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)