Academy Award Review of Walt Disney Cartoons

1937 was a key year for the animation industry. So many important developments took place, but none moreso than the Disney studio.

Gearing up for Snow White's release, Disney put out some promotional films for the public and for their new distributor RKO Radio Pictures. The former would technically be the only feature length film that their old distributor, United Artists would release. This was simply a compilation of every Oscar winning cartoon up to that time, concluding with COUNTRY COUSIN.

There is no real new footage except for bridging material which shows an Oscar statue with narration.

This compilation was reissued in 1966 and added the 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1941 Oscar winners, but without new narration. Curiously, the 1942 snd 1954 winners were not shown, possibly because the former was wartime related or maybe to keep the running time concise.

A true curiosity which only has passing mention in film and Disney encyclopedias. It only had home video releases overseas. The fact that it was made available at all is strange. Because of lack of exposure, it's difficult to know exactly how it was presented in 1937.

Not really a must have, but an interesting footnote in Disney's filmography.

A alright compilation film of the silly symphonies. If you can find it give it a watch.The shorts that they select for the film are all Oscar winner hens the title. However the film is short. It only just makes the length of a feature film, however there is a 1966 version. This version has 4 more shorts including the ugly duckling, However it is missing the live action sequences but is a longer. The 1966 is available on VHS however so that is a plus.However the films were not designed to be watched as a package film they are shorts, so there is nothing linking them apart from the fact that they won Oscars. On the whole you could probably skip this one if you have watched all the silly symphonies multiple times

If he can justify a 5/10 with factoids he got from WIkipedia, I can submit a 10/10 without explaining myself, yet I will. Seeing their early animation in its raw form before their more formal studies into people, animals, and objects will always be impressive. There are no rules to how a character can move or how physics should behave. They can use whatever wild imagery they want to get their point across. Not to say that their increasing realism with the films that followed isn't masterful, but the unguided ideas for sequences and gags in these shorts really illustrates the creativity at this studio's arsenal.