What is Silly Symphony?
{{italic title}} '''''Silly Symphony''''' (also known as ''Silly Symphonies'') was a series of [[Animated cartoon|animated]] [[Short subject|short films]] produced by [[Walt Disney Animation Studios|Walt Disney Productions]] from 1929 to 1939.<ref>Pietro Frassica, ''Her Maestro's Echo: Pirandello and the Actress who Conquered Broadway in One Evening'' (Leicester: Troubador Publishing, 2010), p. 90</ref> == Disney studios == After the films changed to [[Sound film|sound]], Walt Disney began making [[Mickey Mouse]] and musical ''Silly Symphony'' shorts.<ref name=Furniss94>Maureen Furniss, ''Art in Motion: Animation Aesthetics'' (Sydney: John Libbey, 1998), p. 94</ref> To keep costs down Disney produced his own music. Disney's first [[music director]] and [[composer]] was [[Carl Stalling]]. The Mickey Mouse shorts used [[pop music]] while the Silly Symphony cartoons used [[Classical music]].<ref>''The Cartoon Music Book'', eds. Daniel Goldmark; Yuval Taylor (Chicago: A Cappella Books, 2002), p. 24</ref> In 1932 the studio produced its first cartoon in [[Technicolor]], ''Flowers and Trees''.<ref>Wheeler Winston Dixon; Gwendolyn Audrey Foster, ''A Short History of Film'' (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2008), p. 127</ref> The success of the song [[Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?]], from the Silly Symphony short ''[[Three Little Pigs]]'' (1933), convinced Disney to keep producing original music.<ref name=Furniss94/> It was at this time Disney introduced the characters of [[Donald Duck]], [[Goofy]], [[Pluto]] and [[Minnie Mouse]]. Over its ten year run, ''Silly Symphonies'' had won Walt Disney the [[Academy Award|Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film]] seven times, eventually tied with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbara's ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'s'' record for most awards for a cartoon series in the category. It spawned numerous imitators and competitors (like Warner Bros' ''Merrie Melodies'' and ''Looney Tunes)''. <ref>Choice'', Vol. 45, Issues 4-6 (2007), p. 827</ref> United StatesFebruary 29, 1929 [[Brazi