Silly Symphony

Silly Symphony (also known as Silly Symphonies) was a series of animated short films produced by Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939.

Disney studios

After the films changed to sound, Walt Disney began making Mickey Mouse and musical Silly Symphony shorts. To keep costs down Disney produced his own music. Disney's first music director and composer was Carl Stalling. The Mickey Mouse shorts used pop music while the Silly Symphony cartoons used Classical music. In 1932 the studio produced its first cartoon in Technicolor, Flowers and Trees. The success of the song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?, from the Silly Symphony short Three Little Pigs (1933), convinced Disney to keep producing original music. It was at this time Disney introduced the characters of Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Minnie Mouse. Over its ten year run, Silly Symphonies had won Walt Disney the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film seven times, eventually tied with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbara's Tom and Jerry's record for most awards for a cartoon series in the category. It spawned numerous imitators and competitors (like Warner Bros' Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes). United StatesFebruary 29, 1929 BrazilDecember 25, 1929 United KingdomJuly 21, 1930 UruguaySeptember 11, 1930 MexicoDecember 25, 1931 PortugalMarch 16, 1932 IrelandApril 3, 1932 GreeceApril 10, 1933 SwedenOctober 7, 1933- Argentinian in Chilean SpanishDecember 11, 1934

(Silly Symphony) IcelandFebruary 28, 1934 SpainMarch 23, 1935 ItalyApril 12, 1935 CanadaAugust 1, 1936 CzechoslovakiaDecember 17, 1936 Hong KongOctober 16, 1937 NorwayOctober 31, 1937 BulgariaDecember 25, 1938  SwitzerlandDecember 25, 1938 (German speaking region) Soviet UnionDecember 25, 1938 YugoslaviaJuly 31, 1938 FinlandNovember 4, 1938 PolandAugust 7, 1939 AustriaJanuary 12, 1939 DenmarkApril 2, 1939 West GermanyOctober 10, 1939 ThailandJune 13, 1939 BelgiumAugust 14, 1939 IndiaDecember 25, 1939 TurkeyAugust 15, 1939 JapanSeptember 23, 1939 South KoreaOctober 3, 1939 MaltaJuly 31, 1939 New ZealandJune 29, 1941 South AfricaJune 29, 1941 LebanonDecember 25, 1947 IranMarch 16, 1954 MoroccoMarch 16, 1954 EgyptMarch 26, 1954 IndonesiaJune 17, 1954 QatarJune 17, 1954 SingaporeJune 17, 1954 Sri LankaApril 26, 1965 KuwaitJune 4, 1966 IsraelNovember 8, 1971

Franchise

The series also spawned a Disney media franchise which included the newspaper comic strip Silly Symphony, the Dell comic book series Silly Symphonies, as well as several children's books, many of which were based on Silly Symphony cartoons.

List of movies

#	Title	Release date	Director	Notes
1	The Skeleton Dance	August 22, 1929	Walt Disney	Clips of this short have been featured in both Disney and non-Disney productions.
2	El Terrible Toreador	September 7, 1929	Walt Disney
3	Springtime	October 24, 1929	Ub Iwerks	Seen in One Hundred and One Dalmatians
4	Hell's Bells	October 30, 1929	Ub Iwerks	Featuring Satan, the Grim Reaper, Cerberus, and various unnamed demons of Hell.
5	The Merry Dwarfs	December 16, 1929	Walt Disney
6	Summer	January 6, 1930	Ub Iwerks
7	Autumn	February 13, 1930	Ub Iwerks
8	Cannibal Capers	March 13, 1930	Burt Gillett
9	Frolicking Fish	May 8, 1930	Burt Gillett	Introduced continuous movements or ’overlapping action’ in animation, instead of the old stop-and-go movements.
10	Arctic Antics	June 5, 1930	Ub Iwerks
11	Midnight in a Toy Shop	July 3, 1930	Wilfred Jackson
12	Night	July 31, 1930	Walt Disney
13	Monkey Melodies	August 10, 1930	Burt Gillett
14	Winter	November 5, 1930	Burt Gillett
15	Playful Pan	December 28, 1930	Burt Gillett	Featuring Pan
16	Birds of a Feather	February 10, 1931	Burt Gillett
17	Mother Goose Melodies	April 17, 1931	Burt Gillett	Featuring among others Humpty Dumpty, Jack and Jill, Little Bo Peep, Little Boy Blue, Little Jack Horner, Mother Goose, Old King Cole, and Simple Simon.
18	The China Plate	May 25, 1931	Wilfred Jackson	Retelling of the Willow pattern legend.
19	The Busy Beavers	June 22, 1931	Burt Gillett
20	The Cat's Out	July 28, 1931	Wilfred Jackson
21	Egyptian Melodies	August 21, 1931	Wilfred Jackson
22	The Clock Store	September 30, 1931	Wilfred Jackson
23	The Spider and the Fly	October 16, 1931	Wilfred Jackson
24	The Fox Hunt	November 18, 1931	Wilfred Jackson	Remade in 1938 as the Donald & Goofy film The Fox Hunt
25	The Ugly Duckling	December 16, 1931	Wilfred Jackson	Based on a story by Hans Christian Andersen; remade in 1939
26	The Bird Store	January 16, 1932	Wilfred Jackson
27	The Bears and the Bees	March 12, 1932	Wilfred Jackson
28	Just Dogs	April 16, 1932	Burt Gillett	Featuring the first starring role of Pluto (Mickey Mouse does not appear)
29	Flowers and Trees	July 30, 1932	Burt Gillett	First cartoon produced in Technicolor; won the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
30	King Neptune	September 17, 1932	Burton Gillett	Featuring Neptune as the "King of the Sea"
31	Bugs in Love	October 1, 1932	Burt Gillett	Last black-and-white Silly Symphony
32	Babes in the Woods	November 19, 1932	Burt Gillett	Featuring Hansel and Gretel
33	Santa's Workshop	December 3, 1932	Wilfred Jackson	Featuring Santa Claus
34	Birds in the Spring	March 11, 1933	David Hand
35	Father Noah's Ark	April 8, 1933	Wilfred Jackson	Featuring Noah, Ham, Japheth, Shem and their respective wives, as well as a cavalcade of animals. The "building the ark" music is an adaptation of Beethoven's Contradanse in C Major, WoO 14 No. 1. The short itself would be referenced several times in the Pomp and Circumstance segment of Fantasia 2000
36	Three Little Pigs	May 27, 1933	Burt Gillett	Featuring the namesake characters and the Big Bad Wolf; won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
37	Old King Cole	July 29, 1933	David Hand	Featuring the namesake character along with various nursery rhyme characters
38	The Pied Piper	September 16, 1933	Wilfred Jackson	Adaptation of The Pied Piper of Hamelin
39	Lullaby Land	November 11, 1933	Wilfred Jackson	Featuring the Sandman
40	The Night Before Christmas	December 2, 1933	Wilfred Jackson	Featuring Santa Claus
41	The China Shop	January 13, 1934	Wilfred Jackson
42	The Grasshopper and the Ants	February 17, 1934	Wilfred Jackson	Based on a fable by Aesop
43	Funny Little Bunnies	March 10, 1934	Wilfred Jackson
44	The Big Bad Wolf	April 14, 1934	Burt Gillett	Featuring the title character along with the Three Little Pigs and Little Red Riding Hood
45	The Wise Little Hen	May 19, 1934	Wilfred Jackson	Debut of Donald Duck
46	The Flying Mouse	July 14, 1934	David Hand
47	Peculiar Penguins	October 20, 1934	Wilfred Jackson
48	The Goddess of Spring	December 8, 1934	Wilfred Jackson	Featuring Persephone and a version of her uncle-husband Hades/Pluto, identified here with Satan. The Disney animators' first attempt to create visually realistic human characters.
49	The Tortoise and the Hare	January 19, 1935	Wilfred Jackson	Featuring Max Hare and Toby Tortoise; won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
50	The Golden Touch	February 16, 1935	Walt Disney	Featuring Midas and Goldie the elf
51	The Robber Kitten	April 13, 1935	David Hand
52	Water Babies	May 11, 1935	Wilfred Jackson
53	The Cookie Carnival	June 15, 1935	Ben Sharpsteen	A homage to the Atlantic City boardwalk parade and bathing beauty contest of the 1920s and 30s (which became the Miss America Pageant)
54	Who Killed Cock Robin?	July 6, 1935	David Hand	Includes caricatures of Mae West (Jenny Wren), Bing Crosby (Cock Robin), Harpo Marx (the cuckoo), and Steppin Fetchit (the blackbird); incorporated into Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage.
55	Music Land	September 14, 1935	Wilfred Jackson
56	Three Orphan Kittens	October 19, 1935	David Hand	Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
57	Cock 'o the Walk	November 9, 1935	Ben Sharpsteen
58	Broken Toys	December 14, 1935	Ben Sharpsteen	Some toys are caricatures of Hollywood stars.
59	Elmer Elephant	January 18, 1936	Wilfred Jackson
60	Three Little Wolves	March 14, 1936	David Hand	Featuring the title characters along with their father the Big Bad Wolf and his rivals the Three Little Pigs
61	Toby Tortoise Returns	April 18, 1936	Wilfred Jackson	Sequel to The Tortoise and the Hare; featuring cameo by Elmer Elephant and a parody of Harpo Marx
62	Three Blind Mouseketeers	June 20, 1936	David Hand
63	The Country Cousin	August 15, 1936	David Hand	Won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
64	Mother Pluto	October 10, 1936	David Hand	Featuring Pluto mothering a number of newly hatched chicks
65	More Kittens	November 7, 1936	David Hand, Wilfred Jackson
66	Woodland Café	January 17, 1937	Wilfred Jackson	Contains animator Ward Kimball's first animating assignment
67	Little Hiawatha	February 21, 1937	David Hand	The last Silly Symphony distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists
68	The Old Mill	October 22, 1937	Wilfred Jackson	Disney's first use of the multiplane camera and the first Silly Symphony distributed by RKO Radio Pictures; won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
69	Moth and the Flame	April 1, 1938	Burt Gillett
70	Wynken, Blynken and Nod	May 27, 1938	Graham Heid
71	Farmyard Symphony	October 14, 1938	Jack Cutting
72	Merbabies	December 9, 1938	Rudolf Ising, Vernon Stallings	Outsourced to Harman and Ising after the studio donated inkers and painters to the Disney studio to complete Snow White
73	Mother Goose Goes Hollywood	December 23, 1938	Wilfred Jackson	Last film showing a Silly Symphony title card; features multiple caricatures of Hollywood film stars and a cameo by Donald Duck
74	The Practical Pig	February 24, 1939	Dick Rickard	Featuring the Three Little Pigs, the Big Bad Wolf and the Three Little Wolves; released as a Three Little Pigs standalone short
75	The Ugly Duckling	April 7, 1939	Jack Cutting	Remake of the 1931 film and the only Silly Symphony story to be remade; won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film