Les enfants des bois

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

A malignant old witch tricks the BABES IN THE WOODS into entering her house of horrors. Only their new friends, the little woodland dwarfs, can save them now...

A lot of colorful action is packed into this cartoon, which includes elements of stories from the Brothers Grimm. Charming opening, in which the story begins as a sung lullaby. The wicked witch, though now all but forgotten, is the first of Disney's great villainesses.

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.

Babes in the Woods (1932)

*** (out of 4)

Fun and great to look at Disney cartoon has a brother and sister wondering into the woods where they meet some elves but they're tempted by a house made out of candy and once inside they're kidnapped by the evil witch. This here is an alternate take on the Hansel and Gretal tale and for the most part it's highly entertaining. The film has some very charming moments but there's also some rather dark moments that I'm sure scared the heck out of kids back in 1932. There's a lot of great things about this short but the highlight has to be the actual animation and the colors used. I was really shocked at how wonderful the colors looked because you really could pass this off as a film that was made a decade ago let alone back in 1932. I really loved the look of the candy house and the various colors that are on full display. Another great use of color comes towards the end as the witch slowly begins to turn to stone. Speaking of the witch, she's quite creepy here and manages to be very memorable with her wicked spells. One highlight has the boy being turned into a spider and then it hits you that the various other creatures in the room were also children at one time.

For some reason, two little Dutch kids are rambling through the woods. As time goes by, numerous frightening things happen. They come upon a village of gnomes who accept them immediately. But soon the witch with the candy house shows up and they are taken in by her. The colors and sets are excellent. The story is a little weak, but it's not terrible.

Two horribly animated children are skipping through the woods until they become frightened of everything from branches to bunnies. They discover an elf village and end up playing with them before an evil witch lures them to her candy cane house where she has other kids in captivity, only they're turned into various nasty creatures.

The kids break free, rescue the other victims and encase the witch in concrete or something, which ends up in the creation of "The Witch Stone".

I wasn't charmed by Disney's version of this Brothers Grimm tale. The animation wasn't that good and without the Disney trademark of anthropomorphic animals it just felt awkward.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Silly Symphony. I wouldn't necessarily deem it as a favourite, like I would Flowers and Trees and The Old Mill, but it manages to be both scary and charming. With nice colourful animation, particularly on the outside of the gingerbread house, a beautiful lullaby-like title song and dramatic and whimsical incidental music it is a delight visually and musically. The pace is secure and the cartoon eventful enough to be enjoyable, with some elements of other Grimm fairy tales and sticking to the overall structure of the original Hansel and Gretel tale. The characters are engaging, the two children are likable enough and look cute in the Dutch traditional dress, while the gnomes are friendly and jovial. I remember this though chiefly for the Witch, who is very scary not only how she is animated but how she speaks too. Concluded with a fun climax, in which the Witch is finally turned into stone, this is a lovely, charming Silly Symphony. 10/10 Bethany Cox