Les insectes amoureux

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

Scores of happy insects are frolicking in the forest & finding many happy ways to keep themselves entertained. In particular, two BUGS IN LOVE are discovering that creepy crawly romance is sweet - that is, until a nasty hungry crow shows up to spoil their day...

Lots of ingenious sight gags, in this black & white cartoon, as Disney's animators explore things insectoid (for example, notice the centipede skin rug).

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.

I have always been a fan of the Disney Silly Symphonies. While Bugs in Love is not one of the finest of the series, it is very good regardless. While not making the mistake of being routine or predictable, Bugs in Love is not very original story-wise. If anything, there is definitely an influence on the superior Silly Symphony The Spider and the Fly, except with bugs instead of flies and a crow instead of a spider for the menace. I also felt that the battle between the bugs and the crow underwhelmed me a bit, it is certainly not bad, just that it lacks intensity here. However, the animation is really beautifully done, always crisp and interesting to look at with the characters well drawn(a vast improvement on the most recent cartoon I saw The Bird Store). The music has much character and energy like a cartoon should do and the gags are always sweet and entertaining. But other than the animation, I found the characters to be the strongest asset of Bugs in Love. I did like that in defeating the crow it was sort of a work-together rather than the male bug dominating like in other cartoons I've seen, and you really feel the affection and personalities of the male and female bugs even without either of them saying a word. The crow is a great villain, you do recognise straight-away that he is the villain of the piece, but it didn't feel overly-obvious. The ending resolves things very nicely, very emotional and consistent with what has happened before it. Overall, I was satisfied. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This is a predictable cartoon where a bunch of bugs attack a bird after it attempts to eat a bug couple. I thought the attacks were overkill on the poor bird - it never had a chance to defend itself and ended up drinking a bunch of castor oil.

Ruthless bugs, predictable plot, and a typical animal vs. animal story.

Grade D---