ChikPapa
Very disappointed :(
Teringer
An Exercise In Nonsense
ChanFamous
I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.
Robert Reynolds
This is a short from the Silly Symphonies series released by Disney. There will be spoilers ahead:In many ways, this short is basically just one of a dozen similar ones, where the short is differentiated by the locale. This is essentially Frolicking Fish in the Arctic with only a few minor variants. The animation is excellent and most of the gags are enjoyable. There isn't a whole lot of novelty here.The short opens with critters (mostly polar bears) frolic on ice floes. There's a polar bear cub which yips like a dog as it jumps from floe to older polar bear and then into the water.Then you see seals and a walrus or two and more dancing, frolicking and music. The best bit here is a seal trying the patience of a walrus enormously by using him as an instrument. We're treated to "singing" as well.We close with penguins, moving mostly in unison, save for one who's rather out of sync. Cute, but nothing special.This short is available on the Disney Treasures More Silly Symphonies DVD set and both this and the set are recommended.
TheLittleSongbird
I have always enjoyed Disney Silly Symphonies, and while I did like Arctic Antics I don't consider it one of their masterpieces. It is nice, but not really anything to rave about. It does lack cohesion, if you're willing to forget that polar bears and penguins live on the other side of the world and that polar bears eat penguins you'll be fine, if not then that's my point. The cartoon doesn't really have any story to speak of and doesn't really get going pace-wise until the penguins are introduced and apart from the major set piece it's basically just nice to watch but not much else or new. However the animation is of the fluid and smooth kind, with the way a seal is drawn while underwater, the music is of great energy and sounds absolutely beautiful and the dancing while not as inspired as other Silly Symphonies is well choreographed with some very interesting use of motion such as animals floating in the foreground and others staying put in the background. The characters are very cute too, I especially liked the Mickey Mouse-like polar bear. All in all, not a special cartoon or a masterpiece, but nice all the same. 7/10 Bethany Cox
MartinHafer
Okay, I have to get this off my chest. Why did Disney put polar bears and penguins together? Not only would the bears eat the penguins, but they come from completely opposite parts of the world! Yes, I know that Coke also puts these two critters together but in the wild this would never happen. Trust me on this folks.Now that I have gotten this off my chest, let's get to the film "Arctic Antics". It's a very good black & white cartoon from Disney marketed under the 'Silly Symphonies' label. These were generally very sweet little cartoons with lots of critters dancing about to the music---and not the familiar sort of characters like Mickey and Donald. In the case of this film, lots of cute animals dance about in the frozen North--all accompanied by the usual sort of musical score. While the animation is not among the company's best, it is quite enjoyable and gets points for being quite cute without being cloying. Well worth seeing.
Ron Oliver
A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.The denizens of the North Pole are engaged in ARCTIC ANTICS. The penguins, seals, polar bear, and even a large walrus are marching about, jumping & dancing & slapping their bottoms an amazing number of times...This black & white cartoon has an invisible plot and is basically an exercise in action/reaction animation. The Disney animators seem to know a curiously large number of posterior gags. Notice that the face of the polar bear cub enjoys a remarkable resemblance to that of Mickey Mouse.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.
