The Tortoise and the Hare

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE compete in a foot race. While Max Hare struts & smirks & shows off, Toby Tortoise keeps plodding right along...

Aesop's Fables provided the inspiration for this Academy Award winning cartoon. Max is rather insufferable, but Toby's gentle good nature provides the core of the story. This little film was followed by a sequel, TOBY TORTOISE RETURNS (1936).

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.

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.

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+

There's not much to say about this cartoon. I guess it's the original underdog tale. It doesn't expand upon the fable and presents the story in its most basic form.

A tortoise and a hare have a race, viewed by a large audience. The dull-witted tortoise seems no match for the cocky, over-confident hare. But when the race actually begins the hare is too busy with distractions while the tortoise focuses on winning.

It may be a cautionary tale on never straying or deviating from following your dreams. Never accept what is and always chase what can be.

Apparently the design of the hare was an inspiration on the design of Bugs Bunny, I character I like much better.

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.