This is How Movies Should Be Made

That was an excellent one.

People are voting emotionally.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

AND YET WE have another example of the Disney Production crew bringing us an example of creating a cartoon around the caricaturing of popular Hollywood figures. Due to the successes achieved by the Studio with the titles such as MICKEY"S GALA PREMIER (1934), MICKEY"S POLO TEAM (1936)and the Donald Duck vehicle, THE AUTOGRAPH HOUND (1938), the subject had grown into a favourite; being repeated often.IN MANY RESPECTS, this entry belongs at the top of the list. With its multitude of episodic gags, each and every one being tailored to both the Mother Goose Story and to the Star(s) being fitted to the mannerisms and physicality of that subject, it has a unity of purpose and theme. That it is both diverse and concise at once.ONE OF THE main differences that separates this from the other is that there is no Disney character that is cast in the main, starring role. Other than the very brief appearance of Donald Duck, in what can only be described as the quintessence of the Cameo, no other regular cartoon characters appear.THE CARTOON LIKNESSES of the Elite of Film-land, on the other hand, are legion in their numbers. Going chapter by chapter, the all so familiar stories of the Mother Goose are lampooned by the infusion of the stars persona. For example, we have Katherine Hepburn as LITTLE BO PEEP, Charles Laughton (as Captain Bligh from MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY), and both Spencer Tracy & Freddie Bartholomew (from CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS) as the THREE MEN IN A TUB.THE MANY OTHER appearances we find are: Hugh Herbert, Ned Sparks, the Marx Brothers, Eddie Anderson, Laurel & Hardy, Edward G. Robinson, Greta Garbo, Eddie Cantor, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, Lincoln Perry (Stepin Fetchit), Fred Astair and many others.BEING THAT THIS Cartoon was a part of the SILLY SYMPHONY Series, one could infer and assume that the Musical Score would be both important and elaborate. Well, you'd be right. All the way from the opening Theme to the various musical quotations that appear in the incidental music, it is outstanding and indeed a great listening experience.ANOTHER REMARKABLE ASPECT of this short is its seeming freshness. Although it is now over 75 years old, it couldn't be better if it were made yesterday. This is due to a couple of factors.FIRST OF ALL, the films and actors being lampooned are all classic and well remembered today. Most all of those characters are instantly recognizable due to the near immortal status achieved by those performers in their lifetime.SECONDLY AND PERHAPS the most obvious reason for the almost legendary reputation associated with films such as this is that it is a Walt Disney Production.WE BELIEVE THAT this factor needs no further proof or validation.

Aside from a curious double edged piece of racism, this "Silly Symphony" Cartoon is pegged on the film stars of the 1930s. I suspect more people than we can think of actually can remember most of these stars. They include, Katherine Hepburn (as "Little Bo Peep" - rallee she is); Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy, and Freddie Bartholemew as the Three Men in a boat (Laughton is Captain Bligh, Tracy is Manuel from CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS, and Freddie is David Copperfield); Hugh Herbert as Old King Cole, Ned Sparks as his "merry" Jester, Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx as his fiddler three, Joe (UGH!!) Penner as the servant bringing him a bowl (actually a kettle) and asking if he wants a "Duck" (Donald Duck); Stan Laurel as Simple Simon and Oliver Hardy as the pie-man; Eddie Cantor as Little Jack Horner, and his four and twenty blackbirds include Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and Lincoln Perry (Stepin' Fetchit); Wallace Beery as Little Boy Blue; Greta Garbo as Marjorie Daw, taught a lesson by Edward G. Robinson; and at the conclusion they have Fred Astaire (unfortunately dancing alone), Zazu Pitts, Edna Mae Oliver and Mae West playing horns (Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel and the Marx Brothers also return playing instruments, and we see George Arliss playing a saxophone and Clark Gable on another instrument), and Martha Raye and Joe E. Brown dancing and kissing.Most of these figures are still pretty easy to remember (Penner and Arliss I think are the most obscure - the former quite understandably). The reason is the films of most of these people (or the recordings of Calloway and Waller) are accessible by DVD or video.The interesting thing is how the Disney people were watching the movies of the day or the culture. As pointed out in another review of this cartoon only three Marx Brothers pop up - Zeppo had left the act in 1933. W.C. Fields is Humpty Dumpty, and he is pestered by Charlie McCarthy (this was the same year as their film together, YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN). When they do the three men in a tub, Laughton is Bligh, Tracy is Manuel, and Bartholemew is young David Copperfield (oddly enough, not Harvey Cheyne - the role he played opposite Tracy's Manuel in CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS). Garbo had said "I want to be alone" in GRAND HOTEL in 1933, but the line was still her best known one - it would be spoofed by Sig Ruman in NINOTCHKA, opposite Garbo. The Laurel and Hardy jokes show careful study of how Stan always does something that Ollie can't and when Ollie figures he can do it he comes a cropper. But Ollie later changes the range of Stan's clarinet playing from tenor to base by hitting Stan on the head with a mallet. That is similar to a joke done by Ollie to a singing Stan in WAY OUT WEST in 1937. Oddly enough Raye and Brown would be in a comedy together (ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS A TOUCHDOWN) in 1939, so possibly rumors about such a teaming were in the air. Somebody was doing his homework here.The racist jokes dealing with the four and twenty "blackbirds" is as I said a two - edged sword. On the one hand the caricatures are definitely racist, in particular Perry. But the fact that all three were included strikes me as showing they are considered celebrities. Why have them otherwise if they weren't be recognized by the audience watching the cartoon (the Fleischer cartoons at Paramount frequently used Cab Callaway too). The only inexcusable racist joke (aside from exaggerating Perry's shtick) was that a blackberry pie hits Hepburn in the face, turning her into an African-American "Bo - Peep" for a moment, and she starts talking with a southern drawl. Hepburn knew of the cartoon - she mentioned it on a program she did in the 1990s about her life for PBS, and said the cartoon's sequence of her "Bo - Peep" riding an outboard motor passed the three men in the tub, was the first time on screen her persona and Tracy's shared a scene or sequence. Odd to think it happened here.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.MOTHER GOOSE GOES Hollywood when a collection of animated celebrities spoof the characters in wacky interpretations of famous old Nursery Rhymes.Aided by excellent voice artists, the Disney animators get to display their caricaturing talents in this very enjoyable cartoon. This was not as easy as it looks, melding the personality of the celebrity with the persona of the Nursery character and leaving them both recognizable. And it gets even more complicated than that. In the 3 Men In A Tub sequence, the celebrity is also spoofing a famous movie role they've played (Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, Spencer Tracy as Manuel in CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS & Freddie Bartholomew as David COPPERFIELD). That Disney was able to pull off these characterizations in the space of only a few seconds speaks volumes for the high level of expertise attained by the Studio.Movie mavens will love spotting & naming each animated celebrity. Others will have a difficult time, since many of these stars are now rather obscure. Here, for the record, is a listing of the celebrity spoofs: Katharine Hepburn as Little Bo Peep; Hugh Herbert as Old King Cole; Groucho, Chico & Harpo Marx as the Fiddlers Three; Ned Sparks as the King's Jester; Joe Penner as the King's Servant; Donald Duck as himself; Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy & Freddie Bartholomew as the 3 Men In A Tub; W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty; Charlie McCarthy as himself; Stan Laurel as Simple Simon; Oliver Hardy as the Pieman; Edward G. Robinson & Greta Garbo in See Saw Margery Daw; Wallace Beery as Little Boy Blue; Edna May Oliver, Mae West & ZaSu Pitts as the trumpeters; Clark Gable as the flautist; George Arliss as the saxophonist; Joe E. Brown & Martha Raye as the jitterbug dancers. Apparently, unedited versions of the cartoon also feature 'appearances' by Fred Astaire, Cab Calloway, Eddie Cantor, Stepin Fetchit & Fats Waller.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.

I first got this on videotape because of the Marx Brothers caricatures in a scene with Hugh Herbert. (Just three brothers, Zeppo had left by this point.) I was pleased to see that Fred Astaire was also portrayed. He dances in a manner that suggests the animators studied his films carefully. There aren't many "appearances" of this type by Astaire. In fact this may be the only one. Katharine Hepburn gave an interview where she recalled a cartoon that contained a remarkable imitation of her. This is the cartoon she was talking about. She shows up as a running gag. The only censorship that I could detect in this cartoon was a scene where Eddie Cantor introduces "four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie." You see the pie bulge as if something is about to emerge and then there is an edit in the film. Today's corporate Disney is not about to allow "darkie" jokes in their cartoons. But the depiction of Fats Waller is mildly racist (if racism can be mild). I counted a total of thirty celebrities. When you've watched this videotape as many times as I have, you start counting celebrities.