Highly Overrated But Still Good

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Before the release of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", the animators at the Disney studios had to run tests to see if the special effects they could use at the time would even be possible. "The Old Mill" was one of those tests, and did it pay off in the end? You bet it did. Released in 1937, the same year that saw the release of the aforementioned "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "The Old Mill" would in itself be a milestone in Walt Disney's Silly Symphony series. It was unlike any other animated short released at the time, in that it was the first picture to use the "Multi-plane camera", which allowed the 2D animation to look more 3D. The use of realism and experimentations with light, color, and rotoscoping (animating by drawing over real-life images) also gave the film a distinct look amongst all of the other animated shorts released at the time, making it more like a moving painting as opposed to a moving cartoon strip.There isn't really that much of a story, except that we see the different animals occupy an old, beat-up windmill, such as birds, frogs, insects, mice, bats, etc. Suddenly, a storm sweeps over the land, causing the windmill to spin, and various parts of it becoming more and more loose as the storm intensifies, thus threatening all life within. As it goes on, you see the mill come apart, piece by piece, the wind flowing into the holes of a tree, making it sound like a haunting choir, and the animals trying to keep safe from the harsh weather, until finally, a flash of thunder strikes the mill, nearly demolishing it as the storm dies down. In the end, all of the animals survive the endeavor and begin anew as a new dawn approaches over the remains of the old mill.Imagine for a moment that you were an average joe in 1937, stepping into what was then called a movie-house, and seeing something like this for the first time before the feature begins. For many an audience, it was unlike anything that they have seen before, even by Disney standards. But it was simply a taste from what's to come from the studio later that year. Today, the film still holds up as it did back then. The animation itself is worth noting, as it's so smooth and true to life. The music, which helps move the film along, completely sets the mood, from its happiest moments to the most grim.The film, along with the release of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", would show that animation has a place in the industry and can be just as respected as any other motion picture. It has the power to tell unique stories that live-action films could not, and can make moviegoers emote. They began to feel uneasy when the storm came. They shook with fear and worried when the mother bird protecting her eggs as the mill wheel turned, and they sighed with relief that nothing bad happened in the end. This was what going to the movies was going to be like from there on, and as a result of that effort, Walt's team won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject.Today, it's a historic piece of animated art, still enjoyed by both kids and adults alike, and as of 2015, it was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry division of the U.S. Library of Congress. The film can be found on the first volume of the Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphony sets, or the Diamond Edition of the 1942 film "Bambi". If you have either one of these, by all means, definitely give it a watch.

This is an Academy award winning Disney cartoon from almost 80 years ago and it is a great example that a (short) film does not really need a story to succeed. This one does not have any unless you count the short storm sequence maybe. From start to finish, we see a whole lot of animals living in an abandoned old mill. She is home to them and they are in danger of losing their home when a huge thunderstorm appears and the mill is struck by lightning. But in the end we see, it's all good and the animals are still in there. They are still in love with each other and their children are fine too. These 8 minutes are mostly a watch for the beauty of the animals depicted in here and also for their noises. I had a good time watching this. Thumbs up for Wilfred Jackson, who is not half as known as he should be given on how many famous Disney classics he worked. "The Old Mill" certainly also falls into that category. Recommended.

I absolutely love this cartoon. I thought it's beautifully animated under the direction of Wilfred Jackson, who also directed the "Night on Bald Mountain/Ave Maria" segment from the film "Fantasia" and a few favorite "Silly Symphonys" like :1. The Cat's Out (1931), 2. The Bears and Bees (1932), 3. Lullaby Land (1933), 4. The Goddess of Spring (1934), 5. The Country Cousin (1936), and... 6. Mother Goose goes Hollywood (1938). I am quite terribly particular about that, a favorite short directed by who's who. But this short is my all-time favorite on my "Favorite Silly Symphonys" list. I love the scene at night, it is just gorgeous. I also love the little swallow family, they are so adorable.

The Old Mill is based upon the Rembrandt painting The Mill c. 1650 in the National Gallery. Copies have for long been for sale there. The print freezes the final frames of the mill in the Disney cartoon. This is so moving because the war was coming. Hitler was the storm. People who knew about the horrors were waiting for the storm but knew that the Mill would survive. In any event the helpless animals and the good that man had done are themes that do not require a single human character to express. I have used this cartoon over the years to come back to the great days of animation and the ways that brief breaks from the feature could involve youth, who waited for the break, in the issues that the cartoon displayed. The high quality animation was something that the youth loved but thought of differently by the fifties than the weaker animation efforts that they attended with their friends without parents.