John T. Ryan BABE RUTH didn't invent the Home Run; yet no one anywhere, at any period of time since his heyday can think of neither "the Long Ball" nor of the "Bambino" himself without at least a brief mental cross-reference of one to the other. Yes, George Herman Ruth may not have stated this "Homer" business, but he surely blasted his way to enshrinement in Cooperstown by way of his prowess of putin' 'em outa the Park.SO then why do certain people out and out excel at a particular Art Form or other special skill; completely outdistancing the competition? How is it that often one with an equal or even a lesser degree of talent manages to finish out in front of the pack than those truly blessed with natural prowess in a given area? LOOKING at the area of the Animated Movie, be they short subject or feature film, we see that the work of Walt Disney's Studio towers above all others. Oh, sure, Max and Dave, the Brothers Fleischer, pioneered many a great technique with their Rotoscope and their Table Top Animation, among others. The Warner Brothers Animation unit's LOONEY TOONES and MERRIE MELODIES with such great of an array of characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Sylvester & Tweety as well as many others, managed to find the right formula for tickling the American Funny-bone most consistently. There were others of course.BUT just what was it that set the Disney operation out in front and feted as being on a higher plateau than was the competition? We believe that it is Mr. Disney, himself, and his many talents above and beyond the old Drawing Board.ANIMATION, Disney Style, has some sort of internal life line; a sort of celluloid DNA or Animation Genome. Because of the Disney vision outside the proverbial box, success was built on each consecutively found success in each succeeding picture. Whereas it appears that the other animation houses did their best in getting their output completed on schedule for timely distribution; those at Disney built on any previously established successes in order that they would be constantly showing improvement.BEING the greatest example of this Animational Evolution is found in Disney Productions SILLY SYMPHONY Series. From the earliest, such as SKELETON DANCE or FLOWERS AND TREES we see a steadily improving succession of literary material, as well as illustrative acumen and animated technique. The decision early on to do all SILLY SYMPHONIES in Technicolor was another step in bringing the series up to a level far beyond anything else in the field.SO it was that with the release of THE OLD MILL, late in 1937, the combination of the scientific application of the animator's skills, outstanding Artwork (both in character & background illustration) and the implementation of a high literary standard in story content, all had brought the Art of Animation as far as the short subject would go. Walt & Company had gotten to the zenith of the Short Subject Theatrical Cartoon; but there was still another mountain to conquer; the challenge of a Full Length Animated Film lay ahead.OUR STORY…………………..Told entirely without the spoken word, THE OLD MILL relates the story of how a run-down and abandoned structure such as this Wind Mill was still very much useful and even necessary to a large number communities of flora and especially, fauna. It's sunset and we see the cows heading in from the fields, a family of ducks swims the pond to shore, birds come to a night's roost. Meanwhile, the night shift comes on as frogs begin their nocturnal vocalizations and the bats take to the moonlit skies.WE are shown how the now non-functioning mill provides home and shelter to many a great number of creatures; including a family of Bluebirds, mother sitting on a cluster of eggs. The problem is that the nest is built in a section of gear. When a great storm blows in, the rope holding the mill propeller breaks; the gear turns and the Bluebird family seemingly would be crushed. The tooth on the interlocking gear is missing and although the Birds are caught on a wild merry-go-round, they are otherwise unhurt.THE storm blows over, the sun rises, the frogs go to sleep and the bats return to the Old Mill. As the cows move back out to the fields, we see that the Bluebirds' eggs have hatched and all will continue; perhaps not 'Happily Ever-after', but they will continue to take life one day at a time.THE OLD MILL is a near perfection example of a Disney story; which also served as a morality story for a Depression Era America and the World. In it we are exposed to many dangers, of which we have little or no control; yet we will weather all by remaining together as a community in our own version of THE OLD MILL.AS in most any a Disney film, there is a very scary sequence involved with the out of control mill so nearly crushing the Bluebird family.(It really shook-up Schultz and me when we first saw it at the Carnagie THeatre in Chicago. It was 1975!) SADLY, the film marked the end of the line for those wonderful SILLY SYMPHONY Series of animated short subjects. Ahead of it was the likes of SNOW WHITE, PINNOCHIO, FANTASIA, DUMBO…………etc., etc.POODLE SCHNITZ!!.....SCHNITZ.....SCHNITZ

songplayer The Old Mill is based upon the Rembrandt painting The Mill c. 1650 in the National Gallery. Copies have for long been for sale there. The print freezes the final frames of the mill in the Disney cartoon. This is so moving because the war was coming. Hitler was the storm. People who knew about the horrors were waiting for the storm but knew that the Mill would survive. In any event the helpless animals and the good that man had done are themes that do not require a single human character to express. I have used this cartoon over the years to come back to the great days of animation and the ways that brief breaks from the feature could involve youth, who waited for the break, in the issues that the cartoon displayed. The high quality animation was something that the youth loved but thought of differently by the fifties than the weaker animation efforts that they attended with their friends without parents.

travisimo The Old Mill is one of the most beautiful pieces of animation I have ever seen. This comment is even more remarkable considering that The Old Mill was made back in 1937. I especially liked the plethora of colors used in this short. The most striking animated sequence occurs when the thunderstorm hits and almost devastates the mill and its animal inhabitants. Even the animals are realistically drawn well, something sort of rare for a cartoon at that time.The Old Mill even evokes emotion, which is saying quite a bit because not a word is spoken. I thought the frogs' song was hilarious, and I actually felt concern for the mama bird when the giant gear inside the mill could have crushed her. This is just an extraordinary, subtle piece of art from Disney.My IMDb Rating: 10/10

zetes The Old Mill was a Silly Symphony developed as a test for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, which was just going into production at the time. What came out of it is utterly beautiful. It is possibly the best Disney short, even rivalling The Skeleton Dance. 10/10.