Trees (1948)

Sadly Over-hyped

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This cartoon was originally part of Melody Time, an animated anthology of musical cartoons made by Disney. It's far from the best cartoon from that movie but it is pleasant to watch. It's basically an animated music video to the poem Trees by Joyce Kilmer. You know, "I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree." That one. The animation is colorful and pretty. The music is very nice and relaxing. Soft is a good word to describe this cartoon, I think. It's only a few minutes out of your life so really what's the harm in trying it out? If possible, I'd recommend watching it in Melody Time as you get to see many other musical cartoons as well.

This is a short that was used to make up the full-length film from Disney, "Melody Time". Following WWII, Disney Studio was a mess--a terrible strike and the war (where many of the workers were drafted and many more were assigned to wartime animation work) decimated the studio and many of the old animators were gone. As a result, Disney did not get back to making traditional animated feature films for several years. In the meantime, their 'full-length' films were really odd compilations of shorts--and of a rather lackluster quality compared to earlier and later work.The music from this short is provided by Fred Waring and his Pennsylvanians--a popular orchestra of the day. It seems pretty dated and a bit sappy today, but it's not like we're living in 1948, so I can't blame the film for this change is style and taste. Like so many other shorts from this compilation, the animated is simple and the backgrounds even simpler. It's certainly not pone of the better Disney animations, though it does have its moments--such as the artistry of the raindrops. However, it is definitely NOT one of the better shorts and might push children watching it to suicide...so don't show it to them!

I first came across "Trees" while watching "Melody Time". While pretty much plot-less, it is beautiful really. The animation is absolutely stunning, and I think along with "Once Upon a Wintertime" it is one of the more visually beautiful of the segments featured in "Melody Time". Also superb was the music, I loved how lyrical it was, and the poetic narration. Where "Trees" is let down by its length, I personally think it is too short, it could've done with being one or two minutes longer. Look at "The Old Mill" for example, amazing animation and music made it a perfect nine minute cartoon despite the fact the story was so simple. Despite that, "Trees" is worth seeing, story wise it may be a tad disappointing but for visuals and music you have a winner. 8/10 Bethany Cox