User Reviews

Yikes...there's really not very much to this short at all. It's a crusty little old piece of work to be sure! It's just kind of flat and empty, it focuses way too much on the charmless actions of the creatures as they inanely hop about and generally cavort their way over the ice flows and glaciers in time to the horrible tinny music.. Um...some of the backgrounds are nice! I like the underwater effect done on the polar bear as he swims half-submerged, and I liked the more fluid animation of the cranky walrus, his music solo was a moment that did get a little laugh out of me! And I must say the monochromatic colour limitations leant themselves quite well to the snowy setting. I'm afraid that it's still a very poor quality vintage cartoon short all around though, I think even a five is being pretty generous.. It's technically functional but not particularly cute or lovable in any strong way, it's most definitely the work of Ub Iwerks! You'll probably just be better off skipping this one and watching the much more fun "Peeping Penguins" instead. A poor early stepping stone on the path to the true animated greatness that was to come, decent at best. X

This is just one more of the lifeless efforts put out in the 30's. We are introduced to penguins, polar bears, and walruses, and, of course, a multitude of fish. Mostly, there is lots of dancing and little critical movement by the recurring characters. I guess the principle theme is survival. Once again we have the old food chain thing. Not horrible, but there were numerous similar presentations.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.

The denizens of the North Pole are engaged in ARCTIC ANTICS. The penguins, seals, polar bear, and even a large walrus are marching about, jumping & dancing & slapping their bottoms an amazing number of times...

This black & white cartoon has an invisible plot and is basically an exercise in action/reaction animation. The Disney animators seem to know a curiously large number of posterior gags. Notice that the face of the polar bear cub enjoys a remarkable resemblance to that of Mickey Mouse.

The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.

Okay, I have to get this off my chest. Why did Disney put polar bears and penguins together? Not only would the bears eat the penguins, but they come from completely opposite parts of the world! Yes, I know that Coke also puts these two critters together but in the wild this would never happen. Trust me on this folks.

Now that I have gotten this off my chest, let's get to the film "Arctic Antics". It's a very good black & white cartoon from Disney marketed under the 'Silly Symphonies' label. These were generally very sweet little cartoons with lots of critters dancing about to the music---and not the familiar sort of characters like Mickey and Donald. In the case of this film, lots of cute animals dance about in the frozen North--all accompanied by the usual sort of musical score. While the animation is not among the company's best, it is quite enjoyable and gets points for being quite cute without being cloying. Well worth seeing.

I have always enjoyed Disney Silly Symphonies, and while I did like Arctic Antics I don't consider it one of their masterpieces. It is nice, but not really anything to rave about. It does lack cohesion, if you're willing to forget that polar bears and penguins live on the other side of the world and that polar bears eat penguins you'll be fine, if not then that's my point. The cartoon doesn't really have any story to speak of and doesn't really get going pace-wise until the penguins are introduced and apart from the major set piece it's basically just nice to watch but not much else or new. However the animation is of the fluid and smooth kind, with the way a seal is drawn while underwater, the music is of great energy and sounds absolutely beautiful and the dancing while not as inspired as other Silly Symphonies is well choreographed with some very interesting use of motion such as animals floating in the foreground and others staying put in the background. The characters are very cute too, I especially liked the Mickey Mouse-like polar bear. All in all, not a special cartoon or a masterpiece, but nice all the same. 7/10 Bethany Cox

A very boring Silly Symphony cartoon where you see a host of arctic animals on ice blocks and shores, screeching and performing to various musical numbers.

There's no plot, annoying sound effects, and unremarkable music. Animation was OK and the characters were nicely drawn, but the overall cartoon was a drag to watch.

Grade D---