Disney created a sensation with Mickey Mouse, but alongside Mickey, Disney released another series of cartoon shorts that created a fantasy universe more daring, quirkier, and more diverse than anything starring the Mouse. The Silly Symphonies were started in 1929, and from the start they were Disney's Tiffany line, where he adapted his first fairy tales, pioneered his most important technical innovations, and routinely assigned his best artists. Our program includes Three Little Pigs and The Old Mill, the two Symphonies everyone knows; Who Killed Cock Robin?, Disney's classic death-trap satire featuring a torchy Mae West warbler; Music Land, the brilliant musical war pitting the Isle of Jazz against the Land of Symphony; Babes in the Woods, his musical re-working of Hansel and Gretel; and two scary nursery tales, Lullaby Land and The Flying Mouse.

Birds of a Feather (Burt Gillett, 1931, 8 mins, B&W). Babes in the Woods (Burt Gillett, 1932, 8 mins). Three Little Pigs (Burt Gillett, 1933, 9 mins). Lullaby Land (Wilfred Jackson, 1933, 7 mins). The Flying Mouse (Dave Hand, 1934, 9 mins). Who Killed Cock Robin? (Dave Hand, 1935, 9 mins). Music Land (Wilfrid Jackson, 1935, 10 mins). The Old Mill (Wilfrid Jackson and Graham Heid, 1937, 8 mins)