Il pifferaio magico

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

Hamelin Town is beset with an infestation of rats and the harried Mayor is only too glad to offer THE PIED PIPER a bag of gold to rid them of the plague. But once the rodents are removed, the Mayor reneges on his promise, leaving the Piper to take a most effective revenge...

This cartoon offers a good interpretation of the story from the famous Robert Browning poem. Notice how some of the elements of the original have been altered by Disney: the rats no longer drown, they are simply made to vanish into thin air; and the Hamelin children are shown to be used almost as slave labor by their parents, making their removal by the Piper more like a rescue.

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.

We all know the story of the evil mayor of Hamelin who promises the Pied Piper a great reward for ridding the city of rats. But, of course, he decides not to pay up and the children of the city pay the price. The problem is that there is no repentance. The townspeople are just ignored at the end. Too saccharine.

Based on the true story of the disappearance of 130 children around the year 1200, a tragic story that gave life to a legend that ended up uniting peoples, the City of Hamelin receives thousands of tourists, a cute, vindictive and meaningful short film ...

This early Disney Technicolor short, part of the Silly Symphonies series, tackles the old story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. The story is the one most of us know - town is overrun by rats so the town leaders hire the Piper to lure the rats out of town. He does this but they refuse to pay him, leading the Piper to exact his revenge in a manner that has creepier undertones these days than it did when this was made. Anyway, this is a good cartoon version of the story and teaches kids valuable lessons about paying your debts and the power of wind instruments. I guess it also teaches kids if a strange man shows up playing a flute you should follow him because he'll lead you to Toyland. The animation is very good, especially the backgrounds. The color is just gorgeous. The music is lively. All of the voice work is fine. Really not much bad to say about it except that, while it's good, it's not great.

The Pied Piper is one of the most re-told stories in modern times, there have been countless tellings of the story. This Disney version has some cute moments, but nothing really memorable or outstanding. It examines the story in the lightest terms and abruptly seems to end without a final conclusion or wrap up.

The town of Hamlin is infested with rats and the mayor offers up a reward to drive the rats from the town just as a guy with a long pipe walks into the gates and offers his services. Without any trouble or character development he bygones the town of rats, expects payments and gets the shaft. So he steals the kids of the town away at that very moment, without resistance and takes them away to some magical candy land inside of a mountain. The the end credits pop-up? Where is the rest of the story you will cry out.

The film feels more like a verse, rather than a story. The film focuses on the rats and its rather charming and interesting, but the animators spent more time on the rats than scenes with stealing the children, making you feel sad for the rats that got killed off rather than the city's problems.

One of the allegories the story is focused on is The Black Plague. The Pied Piper is a representation of Death or the Dark Angel. The Mayor and the rulers destroyed the town with their greed. The rats represent The Black Plague. The Piper is taking the kids off to Heaven. Many people watching this short or talking about this story fail to grasp this idea or deeper meaning behind the tale. All of which is completely pulled from the friendly Disney version.

The animation is nice and the music and sound are vastly improved having now been crated by RCA rather than Disney's first shorts using Cinephone. The audio is easy to be heard and understood on like the latter shorts. This short is largely forgettable and rather tame.

Best Scene: Rats Taking Over

The early scenes where the rats are rampaging the town are fun. There is a lot of animation going on. The rats resembling Mickey Mouse find creative ways to eat foods and cause havoc. They behave almost like pets, rather than disease carrying black plague card holders.

Worst Scene: Pied Piper Steals Kids

The Piper because they mayor did not pay him so in that moment he begins to steal the kids without any resistance. The parents just watch as he whisks away thousands of kids and then looks at the mayor like they are unable to think for themselves. Some parental instincts would take over and an exciting chase and war would breakout if this really happened. My money is on the Piper, who knows what other gadgets he's got up his sleeve.

Best Actor: The Rats

Even though millions of animated rats died in the film, they had great fun before their demise and served as wonderful BBQ to feed the newly captured kids of Hamlin.

Worst Actor: Townsfolk

They just stand by as their kids are taken away to a permanent day-care in the sky.

Improvements: More Depth Please

The film feels like they took a one paragraph story and stretched it out to 8 minutes long. We need more tension and threat. Pipe Piper is a Mary-Sue with no resistance.

Hits

• Fun animations of rats eating and dancing.
• Lots of characters on screen.
• Nice songs and music.

Misses Feels too short.

• Questionable voice-acting.
• Needs more magic.

Final Grade: C