C'est l'hiver

Starting in the late 1920s, the Walt Disney Company began to produce a series of shorts under the umbrella label "Silly Symphonies" and they consisted of various creatures dancing about to the ever-present music. However, in the case of "Springtime", "Summer", "Autumn" and "Winter", they decided to produce a series within the series--all based on the seasons. Of the four, "Winter" was the last to debut.

"Winter" consists of lots of creatures cavorting about and enjoying the snow--though a few should have been hibernating! In this particular case, a bear cub wakes up and begins annoying the adult bear--and the adult is pretty mad at first. But, as everyone is having a great time, it gets into the spirit of it all. Aside from this, there really is no discernible plot other than when the animals all come to see the groundhog to see when spring will occur.

While not a great short at all, it's among the best of the four if not the best--even if it's short on plot. Nice animation and a few semi-funny moments make this just a bit better than the others.

Not only is Winter the Christmas season, my favourite holiday, but also I can see some of Silly Symphony's seasonal offerings. Although, this is yet another tribute to the four seasons, it does have a seasonal feel to it, and reminds me vaguely of On Ice. The animation, as is expected, is terrific, and holds up well. The music is outstanding; I admit it, I love the Skater's Waltz, it is just fun to listen to, and sticks in your head for a while, and in this case it's a good thing. The characters, like the reindeer, and the adorable bear that looks like Mickey Mouse, are delightful and sweet, particularly when they start dancing on the ice. All in all, truly fun to watch. 10/10 Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

It is WINTER, and when not braving the icy winds the forest animals are gliding on the ice. They don't neglect their trip to Mr. Groundhog, though, to get a forecast of the coming weather...

More action/reaction animation in this black & white cartoon. Also more posterior gags, in dubious taste, from the Disney animators. The bear cub having a face almost identical to Mickey Mouse was probably no accident.

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.

Well I have now reviewed all four of the season themed Silly Symphony cartoon shorts and out of them I think I liked Summer the best. This on the other hand just didn't do it for me, it has some nice touches to it but I just mainly found it disappointing, it was just very bland and mediocre to me, just another average forest critters dancing to music type romp, and I'm afraid that I found most of these critters to be annoying rather than charming. Most of them had faces like Mickey or maybe the lame Oswald Rabbit. I didn't like their designs, maybe it was the quality of the particular version of the short that I watched, but most of them looked like black blobs who's features you could barely make out except for their ugly rubber limbs. Frightfully basic stuff.. And again maybe it was just the version I saw but the sound was really scratchy and so bad that it hurt my ears, sound-wise time was not kind to thee Winter! I know that at this point in time it was the formula they were sticking with and a winning one at that, but I thought the happy dancing route seemed a bit at odds with the season of ice, they should have tried for something a little deeper, possibly even a little downbeat? What I did like the most about it was some of the smaller background details, they were surprisingly beautiful and rich for such a rough short. It was good to see that at least in that regard the animators were fast improving. I did love the icy snowstorm that blows at the beginning, that was one thing that the Disney animators never seemed to have any trouble with right from the start. A cute enough short, but no favourite of mine in this great series. And...curtains!

There is really not too much to see here, just a bunch of animals moving to music during the winter time. There were some recognizable classical waltzes in the cartoon short, and there were a few clever sound and visual effects, but not much in exciting entertainment value. Even some of the animals looked a little wasted or buzzed when they were dancing.

Grade C-