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The Birds are the characters from the 1933 Silly Symphony short Birds in the Spring.

Background[]

The birds consist of several assorted birds, mostly consisting of passerine birds while others consist of woodpeckers, quails, magpies, or owls. Although they do not speak, they are capable of chirping as a means of communication, especially during the spring. Later, when a mother robin gave birth to three hatchlings and then the father told the other birds to see their children, they even reacted happily to see the family's newborn children, even before they gained their plumage.

Appearances[]

Birds in the Spring[]

As spring arrives, assorted passerines, a woodpecker, and a quail move across a flourishing garden. A bluebird happily chirps but not before a robin flies past him and two finches chirp together in a relationship. Two jays are then seen building a nest on an apple tree while the Mother Robin waits for her eggs to hatch. As the adult robins' three eggs hatch, the father tells the other birds to see their newborn children. Birds consisting of sparrows, blackbirds, thrushes, larks, jays, magpies, and an owl land at the spot where their three hatchlings are at the nest. Sometime later, the baby robins gain plumage, consisting of Otto and his two sisters. Later, the Father Robin teaches his children how to sing and fly like what a real bird does, but Otto keeps getting distracted.

As Otto becomes distracted, he encounters a hummingbird flying across various flowers. He observes it pollinating flowers and as he attempts to imitate it, another hummingbird flies and pushes him out of the flower, putting him into more predicaments. No other birds besides the robins appear throughout the rest of the short.

Trivia[]

  • The vocal effects of the birds were provided by Marion Darlington and Purv Pullen respectively.[1]
  • Frenchy de Trémaudan not only animated the scene with Otto and the grasshopper, but also the scene with his interaction with the hummingbirds.[1]
  • According to Disney animation scholar, Michael Barrier, Dick Lundy said that he "used to get a lot of birds and chart the stuff out"; specifically, what Barrier stated was that Lundy methodically was planning an advanced scene of the birds flying in animation instead of using the organic essence of flight.[2]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (page 120)
  2. "Birds in the Spring is Released". D23.