The Flying Mouse (1934)

 The Flying Mouse (1934)

This is how The Flying Mouse was made and how it became a major milestone in the Disney studio, enjoy (:

Story Development

The Flying Mouse started production/story development around July of 1933, with the production # of US19, later becoming 20 after switching it with “The Wise Little Hen” (which was Donald Duck’s debut) David Hand was director in The Flying Mouse. Of course inspired by their past cartoons about fables. It is unknown if The Flying Mouse followed the Aesop Fable of “The Bat, The Bird, and the Beast”, but it’s most likely it wasn’t, because both stories are different. But the studio did follow a fable from 1668 called “The Jay Dressed up in the Peacock’s Feather” as inspiration and story development help.

Anyway, the Disney studio wanted to try something differently with this cartoon and tried to make their first short with feeling and emotion. During development, the song “Who’s Afriad of the Big Bad Wolf” from the Three Little Pigs became extremely popular and a hit in the 1930’s. So to continue that success, Walt tried to make other songs that hopefully could be memorable like Who’s Afriad of the Big Bad Wolf. Frank Churchill made the score for the short, and most memorably, the song “You’re Nothing but a Nothing”, which became the short’s musical staple.The song didn’t become memorable with audiences. Walt wanted to get more personally involved with the film, and personally directed, something he hasn’t done since 1929, a part where after the mouse got picked up by the wind, got his rear end struck by a spike vine. David Hand resonated with Walt to not do this but Walt insisted it would get laughs. It didn’t. Walt would later direct himself an entire cartoon, which became “The Golden Touch” (1935), and according to him it was the worst cartoon he ever did in his career. Anyway, story development ended in March of 1934.

Animation

Animation is unknown to the public when it started, but it must’ve started around January-April 1934. This time, the animators now really wanted to add feeling and emotion into the cartoon and the characters, so the top animators in the studio worked in this short, like Fred Moore and Ham Luske. Backgrounds were drawn by Carlos Manriquez. Anyway, here are the entire list of animators and what they animated.

Marvin Woodwad (mice playing, mice running from the flying mouse’s shadow, mouse returning home)

Cy Young (bird crowd, and the flying mouse imagining himself with wings)

Bob Wickersham (mouse’s failed attempts at flying, and the baby bird with the mother)

Ham Luske (Mouse in the tub and the mouse getting spanked, and mouse with bats)

Hardie Gramatky (mother washes sister mouse, and the mouse saving the butterfly)

Fred Moore (Mouse talking to the fairy, and mouse reflecting in the pond)

Nick George (Flying mouse tries to fly in the air)

Harry Baile (Mice at play fleeing mouse)

George Drake (Cottage closes as the family takes refuge)

Leonard Sebring (Mouse kicked from cottage to cave)

This was the studio’s third attempt at making personality animation, or in better words, make a character look like it’s thinking. This was first tried with the Three Little Pigs, but instead of thinking, each pig moved differently according to it’s personality. The second try was the 1934 film “Playful Pluto”, where animator Norm Ferguson tried to animate Pluto like he’s actually thinking, trying to get a piece of flypaper out of it’s body.

This time, the studio now tried again with the Flying Mouse combining personality and emotion, which was achieved well. So good in fact that when a young artist Frank Thomas saw this in theathres, he then decided to join the Disney studio because according to him, it was an entirely different type of picture, where a cartoon character didn’t just move but thinked. Frank Thomas would later convince Ollie Johnston to join the studio too, which both ended up decided to do because it was either working at Disney, or the WPA (which was a government created job during the Great Depression). The two later became one of the most legendary Disney animators and possibly in the world.

Release & Reiusses

The cartoon was finished around June of 1934 and was shipped to Technicolor for developing, which the cartoon like all other Disney shorts used 3-strip Technicolor. The Flying Mouse was released on July 14, of 1934, lasting 9:16 (833ft on 35mm) and with a negative cost/budget of $31,386.82 USD (or 736,000 dollars as of March of 2026). Before it’s announced release, it had a premiere 2 days before at Radio City Music Hall accompanied with Walter Lang’s “Whom the Gods Destroy”. And a week before that, the short’s music was put on radio on KHJ. The film anyway, became an extreme success, finally financing Disney for other big productions which later down the line helped with the making of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The mouse and the mother even appeared in Mickey’s Polo Team as a cameo. Sadly, it’s songs didn’t become a hit like “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf”, but it became a major milestone in personality animation, which also led to other personality cartoons.

The cartoon then later went into the vault and wasn’t reissued until the late 70’s and early 80’s when home video finally became a thing. It was released in a rare VHS of Silly Symphonies, but later got released on “Walt Disney Treasures: Wave 1: Silly Symphonies” on DVD, which that DVD became the first in the series to be released. On Blu-Ray, it was placed as a bonus feature in Dumbo: 70th Anniversary Edition, along with Elmer Elephant, which today is the best way to watch in the cartoon in HD. Sadly, The Flying Mouse hasn’t seen any rereleases and probably won’t.

"Playful Pluto" (1934) Part where Pluto seems like he's actually thinking

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Sources:

Frank & Ollie (1995 Documentary)

Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Classics (2006 Book)

More Kittens (1936)

 More Kittens (1936)

This is another research of the Three Orphan Kittens, which also this being a sequel of Three Orphan Kittens, anyways enjoy

Story Development & Animation

Three Orphan Kittens, was one of the few Silly Symphonies that sparked a sequel called More Kittens. Walt Disney wasn’t always keen on sequels, and preferred to crate new stories rather than to renarrate or create sequels, so this was an extremely rare occurrence to happen. But because of that mentality, much effort and pathos wasn’t developed for that cartoon. Story on More Kittens began in February of 1936 and ended in April of the same year, which at the time, was an extremely short time to develop a story, compared the average of 6-12 months of other Silly Symphonies. It’s story developers and directors were Bill Cottorel, Joe Grant, Bob Kuwatha, David Hand, and Jack Cutting with the production # of US38. Production time for all others departments in unknown to the public. Originally, The St. Bernard (called Toliver) was originally developed by Joe Grant for the 1936 Mickey Mouse Short “Alpine Climbers” which also does appear in that cartoon. And later down the line, a short called “Mother Pluto” was ending it’s production, it went from being a Mickey Mouse short to a Silly Symphony, thus the production # of “More Kittens” was moved from US38 to 39. Much of it’s other development is unknown, but the animators where this, surprisingly, two of the Nine Old Men participated in this short:

-Frenchy de Tremaudan (kittens with the maid and laundry)

-Ward Kimball (kittens meet Toliver)

-Leonard Sebring (kittens drink from the milk bottle and fight with the turtle)

-Bob Stokes (Tuffy with the fly and Toliver)

-Bob Wickersham (Tuffy with fly and bird, and kittens with turtle)

-Frank Thomas (quarrel inside Tolivers mouth, all the way into the end, with the exception of some laundry scenes).

Release & Reiussues

The film finished production around November-Decmber of 1936 and was copyrighted in 30 November of 1936. It lasts 8:10 (735ft in 35mm) and the short was finally released in 19 December, 1936. It had openings in New York City and LA between February and March of 1937. It was reissued in mutliple VHS releases, but the highest quality way to see is in the "Walt Disney Treasures: Wave 6 More Silly Symphonies".

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Sources:

Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classics (2016)

Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters (1987)

Three Orphan Kittens (1935)

Three Orphan Kittens (1935)

This is a very fun research, of what I found from one of my favourite Silly Symphonies, which is this one. Enjoy :D

Story Development & Animation

 Production on the short started in February of 1934, inspired from when people actually throwed kittens over the fence of the Hyperion Disney Studio, where after, the cats were hanging around there. To this point, much isn’t known about what happened in the story production from February of 1934-1935. What is known is that the production # given was US30 with the working title of “Three Little Kittens”, and that the short was also inspired by the nursery rhyme of “The Three Little Kittens” (1856) by Eliza Follen. We also know that the story was developed by Bill Cotterell, Joe Grant, and directed by Dave Hand (with Jack Cutting as assistant director) But anyway, animation on the short began on 25 March, 1935. Only 4 animaotrs animated the entire short with also stating what they animated. 

-Bob Wickersham (opening scenes of the kittens entering the home, then exploring it, and then some scenes in the nursery)

-Fred Moore (Kittens on the kitchen)

-Ham Luske (Kittens on the piano until the end)

-Ken Anderson (Animated the backgrounds moving in perspective while Bob Wickersham animated the kittens, Ken is not mentioned in the drafts of the short)

Any animation drawings are extremely rare and only 1 exists in the internet (any other that could exist in the interwebs are still lost or hidden deep within it). The animation on the kittens was studied, so was it’s characteristics thanks to some found model sheets that could infer that the psychology of the cuteness of a kitten was studied.

The kittens, still, are not animated with anatomy (just like any other Disney short in the 1930’s). And there were many designs for the kittens to. Tuffy was always a black cat, but Fluffy was an completly white cat with some orange spots, with Muffy being completely white (although it isn’t confirmed, it can be inferred). Animation finally ended in 12 September, 1935. With Inking & Painting not having a source of how long it lasted (probably between May-October). Each kitten was of course, the same design, but the noses of Muffy and Fluffy and inked and painted diffrenlty than Tuffy, with Tuffy only having a blacked inked nose, while the latter had airbrushed paint in their noses.

Photography & Final Touches

Photography was between 31 August - 3 October, 1935, and was of course, shot on 3 strip Technicolor, where it was sent for developing in 15 October. The short lasted 8:55 (or 802ft in 35mm) with a negative cost/budget of $25,771.24 USD (around 600,000 USD adjusting for inflation of February of 2026). Voices for the cartoon were Lillian Randoph, which provided the voice of Mammy Two Shoes, Marcellite Garner, which provided the voice of the girl and some meows. And probably Clarense Nash also provided some meows.

Release

The film was finally released on 26 October, 1935, and had other openings in other places in the country. In New York, it had an opening which lasted from 21-27 of November at the Radio City Music Hall, accompanied by “Crime and Punishemnt”. And in LA between 20-26 of February at the Filmarrte accompanied with “The Informer”. It had it’s copyright renewed in 6 November, 1935.

Reception & Reissues

On March 5 of 1936, the short was nominated and won Best Animated Short Film of 1935. It won against Who Killed Cock Robin and The Calico Dragon. For a few years, like all other Silly Symphonies, it wasn’t released again until 1937 where it selected to be screened with other academy award shorts called “Academy Review of Walt Disney Cartoons”, for some monetary and publicty gain for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfes The short was also released in Czecoslovakia and Italy, where it also won the Venice Film Festival of 1935, which was also awarded with On Ice and Who Killed Cock Robin. Until then, the short wasn’t reissued until 1966 again with the same rescreening of various academy award winning shorts. The highest quality way to see this cartoon is buying the "Walt Disney Treasures: Wave 6 More Silly Symphonies", which sadly, is one the few rarest Walt Disney DVD's to find, going around 100-200USD for a copy. BE CAREFUL OF SCRATHED DISCS, IT HAPPENED TO ME, lol.

Censorship

In the short, there is a scene where Tuffy gets scared by toy and accidently hits a baby doll saying "Mama". Tuffy gets scared of it and hits, but the doll turns over and then appears a... VERY sterotypical African-American screaming "Mammy". This scene is removed in other past releases, like in the Dumbo 1985 UK VHS release. In the Disney Treasure DVD, it is left intact.

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Notes & Sources:

I have made some edits on the Disney Fandom of this short, alongside it's sequel

Most of these sources come from books:

Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classics (2016)

Encyclopedia of Walt Disney's Animated Characters (1987)

Animation draft of who did which scene (480p)