Oscarless Cartoons Part 1

Oscarless Cartoons Part 1: The Wise Little Hen (1934)
 

This was one of the many Silly Symphonies shorts, which were a series of cartoons Walt Disney Productions would produce that would be the stepping grounds for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, and Bambi. Most of these cartoons were based on classic fairy tales and fables like The Three Little Pigs, The Grasshopper and the Ants, The Ugly Duckling, and The Tortoise and the Hare. Today, we're talking about The Wise Little Hen, based on the classic fable 'The Little Red Hen'.

In this cartoon, a hen is looking for someone to help her plant her corn. She asks a pig named Peter and a duck named Donald, but they both declined, stating they have belly aches. Instead, the hen, with the help of her chicks, plants the corn herself.

She then asks the pig and duck to harvest the corn, but once again, they decline. Once again, the hen harvests the corn herself with her chicks and bakes the corn into delicious food, like corn bread and corn-on-the-cob.

When Peter and Donald see the hen again, they hallucinate, thinking that they would have to work. However the hen asks them to help eat her corn, and they are more than eager to do so. However, the hen gives them a picnic basket with medicine for their 'tummy aches'.

This cartoon is notable for featuring the very first appearance of Donald Duck. In this short, Donald lives on a small boat, which explains why he wears that sailor suit. However, he looks much more duck-like then he is today.

Donald would soon end up appearing in more cartoons alongside Mickey Mouse, and by the end of the 1930s, Donald Duck proved to be more popular than Mickey Mouse! Peter Pig, however, never became as big of a hit.
That's all I have to say about this week's Oscarless Cartoon. Tune in next week when I talk about another famous cartoon duck: Daffy Duck in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery!