In this sequel to 1935’s Water Babies, Merbabies depicts the activities of the adorable aquatic beings as they hold an underwater circus, complete with elephant-style octopi, an underwater band, and a shark tamer, proving that life is the bubbles under the sea. Just a year after the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the workload at Disney was so abundant that to keep their heads above the water, Walt had the melodic-sounding Harman-Ising Studios produce this Silly Symphony with some of his key staff supervising the production. Walt had worked with both Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising back at Laugh-O-grams in the early 1920s. Having left Warner Bros. and after a contractual dispute with the Van Beuren Studios, the team was happy to accept freelance work from their former colleague, and Merbabies splashed onto screens on this day in 1938.