Simply enough, eight legs would be more work to animate. Call it artistic license. Animator Ray Harryhausen's classic "It Came From Beneath The Sea" featured a giant octopus that was actually more of a pentapus since it only had five tentacles. Same issue. Guess they figured audiences wouldn't notice or would just understand and suspend disbelief.
The two things that made me laugh the most about this were the gloves and shoes on the spider and the fact that the mummies had trapdoors in the back :)
Funny to think this entertained children back In the day when I couldn't make my five year old brother sit through it for more than 30 seconds. In my opinion, these cartoons are much better then our cartoons now days XD
Virtually all cartoons were made for adults until about the late 1950's. Theres a reason our grandparents love tom and jerry... all the soldiers in WW2 watched cartoon films overseas all the time!
Brynn Bowen yO I’m 16 and I used to love silly symphony when I was 5-6, and I can’t thank my mom enough cause I couldn’t have gotten a better childhood 🙂
these old cartoons had more of a charm to it, but there's no denying that some of the great cartoons that were made these years had more interesting stories
124VAM I call bullshit. the internet is full of stereotypical egyptians and dancing mummys. the only thing that has changed is that is not disney that's behind it anymore. they to busy now, with polishing there already over fed golden goose, until every last glimpse of golden flake in its fathers is scraped off and sold off. leaving nothing behind but the bar mechanical gray skeleton, with its cold and metallic surface and soul less eyes. as lifeless as its creator is R.I.P.W.D.
+Alaska1925 But spiders have 8 legs .... this guy has 6 ... maybe when this was made attention wasn't given all it was due ... who knows ... i took the character as a spider too
Maybe so - didn't spot that - but it is interesting that scientific PC wasn't important - the emotive was (and that's the way it should be) gotta say I love this .... would love to see a modern rendition to compare and I bet the message wouldn't even come close in the same time frame or budget ... a simpler time and a better time if you ask me because people had time and political correctness or intellectual overload wasn't even on the cards ... today ... our society is an ass by comparison ... Kudos Alaska and thanks for replying
kanages murugan I think he did say 'mummy.' It was a spoof of Al Jolson's performance of the song "My Mammy" which Jolson and others had been singing since 19 teens and which became very famous in the movie The Jazz Singer (1927) when Jolson sang it in blackface, hence 'Mammy'. It was a big hit, and that movie is the first US movie with synchronized sound, but only in parts. It's here on YT and I am pretty sure Jolson also went down on his knees and spread his arms to the audience like the Spider.
@@gnikcohs I didn't realize it was a parody of Al Jolson singing "Mammy" in "The Jazz Singer." Come to think of it, the spider's face did look somewhat like a white man in blackface, which is how Jolson sometimes performed. You'll notice how "mummy" not only sounds like "mammy," but "mommy," as well, and that's the joke. It's a pun, or a play on words. It reminds me of an episode of "Arthur" (PBS) where Buster tells the following joke: "What did King Tut say when he was scared? 'I want my MUMMY!' "
Watching some cartoons with an Egyptian motif, just came back to watch this little gem again. I didn't realize that the Spider was so audience aware. He shushes the audience and gesticulates for us, or the camera, to follow him, and when he points and laughs while turning to us. Don't know if it is the first time, but if so, once again, DIsney did it first. Although Tex Avery did it best.
gnikcohs I think Felix the Cat was the first to wink and laugh at the audience while things happened, though I don't think he ever beckoned us to follow him.
I don't know why I never replied to this but, Felix was definitely one to break the 4th wall. He did some great stuff like that in his old comic strips too. Cartoons and comic strips were way ahead of most mainstream art for the metafictional.
The first of ALL who broke the 4th wall, was Luigi Pirandello, an Italian writer, who was historically the first of all. The Cartoons were inspired by him, a Verism Writer who talked with the readers
There was a 3D maze screensaver that came with Windows 95 and 98, which gave a first-person POV of going through a maze. The user could control what the walls, floor, and ceiling looked like, with different patterns. A common one was similar to what a level of Wolfenstein 3D looked like, but there was also a psychedelic setting as well.
5:24 is probably the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life. *Looks to the left to see moving paintings* *Looks to the right to see moving paintings* *Turns around* AAAIIIEE-
The camera as a subjective pov, like, inviting us to enter the chamber with it, the immersion, the perspective through the tunnels and stairs, how smooth these cartoons are... I mean... This is gold guys! 😍 So inventive and ahead of its time!
This short is so good, especially at the time it was made. I think it was 1931. I might be wrong but that’s ok! The spider is also so adorable! The animation itself is perfect. I miss this time of animation/cartoons. Wish we could bring it back. ALSO this may seem out of context but I can’t with the cut off of the spiders scream at 5:24😭
Silly #21 1931. Brilliantly thought out and executed cartoon. The 3D video game tunnels were outstanding. Disney reused it in a much shorter version, in 1933 in The Mad Doctor (including the falling stone), but here the extended scene was a major part of the toon. And not only was it visually powerful, it was a brilliant exposition of the Spider as a strange, adventurous, little character. The part where he tumbled down the stairs and scampered back up to walk down again with his weird little gait was perfect. And who is he shushing? The following scenes with the mummies are great, but the animation really takes off at 3:21 when the wall and pillar drawings take on a life of their own and become a sustained cartoon within a cartoon. The two dimensional gait (with one guy sashaying) of the sideways Egyptian figures was a hilarious piece of genius animation as was one of them stepping briefly into the 3D world and only being onesided. The whole thing turned into a masterful over the top climax with the flat figures going round and round on cylinders and all of it spinning. That Spider reminded me of Gus Arriola's six legged beatnik psychedilc webslinger, Bug Rogers. Like in Fantasia one could speculate on what the animators here were imbibing (maybe just imagination) and this Spider also seemed to be an artist, playing his web (Bug made visual art with his) and certainly psychedelic in his behavior/character.
I can't believe I never answered this but. 1) I have seen a million cartoons but without making myself an expert. And I often read professional and nonprofessional material about cartoons. And 2) I do know a fair amount about literature, painting, and film. Again without being an expert, but if ever I get ambitious enough I think I know enough to blog with a fairly original POV. I rarely get as carried away as with this little gem though.
@gnikcohs Hey man, I'd like to ask if you know how the tunnel animations were done? When I first saw this I had already seen hundreds of pre 1950s cartoons and this one really blew my mind. It looks so real even though the texture is obviously far from reality. It kinda reminds me of rotoscoped Cab Calloway so I thought they might've "rotoscoped" a camera movement through a corridor and used fix points in the video to put their animation on?
Wouldn't it be cool if they remastered this into some sort of ride? Y'know, like that Spiderman 3D ride in Universal? They could show this original piece as you're waiting to get on. I'd love it!
Notice how the opening title says the film is licensed under the Bray-Hurd Patents. John Bray and Earl Hurd invented the process of using cels in animation. Before that process was invented, the background had to be redrawn on every animation drawing. This is why early animated films have such simple backgrounds. Bray and Hurd patented their process, and charged a licence fee to anyone who wanted to use it.
I'm surprised how macabre some of these old cartoons could be the descent into the pyramid tunnel. WOW. I didn't expect that. That seems really ahead of the game for 1930s...
Very nice 3d effects. looks almost rotoscoped except when the spider turns corners. Still very well done, especially when the walls and columns have animated textures and the camera is rotating. insane amount of work for old school.
I was just thinking the same thing. That sort of animation where the spider is going down the steps is the kind of animation you never see today or any time in between. That scene must have wowwed audiences back then.
Surrealism and Ancient Egypt, two of my many favorite things! :D Yeah, I've always been fascinated with surrealism, including Dali as well as cartoons. Also, Ancient Egypt has always been my favorite ancient culture. Did you know that their idea of the afterlife was an exact copy of their own life, except with no pain, illness, or death (obviously)? Imagine having a life so perfect that your afterlife turns out to be the same, definitely proves that the Ancient Egyptians did many things right.
i was walking through a store in Disneyland (Walt Disney Studios area) and this was being projected on the wall. i didnt end up buying anything i just stood there and watched the cartoon. Eventually i did buy something but most of the time it was just me standing there watching this cartoon
animating the hallway scene must have taken a freaking eternity
The animation on the 3D animated walls was absolutely incredible for its time.
3d did not exist in the 30s
They only spent hours animating in 2d walls that look like 3d
mickey mouse reuses the same animation
Seeing the angles of the tunnel reminds me how hard it was to make a cartoon back then.
They adopted rotoscoping from max fletcher studio at the time
@@DoctorEdgarMcQuack Fleischer*
Tiny and winy Tiny and the other day
They also did it in The Mad Doctor in 1933.
all of these silly symphonys are really ahead of there time.
Or maybe it's just us who have the wrong idea about their time
The spider is adorable.
why is it like a bug instead of an arachnid?
Birth defects?
Simply enough, eight legs would be more work to animate. Call it artistic license.
Animator Ray Harryhausen's classic "It Came From Beneath The Sea" featured a giant octopus that was actually more of a pentapus since it only had five tentacles. Same issue. Guess they figured audiences wouldn't notice or would just understand and suspend disbelief.
+Charles Molineaux Same when most cartoon characters have four-fingered hands instead of five.
I wonder where the spider buys his shoes?
The two things that made me laugh the most about this were the gloves and shoes on the spider and the fact that the mummies had trapdoors in the back :)
There holes like in pajamas so you can poop without taking them off
@@SQUIDWORD15 I don’t know if I should laugh, cry, or scream at this knowledge I have gained
@@LanternIsARainwing It is the truth...
1:12 the same tunnel from Mickey Mouse - The Mad Doctor 1933
Kacper Wróblewski Monday night definitely mouse
It's the opposite ... Egyptian Melodies came first in 1931. The tunnel animation is re-used in The Mad Doctor (1933)
Yes , it's the same one. They used this film slide on that animation. [Damn, sorry...old comment.just saw that.]
The tunnel looked almost real.
I knew it looked familiar
Animation back then was pretty amazing I must say, for instance the 4th wall with the spider, the camera angle going down the sarcofagus, etc.
It was much "smoother" too.
Funny to think this entertained children back In the day when I couldn't make my five year old brother sit through it for more than 30 seconds. In my opinion, these cartoons are much better then our cartoons now days XD
Brynn Bowen
kids today have adhd
Virtually all cartoons were made for adults until about the late 1950's. Theres a reason our grandparents love tom and jerry... all the soldiers in WW2 watched cartoon films overseas all the time!
Brynn Bowen yO I’m 16 and I used to love silly symphony when I was 5-6, and I can’t thank my mom enough cause I couldn’t have gotten a better childhood 🙂
Although this episode kinda creeped me out I still enjoyed it, man I was a weird kid haha
these old cartoons had more of a charm to it, but there's no denying that some of the great cartoons that were made these years had more interesting stories
The camera angles are unbelievable.
Feels like I'm going through the Death Star trench all over again, in the tunnel part.
We don't get cartoons like this anymore.
Unfortunately.
124VAM I call bullshit.
the internet is full of stereotypical egyptians and dancing mummys.
the only thing that has changed is that is not disney that's behind it anymore.
they to busy now, with polishing there already over fed golden goose, until every last glimpse of golden flake in its fathers is scraped off and sold off.
leaving nothing behind but the bar mechanical gray skeleton, with its cold and metallic surface and soul less eyes.
as lifeless as its creator is R.I.P.W.D.
tps live toon action?
I love how they depicted the fans at the chariot race fighting. chariot races DID cause revolts and fights in ancient history!
Who cares it’s a cartoon give us a break max vieralilja
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
This cartoon is notable for the irony of a spider basically going "nope".
If only spiders were that cute..
+Alaska1925 But spiders have 8 legs .... this guy has 6 ... maybe when this was made attention wasn't given all it was due ... who knows ... i took the character as a spider too
Constuctive Critisism Well, we see its web in the beginning.. maybe the animator/s didn't want to draw an extra pair of legs? Though I find it odd..
Maybe so - didn't spot that - but it is interesting that scientific PC wasn't important - the emotive was (and that's the way it should be) gotta say I love this .... would love to see a modern rendition to compare and I bet the message wouldn't even come close in the same time frame or budget ... a simpler time and a better time if you ask me because people had time and political correctness or intellectual overload wasn't even on the cards ... today ... our society is an ass by comparison ... Kudos Alaska and thanks for replying
+Alaska1925 Apparently, it's a lot cheaper to animate fewer legs, so it was probably to cut costs. I've heard that anyway.
+Alaska1925 They are.
The spider in this short is just so cute, I can’t even resist him! I wish he made several appearances in other classic Silly Symphony cartoons!
Exceptionally made, especially for its time! Love the detail of the Sphinx and the perspective of him coming up and down the tunnel/stairs.
2:39 Who knew that ANCIENT and BANDAGED mummies can bust a dance moves that smooth and groovy without breaking their bindings :-)
It's cute how the spider said 'mommy'
I think the critter said "mummy".
kanages murugan I think he did say 'mummy.' It was a spoof of Al Jolson's performance of the song "My Mammy" which Jolson and others had been singing since 19 teens and which became very famous in the movie The Jazz Singer (1927) when Jolson sang it in blackface, hence 'Mammy'. It was a big hit, and that movie is the first US movie with synchronized sound, but only in parts. It's here on YT and I am pretty sure Jolson also went down on his knees and spread his arms to the audience like the Spider.
Thank you guys, I guess I heard it wrong. gnikcohs thanks for the history :)
@@gnikcohs I didn't realize it was a parody of Al Jolson singing "Mammy" in "The Jazz Singer." Come to think of it, the spider's face did look somewhat like a white man in blackface, which is how Jolson sometimes performed.
You'll notice how "mummy" not only sounds like "mammy," but "mommy," as well, and that's the joke. It's a pun, or a play on words.
It reminds me of an episode of "Arthur" (PBS) where Buster tells the following joke:
"What did King Tut say when he was scared?
'I want my MUMMY!' "
Damn I’m Latino so I really in my youth I thought he said “Mami!”
I feel so bad for that little spider! He's so scared! I wanna give him a big comforting hug!
The mummies having there legs tied together was more realistic than most depictions.
I heard they took the brains out of mummies too, through their noses.
I don't want realistic.
It's a cartoon...
Oh my goodness. I used to watch this years ago as a child…❤
Best Parts:
5:02
5:17
5:24
5:25
In real life, I hate spiders but in this cartoon, I love!!!
6 legs, not 8. it's not an actual spider ;D
aa bb Kinda silly, imao.
Its so cute
So much more amazing when done by hand.
This deserves to be coloured in.
Fantastic hand- done animation- when Disney was in his prime- none of the new stuff compares!
Watching some cartoons with an Egyptian motif, just came back to watch this little gem again. I didn't realize that the Spider was so audience aware. He shushes the audience and gesticulates for us, or the camera, to follow him, and when he points and laughs while turning to us. Don't know if it is the first time, but if so, once again, DIsney did it first. Although Tex Avery did it best.
gnikcohs I think Felix the Cat was the first to wink and laugh at the audience while things happened, though I don't think he ever beckoned us to follow him.
I don't know why I never replied to this but, Felix was definitely one to break the 4th wall. He did some great stuff like that in his old comic strips too. Cartoons and comic strips were way ahead of most mainstream art for the metafictional.
The first of ALL who broke the 4th wall, was Luigi Pirandello, an Italian writer, who was historically the first of all. The Cartoons were inspired by him, a Verism Writer who talked with the readers
So this is how Windows got the idea of their wall-screensaver.. ^^
+Backofen Pommes I was just going to post that very thing LOL
I don't get it? I was thinking more of the corridors and hallways of the game Wolfenstien. :P
There was a 3D maze screensaver that came with Windows 95 and 98, which gave a first-person POV of going through a maze. The user could control what the walls, floor, and ceiling looked like, with different patterns. A common one was similar to what a level of Wolfenstein 3D looked like, but there was also a psychedelic setting as well.
5:24 is probably the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.
*Looks to the left to see moving paintings*
*Looks to the right to see moving paintings*
*Turns around*
AAAIIIEE-
5:24
I want an Egyptian one piece mummy suit with a butt flap now XD.
That needs to be a thing
Step 1: Go to egypt
Step 2: Go to an acient pyramid or tomb
Step 3: Consume a large quantity of LSD and you will se this shit.
+DemonicGoat lmao?
Gotta love how the dancers had 1 cymbal on each hand and 1 on their butts. Funny stuff, yo!😆
The camera as a subjective pov, like, inviting us to enter the chamber with it, the immersion, the perspective through the tunnels and stairs, how smooth these cartoons are... I mean... This is gold guys! 😍 So inventive and ahead of its time!
you know what's ironic. the old shows like this has much more animated than the modern shows.
what a work!! timeless classic..love it!
It was already in 3D ! Amazing effects!
that was better than today's cartoons
Woah!!! That part going down the staircase and when the brick falls was so crazy, i was stunned! 🤯
Oh that poor spider lol, the poor thing. But a nicely done piece...and just to think I never knew of this yet.
This was simply brilliant.
This is way much more epic than cartoons created nowadays.
2017.....eh
I am and always was addicted to this
Follow the spiders... why can't we follow the butterflies?
Aragog!
Lol, Harry Potter references! XD
I like this one cause of the music
This short is so good, especially at the time it was made. I think it was 1931. I might be wrong but that’s ok! The spider is also so adorable! The animation itself is perfect. I miss this time of animation/cartoons. Wish we could bring it back. ALSO this may seem out of context but I can’t with the cut off of the spiders scream at 5:24😭
😅😅😅😅 lmao the spiders scream! 😂🤣🤣
Mommy's have butt flaps 😂😂😂😂 God i miss old cartoons
Don't the spiders have 8 legs?
1:12 this scene just like Mickey mouse episode "Mad Doctor"
Egyptian Melodies came first in 1931. The tunnel animation is re-used in The Mad Doctor (1933)
The DOOM-like perspective was truly visionary.
"Mummy"!!!! :)
Do you think it's sometimes a little scary .
Image watching this while high....
Silly #21 1931. Brilliantly thought out and executed cartoon. The 3D video game tunnels were outstanding. Disney reused it in a much shorter version, in 1933 in The Mad Doctor (including the falling stone), but here the extended scene was a major part of the toon. And not only was it visually powerful, it was a brilliant exposition of the Spider as a strange, adventurous, little character. The part where he tumbled down the stairs and scampered back up to walk down again with his weird little gait was perfect. And who is he shushing? The following scenes with the mummies are great, but the animation really takes off at 3:21 when the wall and pillar drawings take on a life of their own and become a sustained cartoon within a cartoon. The two dimensional gait (with one guy sashaying) of the sideways Egyptian figures was a hilarious piece of genius animation as was one of them stepping briefly into the 3D world and only being onesided. The whole thing turned into a masterful over the top climax with the flat figures going round and round on cylinders and all of it spinning.
That Spider reminded me of Gus Arriola's six legged beatnik psychedilc webslinger, Bug Rogers. Like in Fantasia one could speculate on what the animators here were imbibing (maybe just imagination) and this Spider also seemed to be an artist, playing his web (Bug made visual art with his) and certainly psychedelic in his behavior/character.
How do you know so much about cartoons?
Jonathan Wilson watch them all :D
I can't believe I never answered this but. 1) I have seen a million cartoons but without making myself an expert. And I often read professional and nonprofessional material about cartoons. And 2) I do know a fair amount about literature, painting, and film. Again without being an expert, but if ever I get ambitious enough I think I know enough to blog with a fairly original POV.
I rarely get as carried away as with this little gem though.
@gnikcohs Hey man, I'd like to ask if you know how the tunnel animations were done? When I first saw this I had already seen hundreds of pre 1950s cartoons and this one really blew my mind. It looks so real even though the texture is obviously far from reality. It kinda reminds me of rotoscoped Cab Calloway so I thought they might've "rotoscoped" a camera movement through a corridor and used fix points in the video to put their animation on?
The mummys feet remind me of an elephant trying to find food on the floor
f
u
c
k
@@ImCrazyWoo Fuck
Wouldn't it be cool if they remastered this into some sort of ride? Y'know, like that Spiderman 3D ride in Universal? They could show this original piece as you're waiting to get on. I'd love it!
That is getting crazier and crazier every instant.
So scary it even scares the spiders.
I remember this omg so happy I found this 😭😃
This is so amazing! :)
i love silly symphony cartoons they were simple lovely & full of messages
I just love the way one of the marchers accidentally becomes 3 dimensional and then goes back on the wall to become 2 dimensional again
Notice how the opening title says the film is licensed under the Bray-Hurd Patents. John Bray and Earl Hurd invented the process of using cels in animation. Before that process was invented, the background had to be redrawn on every animation drawing. This is why early animated films have such simple backgrounds.
Bray and Hurd patented their process, and charged a licence fee to anyone who wanted to use it.
The animation in this cartoon is amazing particularly the technical aspects of it.
I like the Egyptians in the wall
I love this!
I was hoping for more
what an awesome 3D-like effect!!!
I found this vid!!! Finally! I remember this from so long ago
3:27 prince of Egypt inspiration
man I'll be honest this was way ahead of it's time!
This is so well technically executed its hard to believe the year it came out
5:24 I love that little scream
5:24
The way it cuts off lol
Wow, this animation is incredible! :o
YES!!!!!❤❤❤
Also the dance that the mummies do is a sand dance.
1:22 OMG! these just so amazing!!
I'm 11 and i love these cartoons so much.
These are great
The only thing I could stare at in Walt Disney Studios' merchandise store :P
I'm surprised how macabre some of these old cartoons could be
the descent into the pyramid tunnel. WOW. I didn't expect that. That seems really ahead of the game for 1930s...
Full of enjoyment.
Very nice 3d effects. looks almost rotoscoped except when the spider turns corners. Still very well done, especially when the walls and columns have animated textures and the camera is rotating. insane amount of work for old school.
love it
amazing!
I was just thinking the same thing. That sort of animation where the spider is going down the steps is the kind of animation you never see today or any time in between. That scene must have wowwed audiences back then.
Very Cute Little Spider
so cool
i love most of these old cartoons
you´re right! impressive!
Surrealism and Ancient Egypt, two of my many favorite things! :D Yeah, I've always been fascinated with surrealism, including Dali as well as cartoons. Also, Ancient Egypt has always been my favorite ancient culture. Did you know that their idea of the afterlife was an exact copy of their own life, except with no pain, illness, or death (obviously)? Imagine having a life so perfect that your afterlife turns out to be the same, definitely proves that the Ancient Egyptians did many things right.
God as a 15 year old whos been obbsessed with thr 40s and 50s his whole life this is awesome
This stuff was ancient even when I was little - but I still enjoy it.
Господиииии! Как я обажаю эти мультики! Просто. Всё детство смотрела их.
I loved it when it said, "mummy"!!
MY CHILDHOOD AHHHH😍😍😍
Классный паук с 6ю ногами🤣 и юмор 👍
1:31 was also used in The Mad Doctor.
que lindos estan estos monitos, sobre todo la arañita gritando: 'mummies' o algo asi, simpatiquisimos
i was walking through a store in Disneyland (Walt Disney Studios area) and this was being projected on the wall. i didnt end up buying anything i just stood there and watched the cartoon. Eventually i did buy something but most of the time it was just me standing there watching this cartoon
the 3d camera impressed me
Hey T it's Reggie keep up, we watching you always
HOLY CRAP I REMEMBER WATCHING THIS AS A KID (I’m seventeen)
I want these cartoons back...