Melody (1953)

Directors:

Ward Kimball
Charles A. Nichols

Writer:

Dick Huemer (story)

Release Date:

28 May 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Animation | Short | Family | Fantasy | Music | Musical

Tagline:

FIRST OF THE "ADVENTURES IN MUSIC" SERIES

Plot:

An owl teaches his class full of birds about melody. It's all around in nature. Only birds and man can sing; man "sings" even when he speaks...

Plot Keywords:

3 Dimensional | Educational | Kids And Family

Cast

Harry Stanton	...	Bass Singer in Canoe and Ship (uncredited)
Bill Thompson	...	Professor Owl (uncredited)

Also Known As:

Adventures in Music: Melody (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

10 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Company:

Walt Disney Productions

Trivia:

Features the song "The Bird and the Cricket and the Willow Tree" by Paul Francis Webster and Sonny Burke.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Disney Sing-Along-Songs: Heigh-Ho (1987) (V)

Soundtrack:

The Bird and the Cricket and the Willow Tree

Let's All Sing Like The Birdies Sing

A Walt Disney Cartoon.

Professor Owl teaches the students in his avian schoolhouse the importance of Melody & the sources of Inspiration in their daily lives.

ADVENTURES IN MUSIC - MELODY is a very enjoyable little film which gets its musical message across in a delightful manner. This was also the Studio's first foray into the field of 3-D animation. The wacky imagination of its co-director & animator, the irrepressible Ward Kimball (1914-2002), is evident throughout. The film would be followed the same year by a sequel, TOOT, WHISTLE, PLUNK, AND BOOM, which won the Oscar for best animated short for 1953.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Bambi, Peter Pan and Mr. Toad. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.