Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Delightful Disney short has a stork accidentally dropping off a lion cub to a group of sheep. At first the sheep laugh at the lion who they name Lambert but soon they come to need him when a hungry wolf shows up. This Disney short is probably one of the best remembered films that the studio ever did because from the time it was released to today, it seems like it's been all over the place. I remember watching it at least twice a week when I was a kid and it appears everyone knows the tale of the lion who got dropped off to the sheep. As you'd expect, the animation is extremely good and there's no doubt that the story itself is quite clever. I think one thing that fails to get enough attention is the vocal work of Sterling Holloway who is simply wonderful and adds a lot to the material.

The stork from Dumbo delivers a flock of baby lambs to some sheep on a quiet grass plain (as this is how you explain procreation to children), only a lion cub has gotten mixed in with the rest of them. The cub immediately cuddles up to a lonely ewe and grows up believing that it is a sheep, but finally becoming a lion when the flock is threatened by wolf.As most of the short is set at night there is a lot of nice, dark animation and background which are quite atmospheric, especially with the glowing full moon beaming down. This short was edited together with The Old Mill (1937) to create a Blueberry Hill music video for the Disney Channel back in the 90s, which is where I was first introduced to it.Definitely one of my fave Disney toons.

LAMBERT was nominated for the Best Animated Short Oscar but lost to THE TWO MOUSEKETEERS--a rather cutesy cartoon featuring Jerry the Mouse and his little slightly annoying sidekick, Tuffy. The MGM short isn't bad, but compared to Disney's LAMBERT is sure seems inconsequential. As for the only other nominated film, I'll try to be nice and only say that ROOTY, TOOT, TOOT was severely lacking....okay, fine, it was a horrible film, there I said it.So why did I like LAMBERT THE SHEEPISH LION so much that I wished they'd given this cartoon the Oscar instead? Well, the quality of the animation was a bit better--as MGM had recently began drawing their Tom and Jerry cartoons with a much simpler and cheaper style. Also, the story of Lambert is just charming and cute--but not cloying or too cute for viewing by diabetics. It's just a very nice and rather original take on the classic tale of "The Ugly Duckling".The film begins with Lambert (who is a lion) accidentally being delivered to a flock of sheep instead of his real mother. Poor Lambert actually thinks he's a sheep and is just as docile and harmless as a lamb. That is, until his flock is attacked and something primal within Lambert is released. No, he does NOT eat his flock-mates--just see the film for yourself to see how it all ends.Lovely story, lovely animation and a lot of fun.

In Australia (probably elsewhere, too) this short cartoon was screened just before "The Lion King". For a brief moment I sensed a new golden age, with hand-animated features basking in critical praise and paying their way at the box office, and classic short cartoons once again seeing the light of day (that is to say, the darkness of cinemas). The dream didn't last long, did it? "Lambert" turned out to be the last hand-animated short I ever saw in a cinema; today, Disney doesn't even bother to re-release its old FEATURES any more, and its animation department, which has maintained continuous production for something like seventy-five years and still has the best animators in the world, is fighting for its life in the face of general indifference. We are living in evil times.I was particularly glad to see this cartoon in the dark, just before "The Lion King": it always brought tears to my eyes, which I managed to keep secret. I gather it was based on a children's book, or was at one point going to be a children's book, or some such, but unless the prose was as perfectly crafted as Hans Christian Andersen's, this is surely the better form. It's a departure for Jack Hannah, who doesn't try to be funny; he just tells a sweet, warm-hearted story as clearly as possible. How can you not love it?