"The Wise Little Hen" is a Technicolor 7-minute cartoon from Disney that was made over 80 years ago. And it is interesting to see how Donald is still everybody's favorite dog today while Peter Pig, his co-star in here, has been forgotten completely. The 2 fake tummy aches when the wise little hen asks them to help with planting and cropping corn because they are 2 very lazy fellas. Unfortunately for them, fortunately for us, she finds out about their charade and in the end they get disgusting medicine instead of tasty corn. Bad luck for the 2. There's always next year though. Maybe they'll learn something from it. Wilfred Jackson, Pinto Colvig and Clarence Nash worked on this little movie and the three of them are really known for their work on many other cartoons. This one here is not among my favorites from its era, but it's still a decent little Silly Symphony with a nice message (very unusual for a Donald Duck cartoon), solid music and also hilarious voice acting by Florence Gill. I recommend the watch.

With having found Walt Disney's 1921 Laugh-O-Grams to be surprisingly fun,I decided that with a poll being held on IMDbs Classic Film board for the best films of 1934,that I would take a look at a short from that year.Getting caught completely by surprise,I found out that Disney had made a short in 1934,which featured Donald Ducks debut! This led to me getting ready to find out how wise this hen could be.The plot:Gathering up all of her chick-lets,a hen begins walking round town,hoping to find someone who will help her farm the corn,so that she can have dinner with her chick-lets tonight.Visiting Donald Duck & Peter Pig,the hen is sad to find both of them suddenly becoming "ill" when she asks for their help.With their being no one else around,the hen and her chick-lets decide that they must farm the corn themselves.View on the film:Delivering the first of his landmark performances as the character,debuting Clarence Nash shows that he is far ahead of the animators (who make Donald's head a size 0!) by giving a superb performance which hits all of the wild notes that Donald would soon become famous for.Along with Nash, Florence Gill gives a strong performance as the Wise Little Hen,with Gill showing a remarkable skill in saying the dialogue sung.Giving the hen a sweet,rosy appearance,director Wilfred Jackson creates a wonderful atmosphere by using acrylic colours to give the film a forgotten nursery rhyme feel,and also keeping things lively with sight guys such as Donald Duck & Peter Pig dancing round the "Idle Hour" building,which leads to this being a wise hen,and a very wise film.

If you are looking for this short, try the "Disney Timeless Treasures: Volume 3". It's there along with several other seldom-seen cartoon shorts.This Silly Symphony cartoon is, like the rest of the series, wonderfully animated--as Disney was the producer of the best looking cartoons of the 1930s...period. However, like many of the films in the series, the story itself wasn't always so hot. Because of that, I can't recommend it to the casual viewer. HOWEVER, to the cinemaniac or Disney-phile it is STILL a must-see for two reasons. The first is that the animation is terrific--just like all the Disney shorts of the 1930s. But a much more important reason is that this film marks the first appearance by Donald Duck--and that is something to celebrate. To those unaware of his evolution, he does look quite different--as he did until the very late 30s.As far as the story goes, it's the familiar tale of the Little Red Hen--and the lazy farm animals who refuse to help her plant and then harvest her grain. No major surprises here--just some nice animation and Donald.

While watching The Wise Little Hen, I had to keep reminding myself that this short was made in 1934. The animation has held up well over the years and is as good as anything you'll see. The colors paint a bright picture and the attention to detail is amazing. This film is also an important milestone as it marks the first appearance of Donald Duck, it remains one of his best films.