Saturday Cartoon

The Old Mill This 1937 Silly Symphony from Walt Disney was made as an experiment in the use of effects animation - the motion of atmospherics, of rain and lightning and wind and water - to create drama. The film is populated by many different animals, who are all affected by the inclement weather, but it is the windmill and stormy night which play the lead rolls. The cartoon was also the first use of Disney's new multiplane camera, which allowed for creation of dimensional depth to a scene, as background and foreground elements could be blurred out of focus. The film won an Academy Award for Best Animated Short, and the studio received an Oscar for the technical innovation of the camera. Direction: Wilfred Jackson Animation: Ugo D'Orsi, Ralph Somerville, Jack Hannah, Tom Palmer, Robert Stokes, George Rowley, Josh Meador, Bob Wickersham, Dan McManus, Stan Quackenbush, Robert Martsch