The Old Mill (1937)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

This is an Academy award winning Disney cartoon from almost 80 years ago and it is a great example that a (short) film does not really need a story to succeed. This one does not have any unless you count the short storm sequence maybe. From start to finish, we see a whole lot of animals living in an abandoned old mill. She is home to them and they are in danger of losing their home when a huge thunderstorm appears and the mill is struck by lightning. But in the end we see, it's all good and the animals are still in there. They are still in love with each other and their children are fine too. These 8 minutes are mostly a watch for the beauty of the animals depicted in here and also for their noises. I had a good time watching this. Thumbs up for Wilfred Jackson, who is not half as known as he should be given on how many famous Disney classics he worked. "The Old Mill" certainly also falls into that category. Recommended.

BABE RUTH didn't invent the Home Run; yet no one anywhere, at any period of time since his heyday can think of neither "the Long Ball" nor of the "Bambino" himself without at least a brief mental cross-reference of one to the other. Yes, George Herman Ruth may not have stated this "Homer" business, but he surely blasted his way to enshrinement in Cooperstown by way of his prowess of putin' 'em outa the Park.SO then why do certain people out and out excel at a particular Art Form or other special skill; completely outdistancing the competition? How is it that often one with an equal or even a lesser degree of talent manages to finish out in front of the pack than those truly blessed with natural prowess in a given area? LOOKING at the area of the Animated Movie, be they short subject or feature film, we see that the work of Walt Disney's Studio towers above all others. Oh, sure, Max and Dave, the Brothers Fleischer, pioneered many a great technique with their Rotoscope and their Table Top Animation, among others. The Warner Brothers Animation unit's LOONEY TOONES and MERRIE MELODIES with such great of an array of characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester & Tweety as well as many others, managed to find the right formula for tickling the American Funny-bone most consistently. There were others of course.BUT just what was it that set the Disney operation out in front and feted as being on a higher plateau than was the competition? We believe that it is Mr. Disney, himself, and his many talents above and beyond the old Drawing Board.ANIMATION, Disney Style, has some sort of internal life line; a sort of celluloid DNA or Animation Genome. Because of the Disney vision outside the proverbial box, success was built on each consecutively found success in each succeeding picture. Whereas it appears that the other animation houses did their best in getting their output completed on schedule for timely distribution; those at Disney built on any previously established successes in order that they would be constantly showing improvement.BEING the greatest example of this Animational Evolution is found in Disney Productions SILLY SYMPHONY Series. From the earliest, such as SKELETON DANCE or FLOWERS AND TREES we see a steadily improving succession of literary material, as well as illustrative acumen and animated technique. The decision early on to do all SILLY SYMPHONIES in Technicolor was another step in bringing the series up to a level far beyond anything else in the field.SO it was that with the release of THE OLD MILL, late in 1937, the combination of the scientific application of the animator's skills, outstanding Artwork (both in character & background illustration) and the implementation of a high literary standard in story content, all had brought the Art of Animation as far as the short subject would go. Walt & Company had gotten to the zenith of the Short Subject Theatrical Cartoon; but there was still another mountain to conquer; the challenge of a Full Length Animated Film lay ahead.OUR STORY…………………..Told entirely without the spoken word, THE OLD MILL relates the story of how a run-down and abandoned structure such as this Wind Mill was still very much useful and even necessary to a large number communities of flora and especially, fauna. It's sunset and we see the cows heading in from the fields, a family of ducks swims the pond to shore, birds come to a night's roost. Meanwhile, the night shift comes on as frogs begin their nocturnal vocalizations and the bats take to the moonlit skies.WE are shown how the now non-functioning mill provides home and shelter to many a great number of creatures; including a family of Bluebirds, mother sitting on a cluster of eggs. The problem is that the nest is built in a section of gear. When a great storm blows in, the rope holding the mill propeller breaks; the gear turns and the Bluebird family seemingly would be crushed. The tooth on the interlocking gear is missing and although the Birds are caught on a wild merry-go-round, they are otherwise unhurt.THE storm blows over, the sun rises, the frogs go to sleep and the bats return to the Old Mill. As the cows move back out to the fields, we see that the Bluebirds' eggs have hatched and all will continue; perhaps not 'Happily Ever-after', but they will continue to take life one day at a time.THE OLD MILL is a near perfection example of a Disney story; which also served as a morality story for a Depression Era America and the World. In it we are exposed to many dangers, of which we have little or no control; yet we will weather all by remaining together as a community in our own version of THE OLD MILL.AS in most any a Disney film, there is a very scary sequence involved with the out of control mill so nearly crushing the Bluebird family.(It really shook-up Schultz and me when we first saw it at the Carnagie THeatre in Chicago. It was 1975!) SADLY, the film marked the end of the line for those wonderful SILLY SYMPHONY Series of animated short subjects. Ahead of it was the likes of SNOW WHITE, PINNOCHIO, FANTASIA, DUMBO…………etc., etc.POODLE SCHNITZ!!.....SCHNITZ.....SCHNITZ

I would watch this film almost everyday when I was a toddler, now that I am a teen, I still watch it often. This film has such beauty in it with the color, music, detailed animation, and backgrounds. This film also brings out my love for windmills (which I know may sound kind of crazy). The entire film was beautiful, but I felt that the love doves were kind of a little to childish.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.As evening draws near, the various creatures living in THE OLD MILL settle in for the night. Dark, fast-moving clouds, however, signal the arrival of a fierce storm...Winner of the 1937 Academy Award, this lovely cartoon was important for a couple of significant reasons. It exhibited the quantum leaps the Disney artists had taken since the early Symphonies in the animation of animals - the mice and birds are particularly well drawn. The cartoon also debuted the Studio's new multi-plane camera, a complicated and very expensive machine which was able to render an astonishing illusion of depth. - notice the opening traveling shot which moves through the spider web. 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.