Little Hiawatha (1937)
The "fearless warrior" of the poem is a very small child whose pants keep falling down. He tries to shoot a grasshopper with his arrow, but the grasshopper spits in his eye. He tries to shoot a bunny rabbit, but the rabbit is too cute and pathetic. He tracks a bear, and runs after its cub and right into the mother. But the rest of the animals, thankful for him saving the rabbit, come to his rescue.
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A small Indian child attempts to go hunting in the forest, but ultimately spares the life of a little bunny rabbit after cornering him. As a result, when he comes under attack by a ferocious bear, the forest animals return the favor and try to save him. A nice little cartoon about compassion and heroism. It's full of excitement and thrills - a good Silly Symphony from Disney.Grade A
"Little Hiawatha" is a 9-minute cartoon from 1937, so this one has its 80th anniversary this year already. The director is David Hand and if you have not heard the name yet, then it is probably your loss (as it is mine too) because he worked on some of the classics that are certainly more known than this short film by Disney we have here. It is the story of an Indian, who goes out hunting, but realizes he just isn't tough enough and makes friends with the animals of the forest instead. Then again, even if he had that bunny, he may not have the greatest talent for hunting as you maybe saw from his earlier unsuccessful chase of a grasshopper. The animals are grateful they may live and they help him afterward when the boy is chased by a wild bear and again the bear is really only mad because Hiawatha came to close to his cub, so there really are no true villains in here, just a protective bear mother, a curios and clumsy Indian kid and many harmless animals who just want to live in peace. And yes this is of course from the Golden Age of Animation, so the visual side is top-notch. Overall, maybe the film was not the greatest in in-depth story-telling and love to detail in the script, but for under 10 minutes, it is good enough. Go check it out if you love old cartoons. The only thing that bothered me a bit was the recurring naked butt joke that wasn't funny the first time even, but that is really pretty much the only flaw I saw in it. I give this one a thumbs-up.
I first saw this as a bonus feature on Disney's Pocahontas 2 which I have thoroughly enjoyed ever since. It follows the story of a little Indian (Native American) boy who wants to be a mighty warrior. All of the animals in the forest mock him because he is just a child and can do them no harm, but hen he corners a baby rabbit they take him more seriously. Little Hiawatha fails to go through with it though and pardons the bunny letting it go back to its parents. He then stumbles upon an angry bear and the little forest animals help him on an adventurous escape to flee from the beast, and in the end become his friends like his brothers of nature.The animation and movements are perfect which is typical of old school Disney cartoons. It is really enjoyable to watch these and see some of the actions or characters that Disney uses in later movies. For example the opossums swinging little Hiawatha throughout the trees is copied in The Jungle Book where the monkeys do the same with Mowgli. The story was entertaining, funny, and cute. All around a great little short.
A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.LITTLE HIAWATHA pilots his canoe into the wilderness in search of big game. He finds more than he bargained for when he awakens the ire of a fierce mother bear...A colorful cartoon, with very good animation, but an absolute travesty of anything to do with Longfellow's classic poem. The Disney animators seem to think having the tyke's breeches constantly falling off is very funny. It's not.The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most fascinating of all animated series. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.