La Diosa de la Primavera

Iprobably only saw this cartoon ONCE and I was probably under FIVE years old. Talk about making an impression, that would have been forty something years ago and I still remember a lot of it - Persephone picking flowers, Hades coming our oft ground on something like a spinning turn table, little devils dancing around singing "Hidey Hades" (maybe actually Mighty Hades?) , Persephony in tears pointing upwards, and Hades retuning her to the upper world on that turntable thing. It was a segment at the end of the Mickey Mouse Club TV show, they would open a drawer and pull out the title of that day's cartoon. I saw it once and though I wanted to see it again, I never did.

Years later I read Edith Hamilton's Mythology - one of my all time favorite books - and there was the story of Hades and Persephone!

I sure wish this would come out on DVD or something.

Disney would make a fortune with a vintage Disney Channel - run to old Mickey Mouse Series, the Silly Symphony cartoons, those fantastic serials like Spin and Marty, Boys of the Western Sea. I have to confess I have not seen the new cable but I would bet it is junk.

And Anettw Funichello can out Mousketeer Brittany Spears any day!!!!

'The Goddess of Spring (1934)' is a beautiful "Silly Symphony" from Walt Disney and director Wilfred Jackson, filmed in glorious Technicolor of which full advantage is taken. The film was produced as a trial-run for the the feature-length 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937),' largely to experiment with the animation of humans. The progress made in the subsequent three years is startlingly apparent – the heroine in this film has a pretty and graceful face, but there's very little grace in her movements. The Goddess of Spring prances around her vibrant above-ground kingdom, limbs flailing somewhat awkwardly, her gait completely unrealistic, though perhaps it was the animators' intention to have her slightly floating above the ground, as though her loveliness affords her the weightless waltz of an angel. Suddenly, the sky grows dark and the ground erupts into fire, signalling the arrival of the wicked Hades, who kidnaps the beautiful Goddess to be queen of his underground kingdom. With the fair maiden's departure, the lands are plunged into a cold, bitter winter.

This Silly Symphony was loosely based upon the Ancient Greek mythology of Persephone and Hades, and so the tone of cartoon is chiefly that of an epic opera – a bit like 'What's Opera, Doc? (1957),' if you need an easy comparison. The warm, nostalgic singing voice at the film's beginning gives way to the deep, operatic snarl of Hades as he comes to confiscate his future queen. Interestingly, when the pair arrive in the fire-wreathed corridors of Hell, the general atmosphere is that of a jazz club, with disconcertingly upbeat music, and dancing audiences who chant "Hidey Hades." This interpretation of down-below is very different from Ub Iwerks' version five years earlier in 'Hell's Bells (1929),' which was darker and more archaic. The most touching contrast of all is that between the above-ground kingdom's spring and winter, as the bright sunlight swiftly disappears to unleash a miserable snap of cold and bitter winds; the dwarf inhabitants shiver in the snow, and even Bambi makes a brief appearance

PiThis is obviously the story of Hades and Persephone. As the beauty of summer gives way to winter, she is forced to live underground in a sort of hell. There's more to the story, but suffice it to say that this was an explanation for the change of seasons. Spring is a beautiful young woman and Hades is the stereotypical devil (not really the Greek entity). His operatic voice is stunning and his pleasing must be fore eternity. She is always going tor return.

While charming on its own merits, this short really shows how far the Disney animators came in the three years between this and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The movements of the leading lady of The Goddess of Spring are awkward and somewhat grotesque; her limbs seem to flail about as she skips to her throne, and she does not seem to possess any bones or weight at all. As Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston said in their book "The Illusion of Life", there was no way she would have ever been able to carry an animated film.

But like I said, the short is cute. It's a decent retelling of Greek myth; it excludes Persephone's mother Demeter from the tale, but this is understandable as the story has to be compressed to keep a ten minute running time. Some of the music is in the operetta style, which I'm not too keen on, but there's a cool jazz number in the first underworld scene, where Hades' demons sing of "Mighty Hades". Overall, if you're an animation buff you're more likely to enjoy this than the casual viewer; while there is some entertainment value here, its mainly of historical interest only.

This entry in the Silly Symphonies adapts the story of Persephone (Proserpina in Latin). "The Goddess of Spring" depicts the title character in an idealistic setting until Hades (Pluto in Latin) kidnaps her. Since she can't be happy in Hell, they have to reach a settlement.

Obviously this is a loose adaptation. As in Disney's "Hercules", Hades gets depicted as a rendering of Satan; in Greek mythology, the underworld had no relation to the modern understanding of Hell.

It's an okay cartoon. I've always been more partial to Warner Bros.'s cartoons, since they had an irreverent side (in contrast to Disney's "nice" cartoons). Jessica Dragonette (the goddess) also voiced Princess Glory in Fleischer Studios' "Gulliver's Travels". Kenny Baker (the narrator) is not to be confused with the actor who played R2D2.