La lepre e la tartaruga

This is one of Walt Disney's classic Silly Symphony shorts, adapting Aesop's classic fable about the slow Tortoise who triumphs over the speedy Hare in a race. Some characters were added to the story like audience members and the hare's cheerleaders to enhance the content of the cartoon.

I like how the hare was depicted as cocky and confident, sure that he will win the race, and how the tortoise was depicted as steady, humble and calm, not worrying about losing, just doing his part fair and square. This shows that arrogant, overly- confident and know- it-all people don't always have it their way, and that humble and quiet people can win the race!

Overall, a fun cartoon that serves a good balance of entertainment and moral lessons to the little ones.

Grade B+

Just watched this Oscar-winning animated short on YouTube. Based on the classic Aesop Fable, the obnoxious hare challenges the shy tortoise to a relay race. If you're familiar with the tale, you know how it goes but this being animated, you get the hare causing some wind to blow as well as him stopping to chat up some feminine admirer fans while the tortoise keeps going. There are some amusing gags but nothing hilarious. Still, this was a pretty exciting cartoon from Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies and it spawned a sequel-Toby Tortoise Returns-that I did think was hilarious. Oh, and it's easy to see why Frank Tashlin thought the hare-eventually called Max in the sequel-was the inspiration for Warner Bros.' Bugs Bunny. So for all that, I highly recommend The Tortoise and the Hare. P.S. I first saw some of these scenes when The Disney Channel presented on their "DTV" program their version of The Doobie Brothers' "It Keeps You Running" with this as well as other Disney cartoon scenes for the music video.

While Disney has all too often taken a classic and "cuted" it into inanity, this actually is a very good cartoon that still manages to retain the underlying message (while still being almost too cute for it's own good). Toby Tortoise is every kid who had to fade into the background to avoid being stuffed into a locker and manages to win out as much through being too lightly regarded as through his own determination. This won Disney it's third straight Oscar for Animated Short, a category they maintained a death-grip on until the early 1940's, when another mouse and his cohort started winning. Recommended.

If you are looking for edgy humor, the 1930s are NOT the era to search. Very often, the cartoons of the era featured lots of singing and nice, cute characters. The more irreverent style of Tex Avery with MGM and the Looney Tunes bunch (Bugs, Daffy and the gang) were still to be developed in the 1940s. So, although THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE definitely lacks a comedic edge and is a bit on the cutesy-cutesy side, it's head and shoulders better than the typical product of the age. Why was is Oscar-worthy? Well, it's because the animation quality was simply amazing. The colors were very, very vibrant, the backgrounds were amazing and the character animation was smooth. During the 30s, it's hard to find cartoons that look better than this. My only regret is that the more mainstream cartoons like Mickey Mouse were not seriously considered. Perhaps they lacked the snob appeal, but GULLIVER MICKEY or TWO-GUN MICKEY would have been better choices--having both the great animation and a more enjoyable and less predictable story.

It reminds values, basic values more than a nice fable. And it works for the humor, atmosphere of competition, great eulogy of hard and perseverent work and the portrait of seducer. So, just nice.