Such a frustrating disappointment

Sadly Over-hyped

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

There isn't much to engage us here. It is indeed springtime when all the flowers, insects, birds, and so on emerge. What this cartoon shows us is the food chain as each small element comes out with happiness and hope, only to be swallowed up by something bigger and stronger. If you think they are cute, you will see them sadly devoured. The animation here is pretty cheap and there is little movement.

This is the third Silly Symphony, and the first dedicated to the seasons (the others being Summer, Autumn, Winter).In Springtime there are some animals and flowers that dance celebrating the spring, but then a storm arrives. After the rain, near a pond, they all dance to the Dance of the Hours.In this short animals have a starring role; two ladybirds, a caterpillar, a crow's family, two cute grasshoppers, some turtles used as drums, a spider that uses his web like an harp, some dancing frogs and a stork. But there are also, at the beginning, few trees and some dancing flowers, and a tree that washes himself with the pouring rain.The strange thing of this short is that every creature dies after his performance; the caterpillar is eaten by the raven, the grasshoppers swallowed by the frog, the frogs are the stork's lunch, and in the end, the stork is swallowed by a giant puddle.In the end it's a nice short, and it's a must-see for all animal lovers. Featuring Grieg's ''Morning Mood'' and Ponchielli's ''Dance of the Hours''

Oh my I am gonna come off as such a crabcake in this review, because I'm afraid that this short really doesn't work for me at all. It's not very fun, it doesn't have any real charm that I could see, and I know it was only the third ever Silly Symphony to be put out and it was all still very much a work in progress as far as the quality and very art of the animation was concerned, but the sound is just awful. As the creatures dance around there is so much tinny klop klop klopping noise that just to me sounded horribly cheap and brutal, like someone is tapping a pan with a teaspoon, it just doesn't sound good at all. I also don't like the more weird unnatural touches like when the caterpillar separates its body segments and the stretchy limbs of the bird, that kinda thing is much more Fleischer than Disney. And I know it was perfectly mild but I really didn't like the animals eating each other, and it wasn't like they all come back alive and well at the end either. I mean I get that in their own way the animators were probably trying to show what really happens in nature from the animals that they doubtlessly observed, but I didn't like that! Thank goodness it didn't become a regular thing! I didn't mean for this to be so negative but I'm only being honest. In fact I've been getting back into these shorts a lot lately, but this is as poor a short as I remembered it, I'd rank it among the series' worst. Most of what is in it was later done again more effectively in later Symphonies like "Flowers and Trees", and even the 1930 "Summer" short. And much like Summer it feels more like a depiction of the animal life of a swamp environment than anything to do with Spring, apart from the opening flowers and hatching chicks at the beginning. It's not even remotely a good tribute to the first season. So to me at least the third time is not always the charm. Oh well, it's still a part of the rich evolving tapestry of a series that had far greater animated wonders yet to come... Not their best!

I really loved this Silly Symphony. Why? Everything is good about it. First of all, there is stunning black and white animation, that after all this time, doesn't look at all dated. Second, is the appealing characters, then again, I love all the characters in all the Silly Symphonies; they never fail to bring a smile to my face. Third, is the music. Now I look out for this element, every time I review a film, cartoon or TV programme on IMDb. Most of the short contained wonderful classical music favourites like Morning from Peer Gynt by Grieg and Dance of the Hours from La Giaconda(also used in Fantasia) by Ponchielli. All in all, wonderful, wonderful, wonderful! Bethany Cox