Une petite poule avisée

This is it. The first appearance of Donald Duck. In the short, Donald looks a little different than he does today. He was smaller and had a rounded bill instead of a flat one. Two things, however, have remained constant about Donald Duck: his sailor suit and his short temper.

"The Wise Little Hen," this cartoon from 1938 is a very good carton for being so early in our time. It is a very short film, but for being so short it is really catchy in many ways. From it bringing back your childhood days to the music that is played is really addicting you can not stop watching it. The story is actually a really good story and also can be put in to now day's perspective very easily. This short film is not the best that I have ever seen but if you look at it; it is one of the best cartoons I feel I have ever watched.

The first thing to bring up is the sound that is in this short film, and how it goes along with the short film very well. The music is very catchy and after you hear it you can not get it out of your head. The music is very up beat and goes along with what is going on in the film. When the little hen is walking with her babies and looking for someone to help the words are very uplifting and happy. But when the hen asks the pig and the duck for some help and she realizes that they are not going to help the voice of the singer goes into a deeper more depressing tone. After that though when the hen keeps walking the music goes straight to back to being happy. When she is done asking them if they can help her and them telling her no her and her babies go to the field and start planning. This part of the story the beat gets really catchy when the baby hens go up and down and move they move along with the beat. This is an important part of the film and is the reason I think that you can not stop watching it. It is just like a song most people like songs that have a good beat and the words go along real well with the beat. It is the same way with a movie, but instead of the words being with the beat it is what you're seeing that is in beat with the music. The last part about the music is when the pig and duck find out that the hen did not really give them any corn to eat the beat is kind of funny and goes along with the disappointment that they are feeling.

The plot to this short film is another big reason that you can really comprehend this story, and put it into things that have happened to you. Every one that I know has gone through what the hen goes through at least once in their life. You always think that you have friends and they will be there for you, but the truth is they are always just looking out for there selves. This is the same thing that the hen goes through; every time she asked the pig and duck to help her they did not want to because they thought it would not help them out at all. Then when the hen comes and asks them if they could help her eat her corn instead of planting it they were more than welcome to. Before though when they saw that the hen was starting to walk towards them they starting acting sick again because they thought that she was going to ask them to help her do something. But when they find out that she is going to feed them they starting acting all nice to her. What the hen does next is what most people should do when they face this situation, she puts a prank on the pig and duck. When they open up the bowl that the hen had gave them, which they thought was going to be corn, they find out that it is only stomach medicine. I think just about every person can put this into perspective about a time in their life. That is why I think this is such a good short film and also a very addictive one. Most might say it is just because of the music but I promise if they really sit down and think about it that they will understand that this is a big reason too.

Overall though this a great short film and it is also a little bit funny, especially when the hen says the simple word "corn" in her very hen-like voice. Behind all of that though the main reasons I liked this film and thought that is was addicting was mostly because of the music and the story line. The music being very up beat and catchy, and then the story line really fitting into what I have gone through in life. If you have never watched this short film I suggest you do so but be careful it is kind of addicting, and you might want to watch it a couple more times. Last, though this film will make you laugh a little bit and it will also bring back the younger side of your life.

While watching The Wise Little Hen, I had to keep reminding myself that this short was made in 1934. The animation has held up well over the years and is as good as anything you'll see. The colors paint a bright picture and the attention to detail is amazing. This film is also an important milestone as it marks the first appearance of Donald Duck, it remains one of his best films.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

Worried about having enough food to feed her family come Wintertime, THE WISE LITTLE HEN decides to plant a field of corn. Her idle friends, Peter Pig & Donald Duck, decline to help with the planting or the harvesting - leaving the little chicken to plan her sweet revenge...

This is a very fine adaptation of the childhood story, with a strong, self-reliant title character (voiced by Florence Gill). But the reason this is a landmark cartoon is because it was the debut of the irascible, anti-social, temperamental, infuriating & utterly lovable Duck, a character so strong he would soon eclipse Mickey Mouse himself. With voice courtesy of the inimitable Clarence Nash, Donald would become one of the world's most popular personalities & a source of never-ending fascination for those who study anti-social behavior and its consequences.

Fate would not be so kind to Peter Pig. Although his debut was just as conspicuous as the Duck's, he lacked that certain intangible quality which would set him apart from the common swine. Hollywood can be a cruel place & Peter's attempts to build a movie career - he worked for a while as Porky Pig's stunt double - proved a failure. When last heard of, Peter Pig was living in a small apartment over a garage in Pomona, California.

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.

Unlike ducklings that hatch out of their eggs, the cartoon character Donald Duck evolved. The first version drawn by the Walt Disney staff appeared in England's Mickey Mouse Annual #3 comic book in 1931. In late 1933, Disney liked the looks of the duck so much he had the bird included in the June 1934 release of "The Wise Little Hen," the first time Donald Duck appeared on the movie screen. The cartoon's release date at Radio City Music Hall in New York City, June 7, 1934, is celebrated as Donald's official birthday. Three months preceding his movie debut, Donald, voiced by Clarence Nash, was on the radio as the wise-cracking duck alongside Mickey Mouse. The radio Donald was always interrupting the rodent, serving as a roadmap to his summer's cartoon character.

Walt personally took an interest with Donald after Nash's imitation bowled over the studio president. Disney rounded off the duck's personality after "The Wise Little Hen" by giving him the short temper he became notoriously-known. The first appearance of Donald in the animated cartoon differs from future looks, with his neck and beak much longer and his body fatter than later showings.

In the "The Wise Little Hen," Donald Duck played the lazy neighbor to the mother hen, who asks for his help in planting a field of corn for her chicks. Apparently Donald's allergic to work as he pretends to be laid up with a belly ache and can't help her. He's joined by Peter Pig, who's equally lazy, claiming he's sick and not able to work. When the corn is ready for picking, the two repeat their same excuse of being sick when the Hen asks them for assistance. The joke's eventually on the slackers, however, when the hen cooks an amazing assortment of corn recipes. The Duck and the Pig salivate when they see the feast, only to be handed a bottle of castor oil by the hen.