While Walt Disney was finally making a nice tidy profit from the popularity of Mickey Mouse, his studio was at the same time thriving from its production of the "Silly Symphonies'" series. The introduction of December 1931's "The Ugly Duckling" veered the series into a more character-driven direction. Two of Walt's primary animators, Ub Iwerks and Carl Stalling, had left his employ earlier the previous year. Disney's team decided the pair's departure created an ideal time to hatch a well-known story with a different twist. Adapting Hans Christian Andersen's 1843 story of the same name, "The Ugly Duckling" has a duck's egg mixed in with a farmyard chicken's nest. When all the peeps emerge from their eggs, the baby duckling pecks out of his shell and gets picked on because he looks different than the others. However, a tornado soon threatens the lives of the young chicks, until the duckling comes to their rescue.
One modern-day reviewer noted, "The characters are imbued with personality, pathos and life in a way that other 'Silly Symphonies' have been unable to accomplish. When the duckling is cast out by his mother, a hen, the tears that he cries are heart breaking." Another new added element to "Silly Symphony" series was the "The Ugly Duckling" introduced suspense within its framework, differing from its previous musical cartoons. Eight years later, Disney would revisit the Andersen tale in 1939, sticking more to the writer's storyline than the 1931 version. "The Ugly Duckling" is the only 'Silly Symphony' to made twice.
One modern-day reviewer noted, "The characters are imbued with personality, pathos and life in a way that other 'Silly Symphonies' have been unable to accomplish. When the duckling is cast out by his mother, a hen, the tears that he cries are heart breaking." Another new added element to "Silly Symphony" series was the "The Ugly Duckling" introduced suspense within its framework, differing from its previous musical cartoons. Eight years later, Disney would revisit the Andersen tale in 1939, sticking more to the writer's storyline than the 1931 version. "The Ugly Duckling" is the only 'Silly Symphony' to made twice.