Who Killed Cock Robin?

In this Silly Symphony cartoon, Cock Robin is shot with an arrow while trying to woo Miss Jenny Wren (wonderfully animated as a Mae West parody). A trial featuring a wide variety of well drawn bird characters follows. The cuckoo bird, drawn to look like Harpo Marx, is especially enjoyable. This is a great short, but it seems to sprint through the story. Other Silly Symphonies, like The Wise Little Hen, take their time with things. This one seems very hurried. Still, that shouldn't take away from enjoying the wonderful animation.

Although this short lost the Oscar to another Disney cartoon (Three Orphan Kittens), it's actually got a lot more going for it than the winner. An adaptation of the old nursery rhyme (very loose adaptation, as is typical of Disney), there's a lot going on here. Mae West isn't the only parody here. Hollywood would be parodied quite a bit by both Disney and Warner Brothers in cartoons. Well worth your time. Recommended.

Hmmm! The animation style is quite engaging here, but otherwise it's quite a repetitive story that seems intent more on doing a hatchet job on the judicial system than telling us a story about poor old "Cock Robin". Anyway, he is serenading the rather buxom "Jenny Wren" when someone mercifully takes a bow and arrow to him. This causes uproar amidst the feathered community and a rather militaristic investigation, under the auspices of owl, is ordered. Interrogations ensue, but will they ever reveal the truth? There are quite a few light-hearted racial stereotypes included here, the songs are all a bit basic and though it's quite a well paced ten minutes, it's also a fairly unremarkable film.

I have always been a Disney fan, and Who Killed Cock Robin is one of my favourite(after re-visiting it after so many years of having nothing but fond memories of it)Silly Symphony cartoons of the 30s alongside Flowers and Trees, The Band Concert, The Old Mill and The Ugly Duckling(1939). It is quite dark with all the interrogating, the perfect capturing of the mood of a detective story and the black and white opening credits, but the characterisation of Jenny Wren, the natural strut of the parrot while interrogating the parrot, the brilliant courtroom sequence and the delightful caricatures of Mae West(Jenny Wren), Bing Crosby(Cock Robin) and Harpo Marx(the third bird) ensure that it is very smart and satirical also(of the criminal justice system that is). The animation is fluid and colourful, each frame looking beautiful, and of the character designs the revelations were the strut of the parrot and the floating nature of Jenny Wren. The music is wonderful, really helping to enhance the action, and all the characters are great. There was a time where I was annoyed by Dan Cupid's high-pitched voice and his Ed Wynn-like laugh, but I am now used to it. Overall, simply brilliant. 10/10 Bethany Cox

The jury sequence is familiar from Hitchcock's 'Sabotage' the following year, but it's odd to see the whole thing in Technicolor with Cock Robin obviously based on the young Bing Crosby and Jenny Wren on Mae West!