ChikPapa Very disappointed :(

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Sexylocher Masterful Movie

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

OllieSuave-007 A rather boring cartoon about a courtroom scene where an owl judge and a bunch of stupid bird jurors try to find out who shot the Cock Robin with an arrow. Most of the time, the character sing their way through the trial, which I thought was quite annoying. And, those abusive bird cops were horrible - glad the leg sparrow punched them a few. The redeeming character of the cartoon is the Mae West-like character. But, overall, this is one of the least entertaining Silly Symphonies.Grade D+

Vimacone Almost every cartoon short Disney released in 1935 are bonafide classics. Nominated for an Academy Award, Who Killed Cock Robin is one of the edgiest of the Silly Symphonies. By the mid-30's, most Silly Symphonies used fables and nursery rhymes as source material, gearing up for the feature films that would follow. It is especially interesting to see, that Disney dabbled into satire early on. Some of the characters in the film are caricatures of well known entertainers of the 30's. Cock Robin sings like Bing Crosby, Jenny Wren resembles and sounds like Mae West. Yet not all the birds are caricatures, when they easily could have been. Some of the artists expressed regret in later years that they didn't go that direction in full. Disney would accomplish this a few years later with "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood" (1938).Not only are celebrities satirized, but there is also a subtle jab at the justice system (a theme also explored in Pluto's Judgement Day, released the same year). This is summed up by a line that comes from the jury chorus "We don't know who is guilty so we're going to hang them all". The suspects were arrested at random with no evidence tying them to killing Cock Robin.Considering how rival cartoon studios were attempting to emulate Disney at this time, I've always wondered if the crime setting and bird characters influenced the WB cartoon "I'm A Big Shot Now" (1936); Chiefly the character Legs Sparrow.While this short was a popular Disney short, it hasn't been shown very much in recent decades. This is due to ethnic stereotypes (the "black bird" is a caricature of Stepin Fetchit) and police brutality. But it is still regarded as one of the best Disney cartoons by historians. These themes make it a Disney cartoon with strong adult appeal.

wmorrow59 This notable entry in Walt Disney's famous Silly Symphony series is perhaps best remembered for its parodies of current movie stars, including Bing Crosby, Harpo Marx, and -- most spectacularly -- Mae West, but seen today the film is even more striking for its subversive treatment of the legal system. The sassy attitude on display here smacks more of the Fleischer Studio or the wise-guy aggressiveness of Warner Brothers' Termite Terrace boys than what we usually get from Uncle Walt. This cartoon also appears to have just barely slipped past the newly strict Hays Office censors with its naughty insinuations (via Jenny Wren, the Mae West stand-in) and blatant "pansy" references.For the first few moments after the opening credits the tone is typical of a Silly Symphony: Cock Robin croons a love song to his girlfriend, as we take in the rich palette of Disney's Technicolor flowers and trees. Abruptly, Cock Robin is bumped off, plummeting to the ground before the Old Crow Bar in what looks like the seedy part of the woods, and suddenly we're in a different universe. As the morgue orderlies carry Cock Robin away, one of them casually tosses his hat onto the arrow protruding from his chest. A nice dark touch, that.Then the cops show up and roust three suspects out of the bar, and here's where things get really disturbing. All three suspects are dragged away and clubbed, but a black bird who talks like Stepin Fetchit and wears a white jacket is singled out for special brutality. Despite his protests that he "didn't do nuthin', don't know nuthin', and didn't see nuthin'" the black bird is clobbered repeatedly. The segue from the sequence before the trial to the trial itself is an amazingly bold cross-fade, timed to the rhythm of a cop clubbing this guy's head as it blends with the pounding of the judge's gavel. Eisenstein couldn't have done it better! And when the black bird repeats his denials, the jury mocks his cries with a minstrel show parody. It's only funny in the most grim sense of the word.Am I being excessively P.C. in examining a Disney cartoon in this fashion? I don't think so, nor am I calling the filmmakers racist. The animators who made this cartoon seem to be taking a very bleak view of the justice system and playing their own cynicism for laughs, the way the Marx Brothers took on politics in Duck Soup. But I do wonder how the cartoon went over in cinemas in African American neighborhoods. Did black audiences laugh ruefully? Or watch in stony silence?Beyond that, what's interesting to me about Who Killed Cock Robin? is the fact that, with the exception of Jenny Wren, the Hollywood caricatures really aren't central to the success of the whole. The Judge (an owl) and the D.A. (a parrot) are more impressive characters in terms of design than any of the others, and the jury acting as Greek Chorus is a great idea -- even if Gilbert & Sullivan thought of it first. Still, it's Jenny Wren we remember from this film, and this is where the animators and the uncredited performer who provided her voice really outdid themselves: this is a superb parody of Mae West that beautifully captures her look, her sound, her moves, and her style, especially in her courtroom musical number.All in all this is a remarkable cartoon, and one that the Disney Organization would never have made after the mid-1930s. Once the war came, and forever after, Uncle Walt never sanctioned anything that could be deemed critical of the American Way of Life.

Robert Reynolds 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.