Director: Ben Sharpsteen
Release Date: May 25, 1935
Rating: ★★½
Review:
Of all Silly Symphonies this one is particularly silly. The very idea of a cookie land is as original as it is looney.
Yet, the cartoon is literally sugary, not funny. The story, about a Charlie Chaplin-like tramp (voiced by Pinto Colvig) making a poor lonesome girl queen of the parade, is pure sentimental melodrama. Moreover, the characters speak in operetta-like recitatives and when the girl, having become queen, has to choose a king the cartoon shifts to a tiresome medley of song-and-dance-routines.
Nevertheless, the art direction of this Silly Symphony is stunning and its backgrounds lush and beautiful, making this one of the most impressive cartoons of the era. The girl is quite beautifully animated by Gram Natwick, the man who had created Betty Boop five years earlier, and who had joined Disney in 1934. After her transformation into a carnival queen, the girl doesn’t resemble a cookie at all, but she is pictured and animated as a real girl. Natwick would later be an animator on Snow White in ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ (1937), and it’s as if the cookie girl was Natwick’s exercise for the real thing.
Notice the contrast between the sissy Angelic Cakes and the fun-loving Devil Cakes, whose theme music is jazz (the most ‘evil’ music of the era).
Watch ‘The Cookie Carnival’ yourself and tell me what you think:
This is Silly Symphony No. 53
To the previous Silly Symphony: Water Babies
To the next Silly Symphony: Who Killed Cock Robin?
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 
4 comments
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September 12, 2011 at 19:06
V.E.G.
Pinto Colvig is part Greek. To this day, all Colvigs (by blood) are Greek and French.
March 18, 2011 at 09:16
Scott Thong
Ah, for that matter, the lyrics too… I can’t catch some of the words.
March 18, 2011 at 09:10
Scott Thong
I remembered this cartoon as one of my childhood favourites while looking for old shorts for my own toddler. You simply don’t get these kind of catchy music-based cartoons these days (outside of Animaniacs – Ragamuffins and Squirrel Nut Zippers – The Ghost of Stephen Foster which were intentional homages). I blame them for my taste in jazz today (and 80s action cartoons for my taste in rock),
The Wikipedia entry notes that each of the song and dance acts is based on Vaudeville of the time. As with Mother Goose Goes Hollywood’s caricatures of the stars of those days, I find it a very interesting peek into the culture of a bygone era – one that I only have ever been exposed to thru old cartoons! If anyone could name the particular type of each of the acts, I’d be grateful!
March 1, 2011 at 20:32
antonella
My opinion?
I love this cartoon.
When I was a child, I sew it every day 🙂 My VHS is out, lol!
Thanks, I’s looking for this on internet from a lot 🙂