Elmer Elephant

Elmer Elephant is a 1936 Disney short film in the Silly Symphony series and although flawed, it still is an endearing flick.

The story is very reminiscent to that of ‘Dumbo’ and of course the characters are similar in their problems. And although it never achieves its potential, I still enjoyed this short. It is heartwarming and in the end triumphantly moving in a typical Silly Symphony manner and that finale is just incredibly cute. The score is solid as well and I just loved the animation with the character design being really good.

Elmer isn’t as lovable as I thought he would be, but Tillie is. I found the scene where they bully him very interesting as it is very mature for this kind of cartoon. The middle parts are lacking with Joe the giraffe being such an annoying creation, but the first act works and the third act is also really good. One of the highlights is when he puts out the fire in a very inventive and interesting scene. This is a cute little film that has its moments, but is too flawed in its execution to be called a classic Silly Symphony.

Elmer Elephant has some weaker parts and is never as strong as it could have been, but the animation is really good, the beginning is great and the finale is cute leading to a solid entry in the Silly Symphonies series.

My Rating – 3.6