One of my favorite moments at the D23 Expo was the Disney in Concert: A Silly Symphony Celebration!



Hosted by Leonard Maltin, we were given a special look at a few of the newly restored digital masters of the original Silly Symphonies while a 32-piece orchestra played in synchronization. I had never seen a silly symphony before, so I thought it was really cool, especially because they used old footage of Walt Disney to introduce each Silly Symphony we watched. That truly made it all the more special because it allowed me to see a different side to Walt Disney and understand just how much each Silly Symphony meant to him.



During The Disney in Concert: A Silly Symphony Celebration, I learned 8 Fun Facts about the Silly Symphonies I shared on Twitter so I wanted to share them here too (so they’d be all in one place for you)

8 Fun Facts about the Silly Symphonies

  • The Silly Symphonies were started as an experiment, they were used to test and perfect the color of animation techniques.
  • There was a total of 75 Silly Symphonies produced by Walt Disney from 1929 – 1939.
  • The Skeleton Dance was the first Silly Symphony.
  • Flowers & Trees was the first Silly Symphony to implement color.
  • Walt Disney started an art classs at the studio and they studied anatomy & other things for these silly symphonies and their animated films.
  • The Three Little Pigs was a hit when it came out! Especially because of the depression.
  • The Old Mill, a Silly Symphony, won an academy award in 1937.
  • The last Silly Symphony in the series was The Ugly Duckling.

The Silly Symphony Collection is available now for pre-order from Walt Disney Records and Fairfax Classics.

Silly Symphony Collection

The Silly Symphony Collection is a first-of-its-kind box set from Walt Disney Records and Fairfax Classics featuring the complete restored soundtracks from all 75 Silly Symphony shorts from 1929-1939, with more than 8 hours of music over 16 vinyl LPs. The Silly Symphony Collection will include a free digital download with purchase of the box set. Plus, pre-orders will receive a free limited edition 10” vinyl single featuring “The Skeleton Dance” on the A side and “Three Little Pigs” on the B side.

The limited edition collection is housed in 8 tip-on gatefold jackets with original animation art in a beautifully constructed foil-stamped and numbered slipcase. Soundtracks of Disney classics such as The Skeleton Dance by Carl Stalling, Three Little Pigs by Frank Churchill, and Donald Duck’s debut The Wise Little Hen by Leigh Harline will be presented in full for the first time ever on record. Each gatefold jacket includes detailed liner notes for every short by Disney historians J.B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt, authors of the definitive book on the series, Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series.

For more information about The Silly Symphony Collection or to pre-order your set, click Here.

*Photo Credits: Disney