La cicala e la formica

Very good, one of the best shorts at Disney. With a great animation and fantastic morals. Highly recommend.

The Grasshopper and the Ants is a very enjoyable Silly Symphony, about a fiddle playing grasshopper and a group of ants. The animation is beautiful, and so is the music. The characters are really likable, especially the grasshopper. Also watch out for the original voice of Goofy, the one and only Pinto Colvig. Adapted from Aesop, this silly symphony has some funny moments with a simple story and a nice moral, and a couple of poignant ones- the part when the grasshopper is pleading to the queen is bound to break someone's heart, again it could be to do with how Colvig delivered the line. And the part when the Ant Queen says "Go on with your fiddle... and play" was just perfect. My final verdict is a fun and very enjoyable silly symphony. A definite 10/10. Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

Winter is coming, but the GRASSHOPPER AND THE ANTS have very different ways of preparing for it. While the ants are diligently storing food, the Grasshopper is only dancing around & playing his fiddle. When the snows come, perhaps he'll play a different tune...

Aesop's Fables provided the source for this very enjoyable cartoon. The intricate labors of the ants give lots of interest for the eye. `Oh, The World Owes Us A Living', the Grasshopper's song, would eventually become, with a slight revision, the theme for Goofy; Pinto Colvig voiced both characters.

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 Grasshopper and the Ants (1934)

**** (out of 4)

Excellent animated short from Disney has a grasshopper dancing around playing his fiddle while a bunch of ants are hard at work since winter is coming. The ants continue to work as the grasshopper continues to play and before long it's winter and someone is left with no food or shelter. This type of story certainly wasn't anything new or original and it's certainly been borrowed from over the decades but this here is still a lot of fun to watch. For starters, as you'd expect, the animation is of very high quality and it's certainly great fun just to see the beautiful colors and drawings. Another major plus is that the music score is actually quite good and the songs being done by the grasshopper are catchy. Of course, there's a big moral to the story, which comes across perfectly well.

This Silly Symphony is based on Aesop's Fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper. While the Grasshopper is all play and no work, an army of ants harvest food for the winter. And, when the freezing whether arrives, the ants enjoy a warm feast while the grasshopper goes hungry.

Disney added nice touches of animation, music, and voice acting (one whom you may recognize as later voicing Goofy), which all blended well with a good message of hard work, diligence, and second chances.

Grade A