. . . cats. The trio of felines referred to by the title break into an unsuspecting household. The very first thing the vandal triumvirate do is to contaminate various kitchen items, such as a cherry pie, milk bottle and a pepper shaker. At least 17 pieces of china are smashed to bits. The nasty three next invade the Nursery, trashing a pair of dolls, a jack-in-the-box, a ball and a pillow. Not content to only disfigure two rooms, the miniature marauders slip into the parlor to wreak their most expensive havoc yet. They not only tear apart a grand player piano, but they also reduce a lamp, a vase, a planter and another pillow to smithereens. With pests such as THREE ORPHAN KITTENS running loose, viewers would expect sacks of such home-wreckers to be tossed out the windows of EVERY passing car!
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planktonrules14 September 2009The 1930s often gave audiences cartoons chock full of happy singing animals and tons of cuteness. The edgier cartoons were mostly absent, though Disney's stock of reliable characters were awfully good. Today, these "sweet" cartoons are a pretty sad lot when you can compare them to the wonderful (and much more violent) cartoons of the 40s and 50s. However, making this comparison isn't 100% fair--this sort of cartoon was still waiting to be born.
For 1935, this cartoon is much better than average but I am frankly not particularly fond of it. My score of 7 represents it compared to the films of the day, though today I'd be hard pressed to give it a 4, as it's amazingly dull despite some very nice animation. The kittens bounce about the house and get into mischief--and this isn't enough to sustain a film. Speaking of animation, I loved the snow scenes--they were just so beautifully done. Ditto for the backgrounds. As for the three kittens, they actually were not as well animated as many of Disney's films of the day, but apparently the cuteness and the rest of the film was enough to propel it to the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Though, if you were to compare it to the other nominees that year, it is the best short. However, my nod would have been to award the Oscar to a more traditional Disney film--such as THE BAND CONCERT or MICKEY'S POLO TEAM.
By the way, you probably will notice that the film presents Black people as rather hard-hearted servants or as "pickaninny" dolls. Thank goodness times have changed. -
llltdesq23 January 2001While Three Orphan Kittens is undoubtably a good cartoon and is well worth watching, Who Killed Cock Robin? should probably have won and I think that in many ways The Calico Dragon is also better, although not by much. It was an excellent field and all three were worthy, but Three Orphan Kittens wasn't the best, at least to me. The title basically describes the cartoon. Certainly worth your time, this periodically appears on The Ink and Paint Club on The Disney Channel.
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Foreverisacastironmess12321 October 2015Oh my, this is just adorable! I cannot handle the kitty cuteness! Although I still don't see anything ever topping the cutesy overload that is the 1934 "Funny Little Bunnies" Silly Symphony. Everything about that animation is like one humongous sickly-sweet powder keg wrapped in cream!!! I love trying to spot all the little early precursors to the later Disney movies, like how the black kitten is similar to Pinocchio's Figaro character, and how its bright domestic indoor look and setting very much reminds me of, minus the madcap violence of course, the Tom and Jerry cartoon shorts. Speaking of which, I don't quite know what she's doing here, but that is straight-up Mammie Two-Shoes who goes there! Ah stereotype my butt! The character is homely and warm, I always loved her. I also find the sight gag with the doll hysterical. I don't think it's right to judge a cartoon from this time with today's loft standards. What does 'edge' remotely have to do with anything here? It's just a very pleasant and fun short that has its own solid and special old-fashioned charm to it. And although it's not one of my favourite Symphony's it's still a good one. And I guess three kittens being left out in the bitterly cold snowy night all alone to perish could be seen as a possible note of subtle harshness. Such beautiful and rich details put into the animation of that opening scene. I also love the reflection of the kittens on the kitchen tiles, how such an effect was achieved way back then is beyond me. Lovely, and well worth seeing for children or adults, it's a sweet classic spirited cartoon to bring back memories...
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Ron Oliver30 September 2000A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.
THREE ORPHAN KITTENS, abandoned on a stormy Winter's night, make their way into a cozy, well-appointed home, where they proceed to create havoc...
This is a very cute little film and was the winner of the Oscar for Best Cartoon Short Subject for 1935. Some of the scenes use a technique called a `moving vanishing point' by animators; this gives an added depth of perception & was considered an innovation at the time. Some viewers may perceive a little racism in the character of Mammy Twoshoes. The kittens, by the way, were named Fluffy, Muffy & Tuffy by the Studio, and would return in 1936 in MORE KITTENS.
The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose. -
TheLittleSongbird18 September 2009I really liked this silly symphony. I did think it had one or two dull spots, hence my rating, but you cannot deny it is a very cute and charming short. The animation is very very nice, and the snow scenes were in particular beautifully done. The three kittens were absolutely adorable, definitely the stars of the short, and the music is beautiful. There are some lovely scenes, the part when the kitten start playing about on the keys of the piano was my favourite. What I meant by one or two dull spots was that, the short does start off quite slowly. And it's not my favourite silly symphony of 1935, The Band Concert gets that honour.
Overall, very cute and worth a look. 9/10 Bethany Cox -
tavm3 December 2017It wasn't until I discovered this on YouTube that I finally saw this Walt Disney Silly Symphony cartoon. It has three kittens without a home wandering into a house with the black maid making her pie and singing her song. But she doesn't notice those cats in the home for awhile so those three felines get into some scrapes, that's for sure! I'll stop there and just say I found most of it quite entertaining despite some scenes that wouldn't go in these Politically Correct times. So that's a recommendation of Three Orphan Kittens. P.S. The print I saw was a Spanish-dubbed one so that was something fascinating to view and hear...
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zsofikam8 October 2015I found Three Orphan Kittens purely by chance and wanted to check it out as I'm a huge cat- lover. It turned out to be every bit as gorgeous as I thought it would be. First of all, the kittens themselves are stunningly adorable and join my rankings of truly adorable characters alongside the kittens in Aristocats, Oliver (Oliver & Company), Bambi (Bambi), Dumbo (Dumbo), Lady (Lady & The Tramp), Banjo (Banjo The Woodpile Cat), Feivel (An American Tail), Winnie the Pooh, the title characters of PB&J Otter, and the main Land Before Time Cast (especially Petrie). Second, the animation both on the kittens and on the backgrounds has a nice innocent feel to it reminiscent of Beatrix Potter or Arnold Lobel (if you don't know either of those people you haven't had a childhood). Third, the music is sweet and mesmerizing, especially during the pie scene when the music 'spurts" in time to the squirting pie. All in all, a sweet, touching, simply precious little outing.