Academy Award Revue of Walt Disney Cartoons (May 19, 1937)

This film was released for only a limited time to help promote Walt Disney’s first animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It was a collection of five Oscar winning Silly Symphonies shorts, each having been released previously to this collection. The original film only had 5 shorts, but the subsequent 1966 re-release added four additional shorts which I also watched. I had seen bits of most of the films before but seeing them together was very charming. The animation was great, and the stories were short and compact but enjoyable. I can see how they won Oscars, especially at the time of release! The four additional shorts, however, were more interesting than the original five. The original shorts were, Flowers and Trees, Three Little Pigs, The Tortoise and the Hare, Three Orphan Kittens, and The Country Cousins while the four additional shorts were, The Old Mill, Ferdinand and the Bull, The Ugly Duckling, and Lend a Paw. My favorite of the shorts were The Ugly Duckling and The Old Mill because they were largely silent, with a splash of narration, which allowed the shorts themselves to shine with their gorgeous animation and simple narratives set to great musical accompaniment. The original shorts, while overall more iconic and well known (particularly Three Little Pigs and The Tortoise and the Hare), were more lighthearted and unsubstantial.

Final Rating: 6.5/10