History WesternAnimation / SillySymphonies

** The country mouse, after drinking an entire cup of champagne
* AllJustADream: The ending of "Wynken, Blynken and Nod".

* CaptainErsatz: It's quite possible that ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' borrowed many elements of its shorts from "The Country Cousin", which features full pantomime action and slapstick, and its protagonist mouse bears a startling resemblence to Jerry in both appearance and personality. Also, Max Hare from "The Tortoise and the Hare" could be considered a prototype for the later [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]] character WesternAnimation/BugsBunny--Creator/TexAvery even admitted that the idea for Bugs came from Max Hare.

* BrokenAesop: The moral of "The Flying Mouse" is to BeYourself, but really the only reason the little mouse's wish didn't work out for him is that the fairy gave him bat-like wings that made him look scary to the other mice, instead of bird-like wings that he originally wished for.

* ArtEvolution: The series initially started off with the standard-issue rubber hose limb art style of the time period, but life drawing classes gradually evolved the series into a more naturalistic, lively art style that would go on to define Disney.

In some ways, ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' and its sequel could be seen as the successors of these cartoons.

''Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies'' were a hugely popular and influential series of [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Disney short subjects]] from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, generally themed around music and lushly animated fairy tales. They were a very important part of Disney's history, pioneering many of their animation techniques, as well as giving animators preparation for work in the feature-length animated films that the studio would later become famous for. The series would have a massive impact on the animation industry, inspiring many imitators, some of which would later evolve into future competitors for Disney, such as the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' franchise. It also won seven Oscars, a record matched only by ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry''.

* AnAesop: Due to the fairy-tale nature of many of the shorts, it was not uncommon to have morals attached to them.

* CountryMouse: Used in "The Country Cousin". Abner Mouse even provides the page image.

** "Three Orphan Kittens" has several backgrounds--complete with reflections in the floor tiles--that moved in perspective.

* ArtEvolution: The series initially started off with the standard-issue rubberhose limb art style of the time period, but life drawing classes gradually evolved the series into a more naturalistic, lively art style that would go on to define Disney.

* DisneyDeath: Done in the end of "The Busy Beavers".

* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: "Mother Pluto" is a Silly Symphony InNameOnly. The music is there almost by compromise, it plays exactly like [[WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup Pluto's]] previous appearances, and his official solo series launched the next year. Pluto had starred on his own, as the first time without WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse, in another short in this series: ''Just Dogs''.

** Amusingly, in the short ''The Golden Touch'', King Midas' cat wears one, implying that Midas is so rich that he's able to afford such a fancy accessory for his ''pet!''

* TheRemake: "The Ugly Duckling", originally released in 1931, was a fun little action short, that had almost nothing to do with its inspirational source. Eight years later, the 1939 version completely revamped the art and the story to be both more believable and more faithful to the original tale; by being one of the most polished shorts, it effectively served as the series' GrandFinale.

* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: The country mouse goes back home after being chased by the cat that lives on his city cousin's house and almost surviving the dangerous streets when fleeing it.

In some ways, ''WesternAnimation/{{Fantasia}}'' and its sequel could be seen as the successors to these cartoons.

Silly Symphonies brought along ''many'' imitators, including the Creator/WarnerBros cartoon series ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' and ''[[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]]'', Max Fleischer's ''WesternAnimation/ColorClassics'', Creator/UbIwerks' ''WesternAnimation/ComiColorCartoons'', Columbia's ''[[Creator/ColumbiaCartoons Color Rhapsodies]]'', Creator/VanBeurenStudios ''Rainbow Parade'', Creator/WalterLantz's ''Cartune Classics'', and Creator/{{MGM}}'s ''WesternAnimation/HappyHarmonies'' from former Disney employees Creator/HarmanAndIsing. The television series ''WesternAnimation/HouseOfMouse'' used the Silly Symphonies title for some of its new cartoons, but unlike the original cartoons, these did feature continuing characters. Disney also produced comic strips and comic books with this title.

* WesternAnimation/MotherGooseGoesHollywood: December 23, 1938, Wilfred Jackson: Like Toby Tortoise Returns, this short is another OddballInTheSeries, parodying the fairy tale stories of the series with caricatures of many Hollywood celebrities from the time period inserted into those classic stories. Academy award nominee.

* WesternAnimation/ThePracticalPig: February 24, 1939, Dick Rickard: Yet another follow up to WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs. Like the other Little Pigs shorts after the first, it was a failure.

** The grasshopper from "The Grasshopper and the Ants", who is blue from the wintry cold as he's caught in a blizzard and he trudges through the snow, seeking shelter.

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: Usually played straight, but averted with the protagonist of "Egyptian Melodies", who is a spider. A innocent, rubber hose style spider, but still a far cry from the species' usual role of antagonist in other shorts.

** ''Little Hiawatha'' is loosely inspired by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's 1855 epic poem ''The Song of Hiawatha''.

** After the baby bird reunites with his mother in "Birds in the Spring" 1933, all is happy...then the baby bird is spanked to end the cartoon. To be fair, however, he kind of had it coming to him.

** "You're Nothin' But a Nothin'" from "The Flying Mouse", where the mean bats mock the titular mouse. This song is very short in the actual cartoon, but it was expanded into a full song and released [[https://youtu.be/4Xk_nxAHUTs on record]]. The full song is overall less malicious than the cartoon version, though. Most of the song is simply retelling the story of the cartoon. Even when it gets to the chorus, where the (one, single) bat mocks the mouse, he also says that being a bat is "a silly and a dumb thing," implying that [[VillainousLament even HE doesn't like himself the way he is]].

** "You're Nothin' But a Nothin'" from "The Flying Mouse", where the mean bats mock the titular mouse.

''Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies'' were a hugely popular and influential series of [[WesternAnimation/ClassicDisneyShorts Disney short subjects]] from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, generally themed around music and lushly animated fairy tales. They were a very important part of Disney's history, pioneering many of their animation techniques, as well as giving animators preparation for work in the feature-length animated films that the studio would later become famous for. The series would have a massive impact on the animation industry, inspiring many imitators, some of which would later evolve into future competitors for Disney, such as the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' and [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Merrie Melodies]] franchise. It also won seven Oscars, a record matched only by ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry''.

** One scene in "Egyptian Melodies" has a background that ''moves in perspective''--think the Dungeons from the first ''VideoGame/{{Phantasy Star|I}}'', but ''fully animated''. This footage was so impressive that Disney would reuse it for the MickeyMouse cartoon "WesternAnimation/TheMadDoctor".

* TheCameo: Pluto (the character from "The Goddess of Spring") would make a cameo in a Floyd Gottfredson MickeyMouse comic, when Mickey was trying to call Pluto (the dog), who had been spirited away by a magic spell. This comic can be found in the book "Mickey and the Gang: Classic Stories in Verse".

** Some Silly Symphonies characters would also make cameos in the MickeyMouse short "Mickey's Polo Team".

* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: "Mother Pluto" is a Silly Symphony InNameOnly. The music is there almost by compromise, it plays exactly like [[WesternAnimation/PlutoThePup Pluto's]] previous appearances, and his official solo series launched the next year. Pluto had starred on his own, as the first time without MickeyMouse, in another short in this series: ''Just Dogs''.

* StockFootage: "Egyptian Melodies" has some animation of a hallway [[AnimationBump moving in perspective]] that would later be reused in the MickeyMouse cartoon "WesternAnimation/TheMadDoctor".
** Portions of "WesternAnimation/TheSkeletonDance" were re-used a few months later in the MickeyMouse cartoon "WesternAnimation/HauntedHouse".

** ''The Grasshopper and the Ants'' is based on the AesopsFables story ''[[Literature/TheGrasshopperAndTheAnts The Ant and the Grasshopper]]''.

** ''Father Noah's Ark'' is based on the biblical flood in the Book of Genesis from ''Literature/TheBible'' (specifically, Genesis 6:13-8:14).

* The Flying Mouse: July 14, 1934, David Hand

* The Practical Pig: February 24, 1939, Dick Rickard: Yet another follow up to WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs. Like the other Little Pigs shorts after the first, it was a failure.

** After the baby bird reunites with his mother in "Birds in the Spring", all is happy...then the baby bird is spanked to end the cartoon. To be fair, however, he kind of had it coming to him.

%%* EverythingsBetterWithPenguins: In "Peculiar Penguins"%%ZCE

** In the original story of "The Grasshopper and the Ants" the ants reminded the Grasshopper of his idle ways and left him to starve during the winter. In the Disney cartoon, the worker ants drop everything to care for the Grasshopper, and though the Queen Ant gives the same stern rebuke as in the original, she still offers shelter so long as he has learned his lesson.

* BalefulPolymorph: "Babes in the Woods" has the witch use potions to turn her captive children into all sorts of assorted creatures. They get better in the end, thankfully.

* TurtlePower: Toby Tortoise from "The Tortoise and the Hare" and its follow-up "Toby Tortoise Returns".

* The Pied Piper: September 16, 1933, Wilfred Jackson: According to "Too Funny For Words", the short was a flop.

* BrokenAesop: The moral of "The Flying Mouse" is to BeYourself, but really the only reason the little mouse's wish didn't work out for him is that the fairy gave him bat-like wings that made him look scary to the other mice, instead of bird-like wings that would have been more in line with his actual wish.

* FantasticFaunaCounterpart: The short "Merbabies" has a circus parade scene where aquatic animals appear in the roles of typical circus animals. There are carriage-pulling seahorses, octopuses lumbering like elephants (with one tentacle acting as their trunk), crabs swinging in a cage like apes, and a tigerfish with black and yellow stripes roaring like an actual tiger.

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute: The protagonist of "Egyptian Melodies" is a spider. A innocent, rubber hose style spider, but still a far cry from the species' usual role of antagonist in other shorts.

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