Le retour de Toby la tortue

Despite being based on my favorite fable, of Aesop, the return was not that much, even more exaggerated, almost violent, it could be suppressed, which would not be missed, far from the first, however regular...

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

TOBY TORTOISE RETURNS to compete once more with Max Hare, this time in the boxing ring. What's needed now is some fancy footwork, but all Toby has to offer is 'slow and steady'...

This little film, a follow-up to THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE (1935), is enjoyable & entertaining, but not on the same stylistic level as its Oscar-winning predecessor. Several characters from other SILLY SYMPHONIES make cameo appearances, including the Three Little Pigs and Jenny Wren.

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.

Toby Tortoise is back dueling with the hare. But this time they are not racing, but boxing. As you would expect Toby is slow and incapable while the hare is loud and overconfident. It's quite uneventful and boring for the most part. Toby is not a good character as his cartoons move as slow as he does.

I'm not sure what kind of boxing match allows the various forms of humiliation and torture used by the hare, but one of gags involves fireworks and backfires on him, thus allowing Toby to win by default.

Subliming message of the cartoon: if you lack the skill to win honestly - cheat.

One thing you can say about the Disney shorts from the 1930s is that they were artistically the best cartoons available. So, even if the plots were occasionally limp (especially with their all-singing cartoons), the art work is still very, very impressive. "Toby Tortoise Returns" is beautifully animated. The colors are very vibrant and the backgrounds lovely.

The story picks up after the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare" (also a prior Disney cartoon). The same characters are now involved in a boxing match. Toby is fighting against 'Max Hare' (a play on the name of the champion Max Baer). And, while Max cheats and the odds are clearly against Toby, the ending is pretty much what you'd expect. As for the rest, the cartoon is only fair but I did enjoy seeing it for all the Disney character cameos--such as the industrious pig from "The Three Little Pigs", Donald and Goofy. There also are characters that are caricatures of Mae West and Harpo Marx. The cartoon is more interesting than funny but is still worth your time.

This sequel to the Tortoise and the Hare is a little amusing - a very nice throwback to the previous story.

The two animals takes boxing to a whole new level and the cartoon has some special cameos from past Silly Symphony characters. However, I think the Tortoise and the Hare take the sport a little too over-the-top, in the league of the over-imagination of the anti-wolf machines in the Three Little Pigs sequels.

Crazy stuff here, but definitely doesn't surprise the original story.

Grade C+