Narration by Alec Baldwin (From the TV special It Was All Started by a Mouse)
By mid-1929, Walt was enjoying great success with the Mickey Mouse shorts. As Steamboat Willie exceeded box office expectations, Walt began entertaining distribution offers from Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, United Artists, Celebrity Productions and the Fox Film Corporation. In the meantime, he visited an old Kansas City acquaintance, Carl W. Stalling, and the two conceived the idea of a new series that would become the
Silly Symphonies.
The first
Silly Symphony was the
Skeleton Dance, released on August 1, 1929.
Three years later, the studio released
Flowers and Trees. Half of the picture had already been finished in black and white, but when Walt learned of the three-strip Technicolor process, many scenes were redrawn, repainted and reshot in full color.
Later in 1932 came
Babes in the Woods, based loosely on Grimm's Hansel and Gretel fairy tale.
Then in 1933 came
The Three Little Pigs. Thanks to the memorable song Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?, this short would go on to be the most successful entry of the
Silly Symphonies series.
The following year in 1934, Donald Duck made his screen debut in T
he Wise Little Hen.
Baldwin (Cont'd)
But in the midst of the
Silly Symphonies craze, Walt was already looking towards the future.
WALT: "I saw the handwriting on the walls early - that the short subject is just a filler on any program. I just felt I just had to diversify my business. So if I could crack the feature field, I could do things."