O Rei Netuno

King Neptune is a good Silly Symphony, and very entertaining. True some of the animation is dated despite the lovely underwater backgrounds, but there is plenty of action and entertainment for youngsters. I will say, it is one of my least favourite silly symphonies, due to the fact, it isn't quite as memorable as something like Flowers and Trees or Skeleton Dance. However, there is some beautiful music, and King Neptune is a great character, and I loved the mermaids and the pirates. The highlight of the silly symphony is the storm sequence, Neptune's laugh is quite terrifying. I was just thinking, that Neptune does look a lot like Santa Claus in the Silly Symphonies Santa's Workshop and The Night Before Christmas.

Overall, a nice silly symphony, not the most memorable of them all, but worth a look. 8/10 Bethany Cox

A few decades before an animated feature depicting mermaids, a sea king, and ships, Disney released "King Neptune" as part of their Silly Symphonies series. Here we have the title character ruling the ocean, while his mermaid friends go to the surface, where pirates try to take them prisoner, resulting in a war waged by the ocean's inhabitants.

It's a typical simplistic and harmless short. Released as it was before the Hays Code, the mermaids appear topless (but without any pronounced anatomy). I've always preferred Warner Bros' cartoons (which had more of an edge to them), but there's nothing wrong with this short.

PS: If you're wondering about the difference between Triton and Poseidon/Neptune, Triton is the latter's son in Greek mythology.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

Huge KING NEPTUNE, Ruler of the Sea, is frolicking with his lissome little mermaids. The arrival of a scurvy band of pirates, and their lustful attack upon the mermaids, begins a terrific battle, in which the ocean creatures join in. Finally, the sea god emerges from the waves & wrecks watery vengeance upon the corsairs.

There's plenty of action in this exceedingly, one might almost say excessively, violent cartoon. The state of the mermaids' dishabille shows that this is a pre-Production Code film.

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.

A action-packed little Silly Symphony, where King Neptune (a Poseidon-sort of sea creature) and his army of marine life attempt to save a group of mermaids from pirates.

Reminisced of the movie The Little Mermaid, this cartoon short is somewhat on the exciting side, with plenty of slapstick stuff, rescue-the-damsels-in-distress efforts, and good guys vs. bad guys action. It's fun seeing the many unique attacks of the sea creatures.

Overall, one of the more exciting and action-packed Silly Symphonies.

Grade B