Expected more

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

The first of Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies.There's no real plot or dialogue...just music. We see a "scary" graveyard late at night. We see an owl, a dog howling, cats fighting and bats with fangs flying around. Then four skeletons appear from a grave and start dancing to the music! It's basically a fun little cartoon with superb animation. There's also some mildly spooky stuff. Twice the camera goes into a skeletons open mouth and out the other end. That's pretty extreme for 1929! Disney had trouble getting this released in 1929. Many distributors found it too gruesome but he finally did get it out and it was a HUGE success. A 10 all the way.

I could very well imagine how people very genuinely scared by this 85 years ago, especially those moments where the animated skeletons quickly approach the camera and thus directly communicate with the viewer. People are afraid of things they don't understand and those who saw this Silly Symphony cartoon right after its release in 1929 have probably only come across very few pieces of animation or horror at this point, if any at all. The setting is of course a cemetery and it's the perfect scenario. Right at the beginning the early owl comes off as truly creepy, but gets her blood run cold shortly afterward too.After some canine howling and cat-fighting to emphasize the atmosphere, the skeleton dance show finally begins. And the quartet are delivering quite the show any human at a nearby dance-club could learn a lesson from. Unrestrained dancing, jumping and music-making ensues and the poor cats and owls end up being abused as musical instruments right until the cock announces the break of dawn and the party guests quickly return to their graves.

This is the very first Silly Symphony short from Disney. While I have never been a huge fan of these films because they are all basically well animated music videos, I sure liked THE SKELETON DANCE. The biggest reason is that for 1929, it was amazingly good--with super animation. Plus the whole package was very high on the cool as well as creepy factors. What a great film to show for Halloween.Oddly, the opening credits appear in total silence. However, once the film begins the music starts. This certainly got my attention! The film consists of four skeletons in a graveyard coming out at night to dance and have a good time. This would have been very repetitive had the film been longer, but at a little over five minutes, it was just perfect.

This is the first of the Silly Symphonies series of cartoons that Dsney did and it is absolutely marvelous! Ub Iwerks directed and it is one of the best Disney shorts they ever made. After more than 70 years it still holds up well and has the most remarkable use of shadows I've ever seen in my life. Great cartoon and very highly recommended.