The Skeleton Dance

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The Skeleton Dance
Directed by	Walt Disney
Produced by	Walt Disney
Music by	Carl Stalling Edvard Grieg
Studio(s)	Walt Disney Studio
Distributor	Columbia Pictures
Released	August 29, 1929
Running time	6:00
Language	English
Followed by	El Terrible Toreador

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 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

Releases

• Disneyland, episode #2.11: "The Story of the Animated Drawing"
• Good Morning, Mickey, episode #79
• The Ink and Paint Club, episode #1.4: "Disney Firsts"
• The Ink and Paint Club, episode #1.55: "Oooh! Scary!"

Home video

• Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: Scary Tales (VHS/laserdisc)
• Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies (DVD)
• Walt Disney Treasures: The Adventures of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (DVD)
• Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Diamond Edition (Blu-Ray)

Trivia

• 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. By all accounts, it's a color remake of The Skeleton Dance. It features many similar scenes, including:
  • A church at night in the 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 crow cries out in the morning.

Gallery

Skeleton Dance poster

Skull and crossbones

The skeleton dance 8large.jpg

Pete dancing with the Skeletons

Skeleton Dancers at the House of Mouse

References

v - e - d

1929 The Skeleton Dance • El Terrible Toreador • Springtime • Hell's Bells • The Merry Dwarfs 1930 Summer • Autumn • Cannibal Capers • Frolicking Fish • Arctic Antics • Midnight in a Toy Shop • Night • Monkey Melodies • Winter • Playful Pan 1931 Birds of a Feather • Mother Goose Melodies • The China Plate • The Busy Beavers • The Cat's Out • Egyptian Melodies • The Clock Store • The Spider and the Fly • The Fox Hunt (1931 short) • The Ugly Duckling (1931) 1932 The Bird Store • The Bears and Bees • Just Dogs • Flowers and Trees • King Neptune • Bugs in Love • Babes in the Woods • Santa's Workshop 1933 Birds in the Spring • Father Noah's Ark • Three Little Pigs • Old King Cole • Lullaby Land • The Pied Piper • The Night Before Christmas 1934 The China Shop • The Grasshopper and the Ants • Funny Little Bunnies • The Big Bad Wolf • The Wise Little Hen • The Flying Mouse • Peculiar Penguins • The Goddess of Spring 1935 The Tortoise and the Hare • The Golden Touch • The Robber Kitten • Water Babies • The Cookie Carnival • Who Killed Cock Robin? • Music Land • Three Orphan Kittens • Cock o' the Walk • Broken Toys 1936 Elmer Elephant • Three Little Wolves • Toby Tortoise Returns • Three Blind Mouseketeers • The Country Cousin • Mother Pluto • More Kittens 1937 Woodland Café • Little Hiawatha • The Old Mill 1938 The Moth and the Flame • Wynken, Blynken and Nod • Farmyard Symphony • Merbabies • Mother Goose Goes Hollywood 1939 The Practical Pig • The Ugly Duckling