The Old Mill

The Old Mill was a Silly Symphony developed as a test for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which was just going into production at the time. What came out of it is utterly beautiful. It is possibly the best Disney short, even rivalling The Skeleton Dance. 10/10.

Wonderful Disney animated short that has a lot of significance, both artistically and from an animation history perspective. I just love this cartoon. The plot, such as it is, has various adorable animals living in an old windmill and dealing with a scary thunderstorm. It's so simple but so effective and just gorgeous to look at. The animation is sublime with beautifully drawn characters and backgrounds, rich colors, and some of the best use of lighting to create atmosphere you'll ever see in a cartoon. If you loved the spooky part of Snow White where she's running through the woods, you'll love this. This is Disney's first use of the multiplane camera, which creates a short of three-dimensional effect. It played a big role in the making of those early Disney feature-length classics we all know and love. The music in this is also very enchanting and perfectly matches the animation. This is truly a work of art. Lovely from start to finish. A real classic that everyone who loves vintage animation should see at least once.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

As evening draws near, the various creatures living in THE OLD MILL settle in for the night. Dark, fast-moving clouds, however, signal the arrival of a fierce storm...

Winner of the 1937 Academy Award, this lovely cartoon was important for a couple of significant reasons. It exhibited the quantum leaps the Disney artists had taken since the early Symphonies in the animation of animals - the mice and birds are particularly well drawn. The cartoon also debuted the Studio's new multi-plane camera, a complicated and very expensive machine which was able to render an astonishing illusion of depth. - notice the opening traveling shot which moves through the spider web.

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.

The Old Mill is a genuine masterpiece from Disney`s chest of treasures. It is not a witty movie, so those of you who must laugh at a Disneymovie better avoid this.

The setting is an old mill, which you should guess from the title. The Old Mill is filled with atmosphere, nice drawings and classic music, which makes it a real joy to watch. 9,5/10

'The Old Mill' was a short Disney film (about 8 minutes long) that the animators created to aid them in the production of 'Bambi'. I saw this on the Disney channel when I was younger, and the animation is so powerful that it stuck with me. Now, I've watched it again as a clip provided on the 'Bambi' DVD. The clip features several creatures that live in and around an old mill, and there is a storm. All of the events taking place are done to powerful music from the singing of the frogs to the storm, and there are no speaking parts. It's purely nature and Disney animation at its best. Hopefully, a greater appreciation for nature can be learned through this film as I think it is something taken for granted by most today. And it is amazing that an animation can be so powerful through minimalisation and sound. It's much better quality than some of the computer-animated clutter. Wonderful.