Trois petits orphelins

While Three Orphan Kittens is undoubtably a good cartoon and is well worth watching, Who Killed Cock Robin? should probably have won and I think that in many ways The Calico Dragon is also better, although not by much. It was an excellent field and all three were worthy, but Three Orphan Kittens wasn't the best, at least to me. The title basically describes the cartoon. Certainly worth your time, this periodically appears on The Ink and Paint Club on The Disney Channel.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

THREE ORPHAN KITTENS, abandoned on a stormy Winter's night, make their way into a cozy, well-appointed home, where they proceed to create havoc...

This is a very cute little film and was the winner of the Oscar for Best Cartoon Short Subject for 1935. Some of the scenes use a technique called a `moving vanishing point' by animators; this gives an added depth of perception & was considered an innovation at the time. Some viewers may perceive a little racism in the character of Mammy Twoshoes. The kittens, by the way, were named Fluffy, Muffy & Tuffy by the Studio, and would return in 1936 in MORE KITTENS.

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.

The 1930s often gave audiences cartoons chock full of happy singing animals and tons of cuteness. The edgier cartoons were mostly absent, though Disney's stock of reliable characters were awfully good. Today, these "sweet" cartoons are a pretty sad lot when you can compare them to the wonderful (and much more violent) cartoons of the 40s and 50s. However, making this comparison isn't 100% fair--this sort of cartoon was still waiting to be born.

For 1935, this cartoon is much better than average but I am frankly not particularly fond of it. My score of 7 represents it compared to the films of the day, though today I'd be hard pressed to give it a 4, as it's amazingly dull despite some very nice animation. The kittens bounce about the house and get into mischief--and this isn't enough to sustain a film. Speaking of animation, I loved the snow scenes--they were just so beautifully done. Ditto for the backgrounds. As for the three kittens, they actually were not as well animated as many of Disney's films of the day, but apparently the cuteness and the rest of the film was enough to propel it to the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Though, if you were to compare it to the other nominees that year, it is the best short. However, my nod would have been to award the Oscar to a more traditional Disney film--such as THE BAND CONCERT or MICKEY'S POLO TEAM.

By the way, you probably will notice that the film presents Black people as rather hard-hearted servants or as "pickaninny" dolls. Thank goodness times have changed.

I really liked this silly symphony. I did think it had one or two dull spots, hence my rating, but you cannot deny it is a very cute and charming short. The animation is very very nice, and the snow scenes were in particular beautifully done. The three kittens were absolutely adorable, definitely the stars of the short, and the music is beautiful. There are some lovely scenes, the part when the kitten start playing about on the keys of the piano was my favourite. What I meant by one or two dull spots was that, the short does start off quite slowly. And it's not my favourite silly symphony of 1935, The Band Concert gets that honour.

Overall, very cute and worth a look. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I am a sucker for a chilly snow scene so felt a bit sorry for these three little kittens as they sought shelter from the freeze. They manage to sneak into a comfortable big house where they mischievously encounter an almost volcanic fruit pie before a sneeze-inducing pepper pot. Thereafter, though, their routinely drawn and rather predicable antics as they proceed to trash the place become a little repetitive and quickly lose their charm. From the knees (downwards) of the housekeeper, we could easily expect her to step onto a stool, broom in hand, and yell "Thomas" at the top of her voice, except it's cats that are proving to be her problem. Maybe rounding them up and chucking them back outside is the best solution? It would have worked for me!