This is like a pre-Toy Story adventure, where various figurines and mugs come to life in a China stop after the owner leaves. Some excitement and intriguing moments when a demonic figure captures an upper-class lady and then does battle with her lord. A clever and imaginative story here, with all the shattering and clanging of dishes.

This is an early color short in the Silly Symphonies series produced by the Disney studio. There will be spoilers ahead:Much of this will be familiar, at least in terms of plot-boy and girl are courting, a rival interferes and our hero ultimately triumphs through the adversity to once again win the girl.In this one, all but two of the characters are things made of china. Three monkeys, beer steins, cups and saucers and the like. There's the old man who owns the china shop and an animated wall clock. Everything else is china, including three figurines. The first two are a couple, who dance in one of the better sequences of the short. The third figurine is the bad gut, a green satyr who covets the female china figurine and grabs her.A fight, of course, is inevitable, though our hero must fight more or less alone, with the satyr throwing whatever it can grab while the more active figures scatter. Finally, our hero beats the satyr with some rather timely (sorry) help from the clock and the couple is reunited. When the proprietor returns in the morning, he takes the carnage in stride and gives the short a funny, happy ending.This short is available on the Disney Treasures More Silly Symphonies DVD set and both the set and this short are worth your time. Recommended.

This is just living proof that you can never grow too old to appreciate Disney for the pure art it is. The China Shop is enormously entertaining, and has everything you can ever ask for in a silly symphony. Brilliant Technicolour animation, a truly excellent music score and a very fun storyline. All the characters are great, the elderly owner, the two dancing antiques, the monkeys and the green (centaur-shaped) antagonistic satyr. Give yourself a treat from watching the China Shop, it is an unforgettable Disney gem, that not only brings back fond memories, but is so beautiful in story and presentation, you have to like it. 10/10 Bethany Cox

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.When the old proprietor closes down THE CHINA SHOP for the evening, all the various plates, mugs & figurines come alive and start to frolic. Among these are the little china figures of a young lord & lady. Their romantic interlude is shattered, literally, by a jealous goat-legged satyr, who wants possession of the little lady. The resulting struggle between the young lord & his antagonist creates havoc about the shop.A pleasant, though unremarkable cartoon. Disney often used romantic tension to fuel his plots. Seldom, however, does his hero & heroine end up so battered & bruised as they do here.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.