"Song of the Birds" is a color cartoon from 1949, so this one will soon have its 70th anniversary already. This was directed by Bill Tytla and if you take a look at his work and his co-writer Bill Turner's body of work, then you will find out some films that are still fairly well known today. Admittedly, this one we got here is not among these as you will see by the quantity of votes. The character of Little Audrey is mostly forgotten today and same is true for production company Famous Studios even if they made some good cartoons and were also pretty prolific back in the day. As for this one here, it is a very touching little work. The anti-gun message comes second as it is much more about the respect all the animals pay to each other, even if they are entirely different species and how they stand with the one mourning a beloved. Of course, the ending with the lesson learnt by Audrey also adds nice closure, but this really was not the core of it all. It is pretty fitting that Audrey is not mentioned in the title. Even early on the lady in the chair has more entertainment potential when she turns white all of a sudden. How racist! Not. My favorite moment is probably when the rabbit parents hugs the young rabbit happy he's alive and this was a perfect mix of comedy and emotion as the former is brought in too by the child's confused reaction. But there are more scenes that stay memorable like when the bird parent finds the little bird or when it cries for her child. And completely aside the great story, this was also a really beautiful film to look at visually. Of course, it is from the Golden Age of Animation, but we should not take that for granted, especially looking at how mediocre most animated (short) films were in the following decades. This is a marvellous little film, 7 minutes I highly highly recommend and it really should have been nominated for an Oscar.
Review of Song of the Birds
