The Old Mill
is a 1937 Silly Symphonies
short and is considered one of the most important shorts in the Classic Disney Shorts
lineup. While the short has no plot or concrete characters, what carries it is its astounding animation quality – being made not long before the release of Snow White, it was meant to not only prepare the animators to the gruelling task of completing the aforementioned film, but also to test Disney's then new Multiplane Camera. The results are nothing short of jaw-dropping – naturalistic, fluid animation; rich, lush, three-strip technicolor
; and some very, very impressive staging, mood, and use of scenery
. Also a source of Nightmare Fuel
near the end.
Tropes present in this cartoon:
- Animation Bump: Oh yeah.
- Butt Monkey: Most of the owl's not-fourth-wall-breaking screentime shows bad things happening to him. He seems to get it worse than most of the other animals.
- By Wall That Is Holey: A bird has her nest in one of the spokeholes of the millstone. The rope holding the cogwheel in place breaks and the millstone starts to move. The bird, in a desperate attempt to save her eggs, covers them with her body as the nest approaches the cog. She is saved when it turns out the spoke that goes in that particular hole is missing.
- Cue the Sun
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Yep, it's a mill. And it's really old.
- Malevolent Architecture: The storm turns the mill into one, as two birds have nested inside a pit where a cog fits. Thankfully, said cog had weathered away prior to the short's timeframe.
- Never Recycle a Building: The windmill's been there long enough to attract several varieties of birds, mice and a colony of bats, but the presence of bell-wearing cattle suggests that there's humans somewhere close by.
- No Antagonist: Unless you count Mother Nature.
- No Fourth Wall: Several of the creatures seem to be aware of the camera, turning to look at it while it pans by. The owl, in particular, seems to look right at the audience a good deal.
- Scenery Porn: Pretty much seven minutes of it
- Serendipitous Symphony: During the storm.
- Sickeningly Sweethearts: The two doves who just cannot back off from one another, no matter how bad the weather gets. And they're right there with each other come daybreak.
- Stock Footage: The cattail animation was later recycled for the climax of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad. It also appeared in Winnie the Pooh and The Blustery Day and The Little Mermaid.
- When It Rains, It Pours: And thunders.