Good start, but then it gets ruined

Disturbing yet enthralling

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

A very boring Silly Symphony cartoon where you see a host of arctic animals on ice blocks and shores, screeching and performing to various musical numbers. There's no plot, annoying sound effects, and unremarkable music. Animation was OK and the characters were nicely drawn, but the overall cartoon was a drag to watch.Grade D---

This is a short from the Silly Symphonies series released by Disney. There will be spoilers ahead:In many ways, this short is basically just one of a dozen similar ones, where the short is differentiated by the locale. This is essentially Frolicking Fish in the Arctic with only a few minor variants. The animation is excellent and most of the gags are enjoyable. There isn't a whole lot of novelty here.The short opens with critters (mostly polar bears) frolic on ice floes. There's a polar bear cub which yips like a dog as it jumps from floe to older polar bear and then into the water.Then you see seals and a walrus or two and more dancing, frolicking and music. The best bit here is a seal trying the patience of a walrus enormously by using him as an instrument. We're treated to "singing" as well.We close with penguins, moving mostly in unison, save for one who's rather out of sync. Cute, but nothing special.This short is available on the Disney Treasures More Silly Symphonies DVD set and both this and the set are recommended.

Okay, I have to get this off my chest. Why did Disney put polar bears and penguins together? Not only would the bears eat the penguins, but they come from completely opposite parts of the world! Yes, I know that Coke also puts these two critters together but in the wild this would never happen. Trust me on this folks.Now that I have gotten this off my chest, let's get to the film "Arctic Antics". It's a very good black & white cartoon from Disney marketed under the 'Silly Symphonies' label. These were generally very sweet little cartoons with lots of critters dancing about to the music---and not the familiar sort of characters like Mickey and Donald. In the case of this film, lots of cute animals dance about in the frozen North--all accompanied by the usual sort of musical score. While the animation is not among the company's best, it is quite enjoyable and gets points for being quite cute without being cloying. Well worth seeing.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.The denizens of the North Pole are engaged in ARCTIC ANTICS. The penguins, seals, polar bear, and even a large walrus are marching about, jumping & dancing & slapping their bottoms an amazing number of times...This black & white cartoon has an invisible plot and is basically an exercise in action/reaction animation. The Disney animators seem to know a curiously large number of posterior gags. Notice that the face of the polar bear cub enjoys a remarkable resemblance to that of Mickey Mouse.The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.