Disney’s The Skeleton Dance

Walt Disney Studios made this cartoon, The Skeleton Dance, in 1929. 

Walt Disney who was branching out from his initial success with Mickey Mouse produced a series of short cartoons entitled Silly Symphony.

They were shown before feature films in movie theaters.

The Skeleton Dance was the first in this series. It was made using sound, which was still a new media in Hollywood.

Steamboat Willie

One of Disney’s first shorts featuring Mickey Mouse (1928)—Steamboat Willie—also used sound which had Mickey: whistling, talking and dancing to music, which amazed the movie theatre audiences and guaranteed its success.

In 1932, another short in this series entitled Flowers and Trees, made in color earned Disney the first-ever Academy Award for an animated cartoon.

The Skeleton Dance is considered one of the best cartoons in animation history. 

This short has a simple storyline. The noise from nocturnal creatures awakens a skeleton from his grave. He then, in turn, awakens several bony friends.

This film is a macabre delight.

Ub Iwerks

This cartoon was drawn by Ub Iwerks, an animator who worked with Disney at the beginning of his career, and then continued.

The skeletons all dance a spirited traditional foxtrot, to Edvard Greig’s The March of the Trolls. At the time, people would stay for an additional showing of the feature film, just to see this cartoon once more. 

It is still received with approval today—it has millions of hits on YouTube.

Enjoy.

Disney Cartoon: Lonesome Ghosts

Lonesome Ghosts was released in 1937. This nine-minute Disney animated cartoon features Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy. Goofy steals the show. 

In this cartoon we find these three as members of the “Ajax Ghost Exterminators”. This cartoon is one of the first films to present the concept of chasing and catching ghosts.*

Lonesome Ghosts is Disney at its best—the story is wonderfully creative and funny—even for adults. The storyline has a twist--the ghosts themselves hire the Ajax Ghost Exterminators because they are bored. 

The house they haunt has been abandoned for many years so they have no one to scare. When the Ajax boys respond they are teased, taunted and provoked.

There is a scene in this cartoon where Goofy sees what he thinks is his own reflection in a mirror. It slowly dawns on him that something is amiss. The ghost mimicking his movements is pure genius. It is a must-see. Two very memorable quotes that Goofy states in this cartoon:

“I’m brave! But I’m careful.”

“I ain’t scared of no ghosts!”

* With the similarities to the film Ghostbusters and a line from Ray Parker Jr.’s theme song for the film, “I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghosts”—one might wonder if Dan Aykroyd’s and Ray Parker Jr.’s inspiration for the script for Ghostbusters and its theme song were in some way this cartoon, Lonesome Ghosts.

Below is a copy of this cartoon that was placed on youtube. This copy is available—at least for now—others have been removed in the past—so watch it while you can.