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The Skeleton Dance is a featured article, which means it has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Disney Wiki community. If you see a way this page can be updated or improved without compromising previous work, please feel free to contribute.

The Skeleton Dance, released in 1929, was the first in Walt Disney and Carl Stalling's Silly Symphonies series.

Summary[]

When night falls at a church cemetery, amidst howling dogs, hooting owls, and fighting cats, four skeletons rise from their graves for macabre merriment. Dancing and playing music by using each other as instruments, the skeletons party until the rising of the sun, where they frantically rush back into their graves, forming a skeletal chimera to get back faster.

Legacy[]

Being the original and one of the most popular Silly Symphonies, the skeletons have been long associated with the macabre side of Disney. They reappeared later in the year in the Mickey Mouse short The Haunted House and would go on to appear in House of Mouse and be given a visual nod in Disneyland Paris' Phantom Manor in the underground catacombs sequence. A level based on the short appears in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two as well as the short itself being included as an extra feature.

Releases[]

Television[]

Home video[]

Streaming[]

Trivia[]

  • The film's copyright was renewed on December 16, 1957.[2]
  • The Skeleton Dance makes an appearance in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two as one of the projector transition levels.
  • Footage from this short was used in the Disney Sing Along Songs volume Happy Haunting: Party at Disneyland for the song "Spooky Scary Skeletons".
  • Part of the animation appeared in the 2007 film Ghost Rider.
  • In 1937, Ub Iwerks worked on the cartoon Skeleton Frolic for Columbia Pictures' Color Rhapsody series. it is essentially a color remake of The Skeleton Dance, and features many similar scenes, including:
    • A church at night in a wind storm. When the bell rings, bats fly towards the camera.
    • Skeletons throw their heads at an animal (a cat, instead of an owl).
    • A skeleton playing the xylophone with another skeleton's ribcage.
    • Four skeletons dancing in a row.
    • The skeletons run back into their graves, as a rooster cries out in the morning.

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
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