El Arca de Noé

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

Work is proceeding at a hectic pace to complete the building of FATHER NOAH'S ARK. Each of the eight humans, and all of the animals, have specific chores to do. The immense task is no sooner finished than the storm clouds start rolling in...

A lively retelling of the Biblical story. The large menagerie of animals are fun to look at and must have kept the animators very busy. Most Sunday School lessons would not include the rabbit & dog gags with which Disney ends the cartoon.

The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most fascinating of all animated series. 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.

Father Noah, a Santa Claus lookalike is carrying out the ark-building task that God gave him and plans to have 2 of every land animal shelter from the forthcoming flood on it (without resorting to eating each other, which is the most obvious flaw in this fable - and it is a fable). The animals are only too happy to help out with its construction, including birds of flight, which is kinda odd as they don't really need the ark.

The animation is colorful, and the animals are cute, but as usual with early Disney cartoons, the humans are quite ugly. The song they sing is forgettable, much like the entire cartoon overall.

Underlying message of the cartoon: don't believe everything the Bible tells you.

I don't have this on a special edition DVD (there weren't any DVDs when I was little) it was screened on our televisions on an old "Dumbo" video and I get so moved at how old-fashioned, how old school but how lovable this little old cartoon really is. However now that I am older and wiser, I noticed some torture towards the animals during the construction of the ark so if you are a person who becomes easily distressed or offended by those scenes in this short then keep out of its way. For those of you who aren't usually affected by violence towards animals, I think it's safe for me to say that the opening construction-of-the-ark scene was great fun! The ark was built here in this Disney short through very vivid creativity, it's quite obvious that those who collaborated in the making of this classic put truckloads of imagination into it. Overall, this is a colourful and happy-go-lucky masterpiece with joyful songs and that now-ancient, flickery but just beautiful style of Disney animation! It's unmissable!

I loved this when I was a kid, and still do. It is everything I love in a Silly Symphony, lively, colourful and entertaining. The animation is fantastic, considering when it was made, and still holds up even after 70 plus years. The music is also beautiful, and all the characters are wonderful, particularly Noah, and the animals are both adorable and hilarious. It is constantly entertaining, and there is never a dull moment. This is definitely one of my all time favourite Silly Symphonies, right up there with The Band Concert, Flowers and Trees, Ugly Duckling, Skeleton Dance and The Old Mill. Everything about this is memorable, I loved it when I was little, and after all this time, not only it brings back so many fond memories, but I love it even more than I did when I first saw it.

A definite 10/10. Bethany Cox

Saw Noah's Ark Silly Symphony for the first time this morning!

Truly a wonderful cartoon; beautiful, amazing, and very advanced Technicolor animation! Just appalled by how this wonderous work of art is rated so low here on the IMDb! Seems like people here just don't like great animated cartoons!

Funny how "Father Noah" looked *exactly* like Santa Claus (as he appears in other Disney cartoons around that time). My only criticism is that as in many of these Silly Symphonies at this time, it seems like they don't have anyone checking continuity! The lyrics from the wives about loading the ark with canned sardines was a funny and silly anachronism, but all the food shown on screen was very beautiful fresh fruit and vegetables! These flaws don't detract that much in my opinion however, and overall maybe the most wonderful, lush, and colourful Silly Symphony I've seen yet! (I haven't yet seen "Flowers and Trees" nor "Funny Little Bunnies")

Highly recommended if you like purely enjoyable sing-song and dance animated cartoons that are beautifully drawn, painted, and orchestrated!