Porcelain Antiques

Porcelain Antiques
Background information
Short films	The China Shop
Group information
Members	Various antique objects
Home	Ye Olde China Shop
Status	Broken (many)

The Porcelain Antiques are characters featured in the 1934 Silly Symphony short The China Shop.

Background

These objects inhabit an antique shop known as the "Ye Old China Shop" and are made of fine porcelain, hence the store's name. Most of the time, the shopkeeper would check his shop to make sure any of the products in his shop are in condition in an organized manner before closing his shop. Whenever the shop closes, the antique products would come to life in a world where people are absent under the command of a clock, causing many of them to come move within the shop, dance, and come to life thanks to their anthropomorphic characteristics. The porcelain products can either consist of plates, vases. mugs, chalices, mugs, beer steins, or in other cases forms of animals (such as monkeys, snakes, ostriches, or peacocks) or people (such as a boy figure or girl figure). In spite of them having a happy personality, they would occasionally make nervous reactions whenever the satyr figure appears, like when he attempts to get the boy figure out of his way in an attempt to save his love interest, the girl figure.

During the daytime when the shopkeeper returns to his shop, the objects would return to their inanimate forms, showing that he does his duty in making sure there are no broken objects inside the shop. Whenever products are broken inside the shop, the shopkeeper would increase the prices of the porcelain figures, making them expensive for customers to buy from his store.

Appearances

The China Shop

After the shopkeeper closes his shop with everything in place and then a clock comes to life, three antique figures of monkeys come to life and dance inside the shop, exiting their displays. Various other objects also begin to dance such as plates, vases, kettles, and chalices, which all dance together, followed by beer steins resembling men in lederhosen dancing together and lifting their lids. Just as the products continue to dance, a boy figure takes a girl figure to dance on flat glass in a waltz, just as the vases watch them dance together. Meanwhile, two snakes surround the figure of an evil-looking satyr who tries to get the girl figure's attention. The satyr then kicks the boy figure into a mirror, much to a plate's shock, just as the satyr seduces the girl figure and locks her up in a cabinet.

Furthermore, the boy figure stands up against the satyr, punching him onto a pitcher. Determined to save his love interest, the satyr tosses several a plate onto a stack of teacups, causing them to be smashed and later a teacup, a condiment shaker, and another plate, while the three monkeys retreat into another mug in fear (although one of his tails gets smashed when the satyr tosses a plate onto his tail). Just as the satyr throws another mug at the boy figure which then smashes, he then grabs a lid from the smashed mug, defending himself from the objects thrown by the satyr. Elsewhere, an ostrich figure dodges a condiment shaker and a plate and as he hides himself in a hole, another plate smashes him, reducing his neck size, causing him to retreat. Just as the boy continues getting close to the satyr, he later tosses another condiment shaker onto a peacock figure, much to his shock and when a plate passes through his matches, they start igniting and later start extinguishing, much to his worry. The boy figure then faces the satyr while the other plates and cups react in shock. The boy figure then defeats the satyr (who is later smashed by the clock for his antagonistic actions) and rescues the girl figure just before the shop opens.

Later, the shopkeeper returns to his shop and sees several of the products in his shop that were broken last night (which he did not notice), Amongst some of the broken objects seen are vases and beer steins, much to the shopkeeper feeling surprised about this. As a result, he increases the price of the objects sold in the store and labels them as rare antiques, due to the damage caused by the satyr figure last night.

Trivia

• The way the three monkey figures stand next to each other labeled "Hear No Evil", "See No Evil", and "Speak No Evil" respectively is a reference to the Japanese proverbial principal, "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" depicting sculptures of three monkeys.
  • A clip of the monkey figures coming to life when the antiques shop closes was later used in the "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" segment in the Disney's Sing-Along Songs volume Very Merry Christmas Songs.
• The instrumental song that plays when the mugs dance together is in fact a real life song titled "O du lieber Augustin".
• The way the antique figures come to life in a world where no people are around them is inspired from the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep, where the inanimate objects come to life in a world where people are absent.

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