Cartoon a Day: Monkey Melodies

Monkey Melodies
1930
Directed by Burt Gillett
Available on: Walt Disney Treasures - More Silly Symphonies


Happy Thanksgiving everybody! Today's cartoon has nothing to do with Thanksgiving, but it's got the next best thing...monkeys.


"Monkey Melodies," like most Silly Symphonies, has no real plot, but a lot of interesting animation and visuals. While there are some great moments, this short does have one big problem. The backgrounds, while beautifully drawn, are too busy. In many sequences, the monkey characters seem to be lost in the business of the background art.



There is still a lot to enjoy here, though. One sequence involving dancing crocodiles is interesting to watch considering what would be done with the same sort of characters just ten years later in "Fantasia."



The Silly Symphonies were such a great animation lab, new things were being tried all the time. This one is still fun, despite a few miscalculations.