There’s something a little bit ridiculous about Grand Opera anyway, but give the conductor’s baton to Mickey Mouse and make Clara Cluck and Donald Duck the stars of the show—as they are in Mickey’s Grand Opera—and you know this most highbrow of art forms is about to get a good-natured skewering—Disney style. Listening to Clara’s …
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Walt Disney was a huge fan of polo, so he had the horse sense to include his favorite sport into a short cartoon, Mickey’s Polo Team. Walt’s pitted one polo team, which included the likes of Hollywood legends Laurel and Hardy, Charlie Chaplin, and Harpo Marx, against another squad made up of a few other …
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Sixty years before Toy Story was released, some play toys came to life in Broken Toys, which “played” in theaters on this day in 1935. The Silly Symphony begins with a toy soldier being thrown in the dump, where he encounters a gang of other toys that also come to life — many of which …
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In Cock o’ the Walk, a Silly Symphony released on this day in 1935, an arrogant prize fighting rooster comes to town and attempts to steal the hand of a cute chicken from a scrawny rooster. But the underdog proves he’s no chicken when he hops in the ring with the troublemaker, and when he …
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Across the ends of the Sea of Discord are two lands, Land of Symphony and Isle of Jazz, and the inhabitants of each land are actually living musical instruments who only “speak” by using the natural sounds of their instruments in the Silly Symphony Music Land, which played its way into theaters on this day …
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On this day in 1935, the Mickey Mouse cartoon short On Ice slid into theaters, and it seemed like the whole Disney animated family wanted to get into the act. There was Mickey Mouse, ice skating and showing off for Minnie. Goofy decides to go ice fishing, but rather than doing it the traditional way, …
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The natural instinct of a dog is to chase cats, particularly animated dogs such as Pluto. In the Mickey Mouse cartoon short Pluto’s Judgement Day, released on this day in 1935, Disney’s hero hound might have chased his last cat. When his master Mickey Mouse scolds him for chasing an adorable little kitten, Pluto takes …
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On this day in 1935, Clarabelle’s house was on fire, and who better to come to the rescue than the firefighting team of Mickey, Donald, and Goofy in the cartoon short Mickey’s Fire Brigade? While the trio may not have been the most exemplary choice for extinguishing the fire, they certainly make for the most …
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The story of Cock Robin was published as early as 1744 in an English songbook as Death and Burial of Poor Cock Robin, which ends with all the birds of the air “a-sighing and a-sobbing, when they heard the bell toll” at his funeral. This may seem like an odd choice for a Walt Disney …
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The 1935 Silly Symphony Water Babies splashed onto screens on this day, allowing viewers to peek in on an entire typical day of the water babies in just over eight minutes. Starting at the moment the adorable kewpie-like kids awake on their lily pads, and ending when they return to sleep, the lovable creatures are …
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