Best nominated short of 1935

[Brandon Panther]

The winner "Three Orphan Kittens" never appealed to me.

"Who Killed Cock Robin", is a strange bizzare short from Disney. An unusaully dark tone, and a very "deux ex machina" ending. It's interesting to say the least, and a little more entertaining than Three Orphan Kittens.

I've never seen The Calico Dragon.

[nickramer]

While I do like "Three Orphan Kittens" (It was another of my earliest cartoon viewing), I agree that "Who Killed Cock Robin?" is the best of the three and had some great Hollywood caricatures.
"We're going to hang'em all./ We're going to hang'em all./ Hi-Ho the da-ri-o./ We're going to hang'em all!"

[J. A. Boschen]

I am going to go with CALICO DRAGON. THREE ORPHAN KITTIES and WHO KILLED COCK ROBIN are both very good cartoons but CALICO DRAGON seems to have more imagination and fun put behind it with the whole stuffed animal and fabric theme throughout the film.

[jonmayo15]

I've never seen The Calico Dragon.Now you may... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1f50ncbWYMA

[zavkram]

While I really like peanut butter, I find it increasingly difficult to digest as I get older... :D so I'm going to go with The Calico Dragon. I, too, liked the whole fantasy element of the action taking place on a bedspread.

[tristar]

"Cock Robin", no question. I never liked "Three Orphan Cittans" or "Calico". But then again, I do like peanut butter very much...:p

[Nelson]

I picked "Who Killed Cock Robin" for best cartoon short, although peanut butter was good, it's sequel, "peaunt butter and jelly" was better.:p

[rex racer]

Although it's been spoken of in the other threads the thing that's most interesting to me is how there are other titles that were equally deserving of a Oscar nomination. Freleng's "Mr. & Mrs. Is the Name", WB , and Ising's "Honeyland", MGM come to mind for 1935. Ditto for Iwerks very imaginative "Jack Frost". Most surprising is that Disney's "The Band Concert" was also a no show, one the best CLASSIC cartoons ever made !!

dw

[MF TOON]

1935 was coincidentally the year that Disney's lock on the three-strip Tehcnicolor process had ended and turned up in several Happy Harmonies. It was also the year one Porky Pig would make his screen debut in "I Haven't Got A Hat". And later still in Avery's first, "Gold Diggers Of '49"; An interesting year for animated shorts for sure...

While I enjoy all three of the nominated films, I think that The Calico Dragon is a fantastic and imaginative cartoon but Who Killed Cock Robin is the most entertaining and deserving of the Oscar for it's unique narrative. In fact, I find the winning film the least interesting and given the nominations and the panels penchant for these type of films, I'm surprised "The Chinese Nightingale" wasn't nominated as well. Though I agree with rex racer that Honeyland is a terrific short and one of my fave of the very early M-G-M's!

[Mac]

I've never seen "Peanut Butter" before, but of the remaining cartoons I like "The Calico Dragon" the least. This cartoon is great to watch for the imaginative fabric, patchwork world. There's lots of clever touches to look out for in the ways the characters and landscapes are pieced together (I particularly like how the dragon's castle is made from a pair of long johns with the 'bum flap' bit forming a drawbridge!). However, somehow I don't find the simple characters, music and action in this Happy Harmony cartoon as engaging as I do in entries of Disney's Silly Symphony series.

Next up, I like "The Three Orphan Kittens". If someone asked me to watch a whole cartoon about frolicking kittens I'd assume it to be something too cute and boring for my tastes. However, if I'm honest I actually find the whole cartoon entertaining (the chubby rich girl at the end could be a bit too much, but at least the black kitten is suitably disgruntled by the indignities forced upon him). I really like the music in this one and the way it always fits the action so perfectly - building to the highlight of the kittens on the piano near the end. Also worth noticing in some scenes of this 1935 cartoon is how much richer, darker and more lush the use of colour is staring to become in Disney animation compared to earlier, paler efforts.

That leaves "Who Killed Cock Robin" as my favourite of the bunch. Although it has the look of a Silly Symphony of its era, it is completely unlike any other cartoon in the series. There's a slightly smarter, more satirical edge to the humour than usual (with light hearted references to police brutality and unfair sentencing!) all set in a musical, storybook world that delights in the surrounding mystery of a 'murder' (gotta love the singing jury). Throw in the Hollywood caricatures to the mix and you've got a Disney cartoon that's really weird, but it works!