The Disney Silly Symphonies were part of my childhood, and I still love a lot of them to this day. Hell's Bells is not quite one of my favourites, the story is slight and one of the characters is a mix of a cow and a dragon and although maybe deliberate it was nonetheless weird to watch. However, it is wonderfully animated, the black and white is stylish and atmospheric, while the characters are generally well-proportioned. The music is outstanding, dynamic and and sometimes devilish-sounding. The obvious standout is Grieg's Hall of the Mountain King, though Gounod's Funeral March of a Marionette(originally written for piano and best remembered as the theme of Alfred Hitchcock Presents) and a small excerpt of Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture. And the dancing is niftily choreographed and fits so well rhythmically with the music, especially in the Gounod. The characters are engaging too, none of them are developed well but this is not that kind of cartoons, besides they are a nice mix of the charming and satanic. All in all, fun and weird indeed, second only perhaps to The Goddess of Spring as the most compellingly weird of their cartoons. 8/10 Bethany Cox
Review of Hell's Bells
