Mamá Ganso va a Hollywood

This was a wonderful idea for a Disney (or non-Disney)cartoon. It was very creative to portray the latest Hollywood stars as characters from the classic nursery rhymes. I was reading someone else's comments and they mentioned that understanding this short's humor would take a lot of knowledge of the Hollywood stars of the 30's. I do agree with them. Many of those stars were unknown to me, but I could identify quite a few of them. Let's see! There was Katherine Hepburn portrayed as Little Bo Peep. W.C. Fields is portrayed as Humptey Dumpty with the puppet Charlie McCarthey making clever jokes about him. In the nursery rhyme about the seesaw, there was Edward G. Robinson and Greta Garbo going up and down. Simple Simon was portrayed by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy was the pieman. The scene at the beginning is humorous where Mother Goose takes the place of the MGM lion. Then, there is a disclaimer that reads: ANY RESEMBLANCE TO ACTUAL PERSONALITIES PORTRAYED IN THIS PICTURE, LIVING OR DEAD, IS PURELY COINCIDENTAL.

I wasn't really sure what this had to do with "Mother Goose" but once it got going it was quite an entertaining little series of characterisations of Hollywood stars doing things from nursery rhymes or just having a darned good time. I'm sure I saw Katharine Hepburn, Edward G. Robinson, Laurel & Hardy, the Marx Brothers and Charles Laughton in this sing-along and some of the animation hits the nail on the head - especially Laughton and Hepburn as as very adaptable "Little Bow Beep". It's essentially a celebration of animated caricatures and though entirely forgettable, passes ten minutes with a lively score easily enough.

I am not one for "political correctness" and don't think any film should be banned just because it offends. However, because of some offensive imagery of Blacks in this cartoon, you're not likely to find it except on the Internet. However, before you rush off to find it, I warn you--not so much because of the racially insensitive material (and it is offensive) but because the movie itself is pretty insipid and unfunny. Just a couple years earlier, Disney made a similar film that was littered with cartoon images of famous actors (MICKEY'S POLO TEAM), but it was a good bit funnier and more likable. Plus, this time it all seems a bit more forced. If you do see this cartoon, don't see it because it's anything special--see it because it's a good case of a film that has been shelved because of changing tastes and mores.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

MOTHER GOOSE GOES Hollywood when a collection of animated celebrities spoof the characters in wacky interpretations of famous old Nursery Rhymes.

Aided by excellent voice artists, the Disney animators get to display their caricaturing talents in this very enjoyable cartoon. This was not as easy as it looks, melding the personality of the celebrity with the persona of the Nursery character and leaving them both recognizable. And it gets even more complicated than that. In the 3 Men In A Tub sequence, the celebrity is also spoofing a famous movie role they've played (Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, Spencer Tracy as Manuel in CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS & Freddie Bartholomew as David COPPERFIELD). That Disney was able to pull off these characterizations in the space of only a few seconds speaks volumes for the high level of expertise attained by the Studio.

Movie mavens will love spotting & naming each animated celebrity. Others will have a difficult time, since many of these stars are now rather obscure. Here, for the record, is a listing of the celebrity spoofs: Katharine Hepburn as Little Bo Peep; Hugh Herbert as Old King Cole; Groucho, Chico & Harpo Marx as the Fiddlers Three; Ned Sparks as the King's Jester; Joe Penner as the King's Servant; Donald Duck as himself; Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy & Freddie Bartholomew as the 3 Men In A Tub; W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty; Charlie McCarthy as himself; Stan Laurel as Simple Simon; Oliver Hardy as the Pieman; Edward G. Robinson & Greta Garbo in See Saw Margery Daw; Wallace Beery as Little Boy Blue; Edna May Oliver, Mae West & ZaSu Pitts as the trumpeters; Clark Gable as the flautist; George Arliss as the saxophonist; Joe E. Brown & Martha Raye as the jitterbug dancers. Apparently, unedited versions of the cartoon also feature 'appearances' by Fred Astaire, Cab Calloway, Eddie Cantor, Stepin Fetchit & Fats Waller.

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.

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, various animation departments (chief among them being Warner Brothers) made cartoons that used caricatures of well-known celebrities (movies stars, principally) as characters. This is the best of Disney's efforts and was nominated for an Oscar. The main problem with this cartoon is that, unless you not only remember your nursey rhymes, but are reasonaby up on movie stars and movies of the 1930s, you miss quite a bit of the humor. Still holds up reasonably well after more than 60 years. Recommended to any movie buffs and/or someone reading Mother Goose for whatever reason.