four different DVD sets.
The Tortoise and the Hare is an American animated short film part of the Silly Symphony series, released on January 5, 1935, by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by Wilfred Jackson. Based on an Aesop's fable of the same name, it won the 1934 Oscar for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. This cartoon is also believed to be one of the inspirations for Bugs Bunny by Warner Bros., who first appeared in 1940.
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 Cookie Carnival is an animated short produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released May 25, 1935. It is a Cinderella story involving a cookie girl who wishes to be queen at the cookie carnival, and a homage to the Atlantic City boardwalk parade and bathing beauty contest of the 1920s and 1930s. Contrary to the claim in Film Superlist: 1894-1939, the film is not in the public domain as its copyright was renewed in 1964. It will enter the public domain in 2031 in accordance with current copyright laws.
Mother Pluto is a Silly Symphonies cartoon released on November 14, 1936, directed by Wilfred Jackson. The cartoon features Pluto.
Who Killed Cock Robin is a Silly Symphonies short released on June 26, 1935, by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by David Hand. It is based on the nursery rhyme Who Killed Cock Robin?. It was nominated for the Best Short Subject (Cartoons) Oscar but lost to Disney's own Three Orphan Kittens.
Birds of a Feather is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It was released on February 10, 1931, by Columbia Pictures.
Bugs in Love is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It was released in 1932, and was the final Symphony to be shot with black-and-white film.
Peculiar Penguins is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It was released in 1934.
Woodland Café is a Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. It was filmed in Technicolor and released by United Artists in 1937 and was re-issued by RKO Radio Pictures in 1948. While it contained no on-screen credits, Wilfred Jackson was the director and Leigh Harline was the musical director.
Farmyard Symphony is a 1938 Silly Symphonies animated short film. It can be seen as a precursor to Fantasia due to using various pieces of classical music in one short. The film was directed by Jack Cutting and produced by Walt Disney.
Broken Toys is an 8-minute 1935 animation by Disney in the Silly Symphonies series. The toys in the story include caricatures of W.C. Fields, Zasu Pitts, Ned Sparks and Stepin Fetchit. Broken Toys was originally scheduled to follow Elmer Elephant and Three Little Wolves but was moved ahead of these titles in order to have it ready for a Christmas release.
Silly Symphony, initially titled Silly Symphonies, was a weekly Disney comic strip that debuted on January 10, 1932, as a topper for the Mickey Mouse strip's Sunday page. The strip featured adaptations of Walt Disney's popular short film series, Silly Symphony, which released 75 cartoons from 1929 to 1939, as well as other cartoons and animated films. The comic strip outlived its parent series by six years, ending on October 7, 1945.
