Disney Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Disney Wiki

Flowers and Trees is a Silly Symphony that marked the first Disney animated short to be made in color. It was the first commercially released film to be produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process, after several years of two-color Technicolor films.

Flowers and Trees was already in production as a black-and-white cartoon before Walt Disney saw Herbert Kalmus' three-strip Technicolor tests. Deciding that Flowers and Trees would make a perfect test for the process, he had the black-and-white footage scrapped, and had the short redone in color. The color Flowers and Trees was a commercial and critical success, winning the first Academy Award for Animated Short Subjects.

As a result of the success of Flowers and Trees, all future Silly Symphonies cartoons were produced in three-strip Technicolor, and the added novelty of color helped to boost the series' previously disappointing returns. Disney's other cartoon series, the Mickey Mouse shorts, were deemed successful enough not to need the extra boost of color, and therefore remained in black-and-white until 1935's The Band Concert.

Disney's exclusive contract with Technicolor, in effect until the end of 1935, forced other animators such as Ub Iwerks and Max Fleischer to use Technicolor's inferior two-color process or a competing two-color system, such as Cinecolor.

Synopsis[]

It's spring, and the flowers, mushrooms, and trees do their calisthenics. Some trees play a tune, using vines for harp strings and a chorus of robins. A nasty looking hollow tree does battle with a much healthier looking tree for the attentions of a female tree, and starts a fire in the process.

Releases[]

Television[]

Home video[]

Streaming[]

Trivia[]

  • Animation of the boy and lady trees and the music the former played was featured in the opening for Vault Disney.
  • An air freshener based on the short was featured at the end of the House of Mouse episode "Donald's Pumbaa Prank".
  • The male and female trees were among the animated characters that appeared in Once Upon a Studio.

Gallery[]

References[]


v - e - d
Sillysymphonylogo
1929
The Skeleton DanceEl Terrible ToreadorSpringtimeHell's BellsThe Merry Dwarfs
1930
SummerAutumnCannibal CapersFrolicking FishArctic AnticsMidnight in a Toy ShopNightMonkey MelodiesWinterPlayful Pan
1931
Birds of a FeatherMother Goose MelodiesThe China PlateThe Busy BeaversThe Cat's OutEgyptian MelodiesThe Clock StoreThe Spider and the FlyThe Fox Hunt (1931 short)The Ugly Duckling (1931)
1932
The Bird StoreThe Bears and BeesJust DogsFlowers and TreesKing NeptuneBugs in LoveBabes in the WoodsSanta's Workshop
1933
Birds in the SpringFather Noah's ArkThree Little PigsOld King ColeLullaby LandThe Pied PiperThe Night Before Christmas
1934
The China ShopThe Grasshopper and the AntsFunny Little BunniesThe Big Bad WolfThe Wise Little HenThe Flying MousePeculiar PenguinsThe Goddess of Spring
1935
The Tortoise and the HareThe Golden TouchThe Robber KittenWater BabiesThe Cookie CarnivalWho Killed Cock Robin?Music LandThree Orphan KittensCock o' the WalkBroken Toys
1936
Elmer ElephantThree Little WolvesToby Tortoise ReturnsThree Blind MouseketeersThe Country CousinMother PlutoMore Kittens
1937
Woodland CaféLittle HiawathaThe Old Mill
1938
The Moth and the FlameWynken, Blynken and NodFarmyard SymphonyMerbabiesMother Goose Goes Hollywood
1939
The Practical PigThe Ugly Duckling
Advertisement