The Wise Little Hen (1934)

One of my all time favorites.

How sad is this?

Absolutely the worst movie.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

This is Donald Duck's first cartoon, where he plays a supporting character, along with Peter Pig, opposite the Hen. She wants them to help her plant corn, but Donald and Peter fake a belly ache. When she asks them to help her eat the corn, they gladly accept but instead get more than they were bargained for.It's a colorfully animated cartoon short with innocent-sounding music and lovable characters that kids would enjoy. Even though Donald plays a secondary character, his classic voice (by Clarence Nash) and sailor outfit are seen and heard here and will preclude his iconic character in many cartoons to come.It's not a terribly funny cartoon, as Donald's trademark slapstick misadventures and comedy are missing (since this is considered a "Silly Symphony" cartoon), but nonetheless, it's a fine one to introduce Donald Duck.Grade B

With having found Walt Disney's 1921 Laugh-O-Grams to be surprisingly fun,I decided that with a poll being held on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best films of 1934,that I would take a look at a short from that year.Getting caught completely by surprise,I found out that Disney had made a short in 1934,which featured Donald Ducks debut! This led to me getting ready to find out how wise this hen could be.The plot:Gathering up all of her chick-lets,a hen begins walking round town,hoping to find someone who will help her farm the corn,so that she can have dinner with her chick-lets tonight.Visiting Donald Duck & Peter Pig,the hen is sad to find both of them suddenly becoming "ill" when she asks for their help.With their being no one else around,the hen and her chick-lets decide that they must farm the corn themselves.View on the film:Delivering the first of his landmark performances as the character,debuting Clarence Nash shows that he is far ahead of the animators (who make Donald's head a size 0!) by giving a superb performance which hits all of the wild notes that Donald would soon become famous for.Along with Nash, Florence Gill gives a strong performance as the Wise Little Hen,with Gill showing a remarkable skill in saying the dialogue sung.Giving the hen a sweet,rosy appearance,director Wilfred Jackson creates a wonderful atmosphere by using acrylic colours to give the film a forgotten nursery rhyme feel,and also keeping things lively with sight guys such as Donald Duck & Peter Pig dancing round the "Idle Hour" building,which leads to this being a wise hen,and a very wise film.

This is an excellent example of early Disney and the first appearance of Donald Duck. There was also a Peter Pig, who did not fare as well as Donald in his movie career. Donald is, if anything, more obnoxious and disagreeable here than he was later. The animation here is splendid and the short is well worth seeking out. Attempts to locate Peter Pig have been unsuccessful, although there are rumors that he lives in semi-retirement in Encino, having wisely bought stock in Disney and, later, in IBM. Recommended.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.Worried about having enough food to feed her family come Wintertime, THE WISE LITTLE HEN decides to plant a field of corn. Her idle friends, Peter Pig & Donald Duck, decline to help with the planting or the harvesting - leaving the little chicken to plan her sweet revenge...This is a very fine adaptation of the childhood story, with a strong, self-reliant title character (voiced by Florence Gill). But the reason this is a landmark cartoon is because it was the debut of the irascible, anti-social, temperamental, infuriating & utterly lovable Duck, a character so strong he would soon eclipse Mickey Mouse himself. With voice courtesy of the inimitable Clarence Nash, Donald would become one of the world's most popular personalities & a source of never-ending fascination for those who study anti-social behavior and its consequences.Fate would not be so kind to Peter Pig. Although his debut was just as conspicuous as the Duck's, he lacked that certain intangible quality which would set him apart from the common swine. Hollywood can be a cruel place & Peter's attempts to build a movie career - he worked for a while as Porky Pig's stunt double - proved a failure. When last heard of, Peter Pig was living in a small apartment over a garage in Pomona, California.The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most fascinating of all animated series. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.