HELL’S BELLS (1929)
Article 5278 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-21-2016
Directed by Ub Iwerks
No voice cast
Country: USA
What it is: Demonic Disney Silly Symphony

Demons play music and dance for Satan in the bowels of hell, but when he starts feeding his minions to Cerberus, he finds one who puts up a resistance.

Well, you can’t fault this one on not having enough fantastic content; the setting is hell, and all sorts of demons and monsters are on hand here. There’s only the barest smidgen of a plot, and that’s pretty much saved for the last minute of cartoon; most of it what you’d expect from cartoons of this era – characters gyrating musically. Which is not to say that it’s not fun in a Halloween sort of way; it is. It’s not the best of the various horror-oriented cartoons out there, but it’s entertaining enough, and among the various musical pieces is a version of “Funeral March of a Marionette”, remembered as Alfred Hitchcock’s theme music.