LITTLE HIAWATHA (1937)
Article 5297 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 11-13-2016
Directed by David Hand
Featuring the voices of Sally Noble, Mary Rosetti, Millie Walters
Country: USA
What it is: Disney Silly Symphony

Little Hiawatha goes out with his bow and arrow to hunt forest animals, but breaks them when he discovers he doesn’t have the heart for it. Then he meets a bear…

The first half of this movie is pretty much the Disneyesque whimsy you’d expect. This is, of course, not a bad thing, and Disney was good at this approach. Still, the cartoon really takes off when the title character meets the bear; Disney was also great at the scary stuff, and you will find yourself concerned for Hiawatha’s life. As far as the fantastic content goes, this has less than you’d expect from a cartoon. The animals aren’t entirely anthropomorphic, but they’re given some human touches, such as laughter and cleverness, so they can’t quite be called realistic depictions of animals. At any rate, this is a good Disney cartoon.