Wie starb Cock Robin?

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

A dapper young redbreast trilling his song to his lady love is shot with an arrow. WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN? The judge at the murder trial gets a rather surprising answer...

A very colorful and amusing cartoon, highlighted by caricatures of a few Hollywood stars: Bing Crosby, Harpo Marx, the Keystone Kops and, in the unedited version, Stepin Fetchit. The character of Jenny Wren is a splendid spoof of Mae West.

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.

Sometimes I'm so into watching Looney Tunes that I forget about gorgeous animated Silly Symphonies. This one, despite some jokes that would be inappropriate today (like a slightly racist one, which is probably about 20% racist), "Who Killed Cock Robin?" was a pleasure to watch.

I enjoyed this Silly Symphony for the beautiful animation, Cock Robin, the singing and the female robin is good as well. The end is very sweet. Some people may be put off by the "innapropriate jokes" but it should not let you be put off. That was what cartoons were like in those days. They did not know it was rude. Sometimes it's quite nice to watch an "unsafe" cartoon nowadays. :-) A lot of Looney Tunes episodes are like this as well.

A cute and handsome robin sings to a beautiful female robin, playing his guitar (the female robin is supposed to represent Mae West). Someone shoots him and the police investigate very quickly, taking quite a few witnesses to a court case. Will they find out who killed Cock Robin?

Recommended to people who do not mind "different" cartoons and Silly Symphonies! Enjoy! :-)

I have always been a Disney fan, and Who Killed Cock Robin is one of my favourite(after re-visiting it after so many years of having nothing but fond memories of it)Silly Symphony cartoons of the 30s alongside Flowers and Trees, The Band Concert, The Old Mill and The Ugly Duckling(1939). It is quite dark with all the interrogating, the perfect capturing of the mood of a detective story and the black and white opening credits, but the characterisation of Jenny Wren, the natural strut of the parrot while interrogating the parrot, the brilliant courtroom sequence and the delightful caricatures of Mae West(Jenny Wren), Bing Crosby(Cock Robin) and Harpo Marx(the third bird) ensure that it is very smart and satirical also(of the criminal justice system that is). The animation is fluid and colourful, each frame looking beautiful, and of the character designs the revelations were the strut of the parrot and the floating nature of Jenny Wren. The music is wonderful, really helping to enhance the action, and all the characters are great. There was a time where I was annoyed by Dan Cupid's high-pitched voice and his Ed Wynn-like laugh, but I am now used to it. Overall, simply brilliant. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Hmmm! The animation style is quite engaging here, but otherwise it's quite a repetitive story that seems intent more on doing a hatchet job on the judicial system than telling us a story about poor old "Cock Robin". Anyway, he is serenading the rather buxom "Jenny Wren" when someone mercifully takes a bow and arrow to him. This causes uproar amidst the feathered community and a rather militaristic investigation, under the auspices of owl, is ordered. Interrogations ensue, but will they ever reveal the truth? There are quite a few light-hearted racial stereotypes included here, the songs are all a bit basic and though it's quite a well paced ten minutes, it's also a fairly unremarkable film.

A rather boring cartoon about a courtroom scene where an owl judge and a bunch of stupid bird jurors try to find out who shot the Cock Robin with an arrow. Most of the time, the character sing their way through the trial, which I thought was quite annoying. And, those abusive bird cops were horrible - glad the leg sparrow punched them a few. The redeeming character of the cartoon is the Mae West-like character. But, overall, this is one of the least entertaining Silly Symphonies.

Grade D+