Robert Reynolds
This is a short in the Silly Symphonies series produced by Disney. There will be spoilers ahead:This is a rather uninteresting short. The animation is good and thee character designs are excellent, but the gags are disappointing and there's very little of this worth watching. There's one decent joke, a cameo by the Marx Brothers as the Marx Birds, but that lasts a few seconds.The short looks like it has something going for it toward the middle, when a parrot encounters a typewriter and a telephone, but it doesn't go very far. The attempt to inject some drama near the end by having a cat go after a baby bird could have worked, but it's too similar to the ending of The Spider and the Fly and comes off as inferior.This short is available on the Disney Treasures More Silly Symphonies DVD set. The set is worth looking for, but this short is for completists.
MissSimonetta
Because this short if chock full of nothing but shrill cheeps and squawks. It's enough to give a viewer a migraine! The actual plot does not come into play until the last two minutes of this seven minute short film.The visuals are nothing to hoot about either (pun intended, I'm so sorry, forgive me God). The backgrounds are sparse and barely existent. The animation is standard for the time with nothing to set it apart. The gags are dull, save a few (the kissing birds, the "Four Marx Birds", the cat's demise at the end, etc.).Unless you're a Disney completionist as I am, then The Bird Store (1932) is a Silly Symphony you should avoid.
Ron Oliver
A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.There is much flit & flutter in THE BIRD SHOP, especially after a vicious black cat gets in and goes after a baby canary...This is a fairly interesting little black & white cartoon, with lots of action/reaction animation. The pace really picks up with the arrival of the ferocious feline. Movie mavens will notice that four of the birds are spoofs of the Marx Brothers.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.
Squonk
'The Bird Store' is a plotless, black and white Silly Symphony. The first half is just scenes of different animated birds squawking out a melody. It doesn't take long for that to get pretty annoying, you'll be scrambling for the mute button. The second half centers on what happens when a cat wanders in to the bird store. The only thing I really found enjoyable here was the unique designs of some of the bird characters. I especially enjoyed the four birds made to look like the Marx Brothers. It's certainly not required viewing.
AD
