The Grasshopper and the Ants (1934)

Directed by

Wilfred Jackson

Genre

animated cartoon

Country

United States

Runtime

8 min

Rated

NR

Rating

6.5 of 10 from 127 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A grasshopper named Hop spends his days playing music and enjoying life while the ants work hard preparing for winter. When the cold comes, Hop learns that his carefree ways have left him in need of the ants' help.

playfullightheartedmusicalwhimsicalsimplecheerfulmoralistic

What happens

The Grasshopper and the Ants is a 1934 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists. Part of the Silly Symphonies series, the film is an adaptation of The Ant and the Grasshopper, one of Aesop's Fables. It was directed by Wilfred Jackson and stars Pinto Colvig as the voice of the grasshopper Hop. The film introduced the song "The World Owes Me a Living" (later "I Owe the World a Living") by Leigh Harline and Larry Morey, which later became associated with the character Goofy who was also voiced by Colvig. According to Leonard Maltin on the Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies DVD, this was an early example of the idea of having a character turn blue with cold, when full-spectrum Technicolor was still new at the time. The cartoon is believed to be a commentary on the Great Depression and the New Deal, which at that time had just been introduced by the Roosevelt administration. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• The Grasshopper and the Ant (1956)
• The Wise Little Hen (1934)
• Mr. Bug Goes to Town (1941)
• Birds in the Spring (1933)
• Hop and Go (1943)
• Goofy and Wilbur (1939)
• To Spring (1936)
• Criquet a du ressort