MartinHafer I am not one for "political correctness" and don't think any film should be banned just because it offends. However, because of some offensive imagery of Blacks in this cartoon, you're not likely to find it except on the Internet. However, before you rush off to find it, I warn you--not so much because of the racially insensitive material (and it is offensive) but because the movie itself is pretty insipid and unfunny. Just a couple years earlier, Disney made a similar film that was littered with cartoon images of famous actors (MICKEY'S POLO TEAM), but it was a good bit funnier and more likable. Plus, this time it all seems a bit more forced. If you do see this cartoon, don't see it because it's anything special--see it because it's a good case of a film that has been shelved because of changing tastes and mores.

theowinthrop Aside from a curious double edged piece of racism, this "Silly Symphony" Cartoon is pegged on the film stars of the 1930s. I suspect more people than we can think of actually can remember most of these stars. They include, Katherine Hepburn (as "Little Bo Peep" - rallee she is); Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy, and Freddie Bartholemew as the Three Men in a boat (Laughton is Captain Bligh, Tracy is Manuel from CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS, and Freddie is David Copperfield); Hugh Herbert as Old King Cole, Ned Sparks as his "merry" Jester, Groucho, Chico, and Harpo Marx as his fiddler three, Joe (UGH!!) Penner as the servant bringing him a bowl (actually a kettle) and asking if he wants a "Duck" (Donald Duck); Stan Laurel as Simple Simon and Oliver Hardy as the pie-man; Eddie Cantor as Little Jack Horner, and his four and twenty blackbirds include Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and Lincoln Perry (Stepin' Fetchit); Wallace Beery as Little Boy Blue; Greta Garbo as Marjorie Daw, taught a lesson by Edward G. Robinson; and at the conclusion they have Fred Astaire (unfortunately dancing alone), Zazu Pitts, Edna Mae Oliver and Mae West playing horns (Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel and the Marx Brothers also return playing instruments, and we see George Arliss playing a saxophone and Clark Gable on another instrument), and Martha Raye and Joe E. Brown dancing and kissing.Most of these figures are still pretty easy to remember (Penner and Arliss I think are the most obscure - the former quite understandably). The reason is the films of most of these people (or the recordings of Calloway and Waller) are accessible by DVD or video.The interesting thing is how the Disney people were watching the movies of the day or the culture. As pointed out in another review of this cartoon only three Marx Brothers pop up - Zeppo had left the act in 1933. W.C. Fields is Humpty Dumpty, and he is pestered by Charlie McCarthy (this was the same year as their film together, YOU CAN'T CHEAT AN HONEST MAN). When they do the three men in a tub, Laughton is Bligh, Tracy is Manuel, and Bartholemew is young David Copperfield (oddly enough, not Harvey Cheyne - the role he played opposite Tracy's Manuel in CAPTAIN'S COURAGEOUS). Garbo had said "I want to be alone" in GRAND HOTEL in 1933, but the line was still her best known one - it would be spoofed by Sig Ruman in NINOTCHKA, opposite Garbo. The Laurel and Hardy jokes show careful study of how Stan always does something that Ollie can't and when Ollie figures he can do it he comes a cropper. But Ollie later changes the range of Stan's clarinet playing from tenor to base by hitting Stan on the head with a mallet. That is similar to a joke done by Ollie to a singing Stan in WAY OUT WEST in 1937. Oddly enough Raye and Brown would be in a comedy together (ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS A TOUCHDOWN) in 1939, so possibly rumors about such a teaming were in the air. Somebody was doing his homework here.The racist jokes dealing with the four and twenty "blackbirds" is as I said a two - edged sword. On the one hand the caricatures are definitely racist, in particular Perry. But the fact that all three were included strikes me as showing they are considered celebrities. Why have them otherwise if they weren't be recognized by the audience watching the cartoon (the Fleischer cartoons at Paramount frequently used Cab Callaway too). The only inexcusable racist joke (aside from exaggerating Perry's shtick) was that a blackberry pie hits Hepburn in the face, turning her into an African-American "Bo - Peep" for a moment, and she starts talking with a southern drawl. Hepburn knew of the cartoon - she mentioned it on a program she did in the 1990s about her life for PBS, and said the cartoon's sequence of her "Bo - Peep" riding an outboard motor passed the three men in the tub, was the first time on screen her persona and Tracy's shared a scene or sequence. Odd to think it happened here.

Robert Reynolds Back in the 1930s and 1940s, various animation departments (chief among them being Warner Brothers) made cartoons that used caricatures of well-known celebrities (movies stars, principally) as characters. This is the best of Disney's efforts and was nominated for an Oscar. The main problem with this cartoon is that, unless you not only remember your nursey rhymes, but are reasonaby up on movie stars and movies of the 1930s, you miss quite a bit of the humor. Still holds up reasonably well after more than 60 years. Recommended to any movie buffs and/or someone reading Mother Goose for whatever reason.

Ron Oliver A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.MOTHER GOOSE GOES Hollywood when a collection of animated celebrities spoof the characters in wacky interpretations of famous old Nursery Rhymes.Aided by excellent voice artists, the Disney animators get to display their caricaturing talents in this very enjoyable cartoon. This was not as easy as it looks, melding the personality of the celebrity with the persona of the Nursery character and leaving them both recognizable. And it gets even more complicated than that. In the 3 Men In A Tub sequence, the celebrity is also spoofing a famous movie role they've played (Charles Laughton as Captain Bligh in MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY, Spencer Tracy as Manuel in CAPTAINS COURAGEOUS & Freddie Bartholomew as David COPPERFIELD). That Disney was able to pull off these characterizations in the space of only a few seconds speaks volumes for the high level of expertise attained by the Studio.Movie mavens will love spotting & naming each animated celebrity. Others will have a difficult time, since many of these stars are now rather obscure. Here, for the record, is a listing of the celebrity spoofs: Katharine Hepburn as Little Bo Peep; Hugh Herbert as Old King Cole; Groucho, Chico & Harpo Marx as the Fiddlers Three; Ned Sparks as the King's Jester; Joe Penner as the King's Servant; Donald Duck as himself; Charles Laughton, Spencer Tracy & Freddie Bartholomew as the 3 Men In A Tub; W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty; Charlie McCarthy as himself; Stan Laurel as Simple Simon; Oliver Hardy as the Pieman; Edward G. Robinson & Greta Garbo in See Saw Margery Daw; Wallace Beery as Little Boy Blue; Edna May Oliver, Mae West & ZaSu Pitts as the trumpeters; Clark Gable as the flautist; George Arliss as the saxophonist; Joe E. Brown & Martha Raye as the jitterbug dancers. Apparently, unedited versions of the cartoon also feature 'appearances' by Fred Astaire, Cab Calloway, Eddie Cantor, Stepin Fetchit & Fats Waller.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.