Essay - Disney's the Tortoise and the Hare Summary and Overview of...

Disney's The Tortoise and the Hare

Summary ***** Overview of Disney's Cartoon Short: "The Tortoise and the Hare" (1935)

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Most people today may not remember a time when a movie ticket, a box of popcorn ***** a balcony seat represented an entire day's entertainment for young ***** in America, but motion pictures in the early 20th century featured a number of "extr*****s" that are not found ***** today's movie theatres, such as the quality cartoon shorts produced by ***** Disney studios. Max Hare and Toby Tortoise are just part of the Disney ***** cast, of course, but *****se ***** characters ***** enduring because they possess universal appeal based on a number ***** positive factors which form the basis of this study. In Disney's 1935 Academy Award winning carto***** short, "The Tortoise and the *****," Max and ***** face off and prove once and for all that ***** race does ***** always go to the swiftest, ***** rather sometimes to the meek but diligent as well. These moral lessons aside, "The ***** and the Hare" is just fun to watch because of the high quality ***** animation, over***** production values and rich musical scores that characterized even early D*****ney productions, and these issues are discussed further below, followed by a summ*****ry of the research in the conclusion.

Review and Analysis

***** "Tortoise and the H*****" was just one of many ***** "Silly Symphonies" that were produced during ***** first half of the 20th *****. These productions were in response to ***** grow*****g international interest in and demand for Mickey Mouse-related car*****ons and merch*****ise. According to No*****-Smith (1997), "Fuelled by a keen merchandizing campaign patterned after Pat Sullivan's exploitation of Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat, the Disney studios created 100 cartoons starring him in the ten years from 1928 to 1937. In the process *****y managed to homogenize the character-Ub Iwerks's original Mickey from Plane Crazy and Steamboat Willie had wiry limbs and a wicked personality ***** could torture cats ***** ladies, while ***** later Mickey became rounder, milder of temperament -- and virtually exhausted his possibilities."

While the ***** ***** Mickey were ***** by this time, ***** potential for other characters were just beginning ***** the Mickey Mouse ***** resulted in a number of spin-*****s of second*****ry characters such as Pluto, Go*****y, and Donald Duck who later starred in their own cartoons until the mid-1950s. Indeed, as Nowell-Smith points out, "The best of the later Mickey Mouse cartoons, such as ***** 1935 Band Concert or the 1937 Clock Cleaners, derive ***** much energy from ***** and Goofy as from *****." It ***** during this period that the ***** Symphonies genre was introduced, ***** to the delight of contemporary ***** modern audiences alike. In ***** regard, Nowell-Smith reports that, "Equally fortunately, Ub Iwerks initiated a second p*****rallel series of sound cartoons with his ***** Skeleton Dance: the Silly Symphonies, which explored lyrical and w*****sical themes in folklore ***** nature. Free from the gag formula ***** regular cartoons, Silly Symphonies gave the