The Cookie Carnival

Last updated

The Cookie Carnival
The Cookie Carnival.jpg
Directed by Ben Sharpsteen
Story by Pinto Colvig
Ted Sears
Produced by Walt Disney
StarringPinto Colvig
Shirley Reed
Music by Leigh Harline
Animation byPaul Allen
Johnny Cannon
Ugo D'Orsi
Nick George
Ferdinand Horvath
Jack Kinney
John McManus
Grim Natwick
Milt Schaffer
Leonard Sebring
Fred Spencer
Edward Strickland
Frank Thomas
Don Towsley
Bill Tytla
Color process Technicolor
Production
company
Distributed by United Artists
Release date
  • May 25, 1935 (1935-05-25)
Running time
8 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Cookie Carnival is an animated short produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released May 25, 1935. [1] It is a Cinderella story involving a cookie girl who wishes to be queen at the cookie carnival, [2] and a homage to the Atlantic City boardwalk parade and bathing beauty contest (what eventually became the Miss America pageant) 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. [3] It will enter the public domain in 2031 in accordance with current copyright laws.

Contents

Plot

Various sweets and goodies of Cookietown are preparing to crown their new cookie queen. A parade of potential candidates passes by, all based on various cakes and sweets. Far from the parade, on what would appear to be the wrong side of the peppermint stick railroad tracks, a gingerbread man overhears a sugar cookie girl crying. Upon hearing that she can't enter the parade, because she doesn't have any clothes that are nice enough to wear for it, he hurries to remedy her situation by concocting a ballgown of cupcake wrappers, colored frosting, and candy hearts. He covers her brown hair with golden taffy ringlets and adds a large, violet bow to her dress as a finishing touch. Thus attired, she is entered as the final contestant in the parade: Ms. Bonbon.

The judges, who have thus far been disappointed in the candidates, all promptly declare Ms. Bonbon the cookie queen on sight. The gingerbread man is practically trampled in the sudden surge of the crowd as they carry Ms. Bonbon to her throne, where they place a golden crown on her head. Then she is presented with a large layer cake, which appears to be a carousel of different vaudeville acts. Every queen needs a king, so the newly crowned cookie queen has to choose a husband from those featured.

After being presented with a duet of tap-dancing candy cane kids, a pair of old-fashioned barbershop cookies, a pair of effeminate angel food cakes, two scat-singing devil food cakes, two acrobatic upside-down cakes, and three tipsy rum cookies, the queen refuses all of them with a giggle and a shake of her head. The judges, with no other suitors to present to her, offer her to marry one of them or all three of them.

At that moment, the gingerbread man, who has been attempting to gain a closer vintage point, sneaks up onto the dais. He is accosted by the guards who split his cupcake paper hat and tear off a piece of the red jelly roll carpet he was hiding under, so that he looks like he is wearing a crown and an ermine-lined cloak. The cookie queen tells the guards to stop and declares the gingerbread man as her king. He is immediately released, and the new king takes his place beside his beloved sugar cookie queen. Their closing kiss melts the lollipop intended to screen them from view.

Characters

The "Queen of the Cookie Carnival" Contestants

Candy Dates (Cookie King hopefuls)

Production

Pinto Colvig, most known as the voice of Goofy, provides the voice of the gingerbread man. Vaudeville was dying out by the time The Cookie Carnival made its debut, but audiences would have been familiar with each of the acts represented by the different cookies.

When Miss Bonbon is being outfitted, she transitions from her cookie-like shape into a more humanoid-appearance (especially apparent between creating her dress and powdering her cheeks). This might make her another early example of visually realistic human characters in Disney shorts, and even a precursor to the Snow White look in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs .

Comic adaptation

The Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip ran a three-month-long adaptation of The Cookie Carnival called "Cookieland" from April 28 to July 21, 1935. [4]

Home media

The short was released on December 4, 2001 on Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies - The Historic Musical Animated Classics . [5] [1] Prior to that, the featurette also appeared on the Walt Disney Cartoon Classics Limited Gold Edition: Silly Symphonies VHS in the 1980s. Most recently, "The Cookie Carnival" was released as a segment in 2005's direct-to-video title Disney Princess: A Christmas of Enchantment.

Related Research Articles

<i>The Wise Little Hen</i> 1934 Silly Symphony cartoon

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pinto Colvig</span> American voice actor

Vance DeBar Colvig Sr., known professionally as Pinto Colvig, was an American voice actor, cartoonist, and circus and vaudeville performer whose schtick was playing the clarinet off-key while mugging. Colvig was the original performer of the Disney characters Goofy and Pluto, as well as Bozo the Clown. In 1993, he was posthumously made a Disney Legend for his contributions to Walt Disney Films, including Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fun and Fancy Free.

<i>Babes in the Woods</i> 1932 animated short film directed by Burt Gillett

Babes in the Woods is a 1932 Silly Symphonies animated film.

<i>Three Little Pigs</i> (film) 1933 short animated film directed by Burt Gillett

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.

<i>Three Little Wolves</i> (film) Three Little Wolves film

Three Little Wolves is a Silly Symphony cartoon. Released on April 18, 1936, and directed by Dave Hand. It was the third Silly Symphony cartoon starring the Three Little Pigs. It is loosely based on The Boy Who Cried Wolf. It introduces the Big Bad Wolf's sons, the Three Little Wolves, all of them just as eager for a taste of the pigs as their father.

Elmer Elephant is a Silly Symphony cartoon short produced by The Walt Disney Company, directed by Wilfred Jackson and released on March 28, 1936.

Music Land is a Silly Symphony animated Disney short released in 1935.

<i>The Big Bad Wolf</i> (1934 film) 1934 film

The Big Bad Wolf is an animated short released on April 13, 1934, by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by Burt Gillett as part of the Silly Symphony series. Acting partly as a sequel to the wildly successful adaptation of The Three Little Pigs of the previous year, this film also acts as an adaptation of the fairy-tale Little Red Riding Hood, with the Big Bad Wolf from 1933's Three Little Pigs acting as the adversary to Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother.

<i>The Tortoise and the Hare</i> (film) 1935 film

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.

<i>King Neptune</i> (film) 1932 film

King Neptune is a 1932 cartoon by Walt Disney, the second in the Silly Symphonies series produced in Technicolor. While Flowers and Trees was originally intended as a black and white cartoon, King Neptune was meant to be in colors already from the start, and was able to take full advantage of this.

<i>Old King Cole</i> (film) 1933 American film

Old King Cole is a Disney cartoon in the Silly Symphonies series, based on several nursery rhymes and fairy tales, including Old King Cole. It was directed by David Hand and released on July 29, 1933.

<i>The Grasshopper and the Ants</i> (film) 1934 American film

The Grasshopper and the Ants is a 1934 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists. Part of the Silly Symphonies series, the film is an adaptation of The Ant and the Grasshopper, one of Aesop's Fables. It was directed by Wilfred Jackson and stars Pinto Colvig as the voice of the grasshopper Hop.

Mother Pluto is a Silly Symphonies cartoon released on November 14, 1936, directed by Wilfred Jackson. The cartoon features Pluto.

<i>Three Blind Mouseketeers</i> 1936 American film

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.

<i>Wynken, Blynken and Nod</i> (film) 1938 American film

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.

Mother Goose Melodies is a 1931 Silly Symphonies animated film, directed by Burt Gillett. Two years later it was semi remade in Technicolor as Old King Cole.

<i>Just Dogs</i> 1932 film

Just Dogs is a 1932 animated film part of the Silly Symphony series, directed by Burt Gillett. It marked the first solo appearance of Pluto.

<i>Bugs in Love</i> 1932 film

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.

<i>The Goddess of Spring</i> 1934 American film

The Goddess of Spring is a 9-minute Silly Symphonies animated Disney short film. The Symphony is imbued with operatic themes and is often cited as melodramatic. It was released in 1934, and its production was important to the future development of Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs animation. Each Silly Symphony was a technological marvel at the time and proceeded to further advancements in the animation industry.

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.

References

  1. 1 2 Merritt, Russell; Kaufman, J. B. (2016). Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (2nd ed.). Glendale, CA: Disney Editions. pp. 162–163. ISBN   978-1-4847-5132-9.
  2. DisneyShorts.org Archived 2009-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
  3. Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series. 1964: July-December. Library of Congress. 1967. p. 2225.
  4. Duvall, Earl; Taliaferro, Al; Osborne, Ted; De Maris, Merrill (2016). Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics, vol 1. San Diego: IDW Publishing. ISBN   978-1631405587.
  5. "Silly Symphonies: The Historic Musical Animated Classics DVD Review". DVD Dizzy. Retrieved February 20, 2021.