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May 15, 1937 – The Silly Symphony, Little Hiawatha, is Released to Theaters

“Mighty hunter Hiawatha. Mighty warrior Hiawatha. Mighty chieftain Hiawatha. Mighty Little Hiawatha.”

On May 15, 1937, the Silly Symphony, Little Hiawatha, was released to theaters. The short was directed by Dave Hand, and distributed by United Artists. Walt once had the idea of turning the story into a full-length feature film, but the idea was shelved, as it never developed the way Walt wanted, story-wise.

The short opens with a small Indian boy paddling his canoe down the river as the narrator begins to tell the story of Little Hiawatha, as if reciting a poem. As birds begin to sing around him, Little Hiawatha grabs his bow and arrow, with the intent to shoot, but loses his balance when the canoe passes through a small bit of rapids, and the birds fly away. He pulls his canoe up to a patch of rocks on the shore and gets out of the canoe, searching for his prey, and ends up falling in the river.

Little Hiawatha begins to track a grasshopper

The animals in the forest spot Little Hiawatha’s fall and begin to laugh. Angered, he pulls out his bow and begins to chase the forest creatures, although the end up taunting him and eluding his capture. He then spots some strange tracks on the ground and, with all the animals watching him curiously, he decides to track the creature, although the tracks were made by a grasshopper instead of anything vicious. Little Hiawatha loses the fight with the grasshopper, causing all the animals to laugh once again.

As Little Hiawatha chases the animals once again, he corners a baby bunny, who stands on a stump, frightened, as the boy begins to cheer. As he draws back his bow, the animals of the forest watch with trepidation, unsure if the boy would actually kill the innocent rabbit. Lucky for the rabbit, Little Hiawatha is touched by the bunny’s sadness, and decides to then duel the rabbit, only the rabbit is too afraid to comply. Annoyed, the boy lets the rabbit get away, much to the joy of the animals in the forest. Angry at his failure, Little Hiawatha breaks his bow and arrow and tosses it aside, but then hears all the animals in the forest cheering. As the boy tries to hide with his shame, he spots bear tracks nearby, and decides to track down the bear.

A fawn volunteers his efforts to help Little Hiawatha escape from the bear

As Little Hiawatha is tracking down the bear, a cub crawls out from another side of a boulder, tracking the same tracks. The two run into each other, and flee in fear, but Little Hiawatha turns around to chase the cub, only to run across the mother. He tries to hide from the angry bear, but is almost paralyzed in fear. Three beavers notice that the boy is in trouble and sound out an alarm, causing all the animals in the woods to come to attention. As Little Hiawatha does his best to flee, the animals step in to help as best they can. In the end, Little Hiawatha stopped wishing to hunt the animals, but became their friend instead.

May 11, 1935 – The Silly Symphony, Water Babies, is Released to Theaters

“…it was inspired by the story Water-Babies, written in 1863 by Charles Kingsley, the great English writer and naturalist.” – Walt Disney

On May 11, 1935, the Silly Symphony Water Babies was released to theaters. It was loosely based on the children’s novel The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby by Reverend Charles Kingsley, which was published in 1863. The short was directed by Wilfred Jackson. Merbabies, released in 1938, is considered to be its sequel.

The short opens just as the sun is beginning to rise over a quiet pond. Two birds wake and begin to chirp, flying over the lilypads and trying to rouse the water babies sleeping inside. Once the water babies wake, the jump into the pond and begin to swim away. One baby has decided to remain sleeping, until the flower he’s sleeping in gives him a harsh slap to wake him. With a yawn, and trepidation over the temperature of the water, the baby joins the others as they splash and play around in the pond.

The Water-Babies riding of the back of a swan during a mini parade

As they play, they all hear the trumpets sound and excitedly swim in that direction. A parade has begun, with babies playing flower trumpets and ride on the backs of turtles and swans. Some travel on leaves, and a trio is seen riding on fish. The festival leads the babies to a patch of land where they begin to play in the weeds and with the frogs that live there. Three babies are seen using a spiderweb as a trampoline, and another trio are seen riding bullfrogs as if they were at a rodeo.

Another baby is seen preparing for a bull(frog) fight, pulling down a red petal to use as the red flag. The bullfrog gets his head caught in a flower, and uses the stem as a horn to try and attack the baby. Luckily, the baby sneaks back into the bullfrog’s cage before it can attack him.

All the Water-Babies heading home after the day’s festivities

The trumpets sound again soon after the fight finishes, and the babies all head back to the pond to travel home at the end of a long eventful day. As the sun begins to set, the babies crawl into their lilypad beds after saying their prayers, and quickly fall asleep as the flower petals close up protectively, leaving the audience with a beautiful moonlit night on the pond.