La cigale et la fourmi

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

A happy grasshopper dances into town (or undergrowth) playing his happy fiddle. A bunch of ants living in a nearby tree colony are busy syphoning off the treasures of a recently pilfered picnic as the grasshopper takes one of them aside to groom. The ant queen turns up and warns him not be such a carefree renegade as winter is coming soon.

Sure enough, winter does come very quickly and the happy grasshopper is freezing and starving in the snow before he comes knocking on the door of the warm, well-fed ant colony where they nurse him back to health.

Underlying message of the cartoon: if you fail at life just wait until someone gives you a handout.

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

I give this animated short a 10/10. It's just so charming. I guess something about a grasshopper prancing around playing good fiddle music just warms the heart.

Despite the queen's warning, the ants accept the grasshopper out of the cold, showing their kind nature, something we should all strive for. The grasshopper also admits he is wrong, which is another important lesson. And when the queen says, "Now take your fiddle... and play!" that moment is perfect:

"I owe the world a living! I owe the world a living! I've been a fool all year long. Now I'm singing a different song! You were right; I was wrong!"

That just gets me all choked up.

Ya gotta love Disney.

.............WELL, AT LEAST not in the USA, anyway!

THAT THIS TULY ancient story would be adapted to the screen by Mr. Walt Disney & Company. Assigned to being an installment in Disney's SILLY SYMPHONIES, the production of this animated short subject was assured to being rendered first rate.

ALTHOUGH THE STORY is really more than quite familiar to everyone, it received a new and upbeat "facelift". As only a studio such as that which was and is Disney could pull something like this off.

IN ADDITION TO the basic premise of carefree & really lazy grasshopper's being contrasted to the highly industrious ant colony. Everything was fine for the grasshopper while the Summer Sun sines. He scoffs at the ants working so hard in stock-piling for the Winter's tough times. Winter comes and the foolish grasshopper is literally left out in the cold; while the "Chumpy" ants are safe, warm and well fed down in their below ground level home.

THIS Disney VERSION takes pity on the tobacco spitter and has him being treated as a guest by the magnanimous generosity of the ants. The point is still made, albeit with a happy and not so fatal an ending.

NEXT TO THE usual brilliant animation and beautiful Technicolor visuals, the greatest asset of this film is its employment of voice actor Pinto Colvig. The man who was best known for his giving speech to characters such as Disney's GOOFY and Max Fleischer's GABBY, gave real "life" to THE GRASSHOPPER & THE ANTS. Particularly memorable is his solo singing of the very lively and meaningful tune: "The World Owes Me A Living!"

BOY SCHULTZ, THAT ought to be a real hit today!