The Four Musicians of Bremen
About The Four Musicians of Bremen
A donkey, Julius the Cat, a dog, and a rooster run from people throwing bricks and set up as a band. After they play, Julius goes fishing. A swordfish splits the fish he is after and chases all four until they climb a tree. The swordfish cuts the tree. They fall into a house of criminals. The criminals fire a cannon. Julius rides a cannonball, uses his detached tail as a club, and knocks the gang out. The four stay in the house.
Cast & crew
More about The Four Musicians of Bremen
Walt Disney directed and produced the cartoon at Laugh-O-Gram in Kansas City, the second of the studio's fairy-tale shorts, after Little Red Riding Hood. Rudolph Ising is credited among the animators. A San Francisco Silent Film Festival note places the work in Disney's garage around April and May 1922. A Disney studio account dates the release 1 August 1922. It runs 7 minutes. It modernizes the Grimm tale The Town Musicians of Bremen. Pictorial Clubs of Tennessee had promised $11,100 for six Laugh-O-Grams and did not pay.
Themes
Making
Disney drew the Grimm quartet as a Kansas City cartoon: a band, a swordfish, and a cannon, made in the garage before the Laugh-O-Gram company ran out of the Pictorial Clubs money.
Music
Silent.
Preservation
A print survives. The Laugh-O-Gram fairy tales were recovered with the help of the Walt Disney Archives, MoMA, and the Library of Congress.
Notes
- Julius the Cat is the one who fishes and the one who rides the cannonball.
- The swordfish, not a robber, is what cuts the tree down.
- The San Francisco Silent Film Festival notes a gag of musical notes used to lure fish.
- Disney's camera stand at the time was a plank across four-by-fours, with a Universal camera.
- Prints survived through work by collectors with the Walt Disney Archives, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Library of Congress.
Scenes
- The swordfish cuts the tree the four are hiding in.
- Julius detaches his tail and clubs the criminals while riding a cannonball.
Influenced by
- Grimm's The Town Musicians of Bremen
Also available
- Internet Archive (FourMusiciansOfBremen)
- Wikimedia Commons (The Four Musicians of Bremen (1922).webm)
