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The Skeleton Dance (1929)

★½ — The Skeleton Dance (1929)

Released in August 1929, "The Skeleton Dance" was the first entry in Disney's "Silly Symphonies" series, a programme conceived as a creative counterpart to the Mickey Mouse shorts, one that prioritised music and movement over character-driven narrative. Walt Disney produced it in the earliest days of synchronised sound in animation, with composer Carl Stalling (later the long-serving musical architect of the Looney Tunes catalogue) scoring the short to a loose arrangement of Grieg and Saint-Saëns. Theatre exhibitors were initially reluctant to screen it, finding the macabre subject matter off-putting, but the short found its audience and helped establish the Symphonies as a viable series, which ran until 1939.

My son really liked this 1929 Disney animation. It's the first of the silly symphony series but it's just so dated by today's standards. It's nearly 100 years old though so keep that in mind. It's essentially a short dance/music movie featuring a quartet of animated skeletons.

Rating: ★½ | Year: 1929 | Watched: 2025-09-06

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Where to watch (US)

Stream: Disney Plus
Physical: Amazon UK

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