Cumulative rating:	(2 ratings submitted)

Synopsis

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Distributor(s)

United Artists

The Mickey Mouse Club

• Season 1, Episode 98
• Season 2, Episode 75

Germany

Verrückte Musikanten

France

Silly Symphonies Volume 1

Italy

Silly Symphonies Volume 2

Japan

More Silly Symphonies

Donald Duck's 50 Crazy Years

Goin' Quackers

Scary Tales

United States

Silly Symphonies

Germany

Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies

France

Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies

Italy

Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies

United Kingdom

Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies

Sweden

Disney Treasures : Silly Symphonies

Netherlands / Belgium

Silly Symphonies

Running Time: 7:22

Production No.: US-12

Animation Type: Standard (Hand-drawn-Cel) Animation

Aspect Ratio: 1.37 : 1

Cinematographic Format: Spherical

Color Type: Technicolor

Negative Type: 35mm

Original Country: United States

Original Language: English

Print Type: 35mm

Sound Type: Mono: RCA Sound Recording

Reviews and Comments

From Jerry Edwards :

I only had a black and white version of this short from the Mickey Mouse Club for years before I found the original color version. The color adds a great deal to the cartoon, with numerous bright colors, especially for the patchwork quilt. The normally inanimate objects, such as the penknives and scissors, are animated in interesting ways.

From Andy de Paoli :

I have loved this animation ever since I saw it as a child.

From Gijs Grob :

With cartoons like Lullabye Land Disney set new standards for animation that are still thrilling today.

Don't get me wrong, the cartoon is rather patronizing and sugary cute, but this is compensated by wonderful surrealistic images, beautiful artwork and superb animation. (And, hey, this way of warning against sharp things and matches just may work with small children).

The dance of the Boogie Men contains some striking use of color that anticipates similar surreal images in Dumbo. In all, Lullaby Land left all competitors far behind. It is also the first of a whole series of Silly Symphonies obsessed with little babies, and their bare behinds in particular.

From Baruch Weiss :

This short is cute, too cute, way way too cute.

From Ryan Kilpatrick at The Disney Film Project :

If you’re going to follow up Old King Cole, which was a Silly Symphony that I did not like, with another Silly Symphony, then it better be a good one. Lullaby Land is that, and in spades. It is an absurdist dream, full of creativity and extremely engaging.

So what makes this one so good? Let’s start with the main character – it’s a baby. A toddler if you want to split hairs, but the design is more of a baby. But rather than go with the overstated features and out there designs of Old King Cole or King Neptune, this child is designed with realistic features and proportions. It makes a huge difference.

Taking an exaggerated child and placing him in a surreal world would not have worked. By having the child be realistic and the environment around him change into fantastic visions, the animators made each of them better. And boy, did they ever come up with some amazing things in the Lullaby Land.

Everything from the moment the child falls out of a tree and lands in Lullaby Land is absurd on a whole different level. This is somewhat new territory for the Disney crew, as most of their past films have dealt with real world situations, or fantasies established by fairy tales. This is a completely new world, developed by the animators, and it shows an amazing amount of creativity.

Here we get to see trees made of rattles or pacifiers, a parade of diapers and accessories, a room filled with sharp objects that attack each other and giant matches that spark, then turn into smoke and finally green monsters.

These monsters are probably the most amazing creation of all. As I said, it begins with the baby sparking a couple matches, which sparks many of the other matches. Then, the matches chase him, finally falling into a lake. But they don’t die. Oh, no. The steam from the matches becomes clouds with faces that follow the baby, before then evolving into large green monsters. It’s crazy, but it works.

When the Sandman appears to finally put the baby back to sleep, it’s almost a relief. The short moves so quickly that you get drawn in, your eye drawn to several different things every second. It moves fast, keeps the viewer engaged, and manages to be both funny and thrilling at the same time. That’s quite a feat.

From RJ :

Definitely visually engaging. It's a crazy mixture of unprecedented realism in the animation/design of the child with completely unreal and bizarre concepts and plots. Subtle early shades of Fantasia I'd say.

From Mac :

I really like this unusual cartoon which uses a baby's dream to present an oddball procession of weirdness. The baby's quilt becomes an entire world in which everything from the real world is distorted to fit the baby's subconscious. As usual the creativity and imagination of the artists combined with the catchy music (this time suitably dreamy) make this one a winner.