. . . because even the children of normal Americans might stir up a ruckus with the neighbors' Grope Openly Party (G.O.P.) tykes if they reveal how Walt Disney uses ELMER ELEPHANT to blame these Right-Wing "Conservative" Dumbos for America's then on-going Great Depression. In this animated short, Disney depicts Elmer as a Total Loser, Cluelessly skipping through the daisies while everyone else shows up on time for Tilly's Sixth Birthday Party. When the other critters present mock Elmer for always sticking his Ginormous Facial Appendage into Private Places where it clearly doesn't belong, Disney suggests that Elmer torches Tilly's Treehouse in an Arsonous Fit of Spite. Elmer than does his best to fan the flames toasting Tilly, just as his Real Life cohorts in America's Pachyderm Party did with their deplorable Smoot- Hawley Tariffs Act. Disney implies that Elmer is like the Teflon Don: he could probably gun down Girl Scouts and Brownies at HIGH NOON in Times Square, and get away with it like Gary Cooper!

Elmer Elephant (1936)*** (out of 4) A cute little tiger is having a birthday party and everyone is having a blast. A sweet elephant shows up and gives her flowers, which steals her heart but the rest of the kids there plan on picking on the elephant due to his large nose. This is another good Disney short that falls just short of being a classic but it's still worth watching. There are quite a few good things here with the highlight certainly being the characters who are just downright adorable. Both the tiger and elephant make for a cute couple and there's no question that the ending is extremely sweet. I thought the bullies were all done well and especially the hippo and that wonderful voice. The animation is quite good as you'd expect and overall it's a pretty good movie even if its story isn't all that great.

Both cute and clever -- a good combination in a Disney animated Silly Symphony. We see a lot of comedy bits in this cartoon that are similar to gags in later animated stories, but they're somewhat different here. Sure, we've seen the whole anthropomorphic-fire thing, but a lot of the elements are pretty unique. I personally enjoyed way Elmer has all sorts of tricks up his, well, nose when it comes to hitting his targets with good ol' H2O. For the Looney Tunes fans out there, you may the voice of Tillie Tiger as the same voice as Petunia Pig.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.Little ELMER ELEPHANT has a crush on Tillie Tiger & his affection is reciprocated (don't try to figure it out). Trouble is, the pint-sized pachyderm is beset by bullies who ridicule his trunk and make his life miserable. Then a conflagration breaks out at Tillie's tree house...A very cute little film, very nicely drawn, with a sound moral message. It could have been the start of a series of Elmer Elephant shorts, but, alas, that was not to be and Elmer & his friends went into almost immediate cartoon oblivion.The pelicans, for those too young to know, are spoofs of Jimmy Durante.The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.