Summer - January 16, 1930

6th in the Silly Symphonies series is Summer. This film is akin to the previous Springtime and features various insects engaging in their summer activities.


The toon opens with a merry caterpillar in what appears to be perhaps a garden. He is soon joined by three more caterpillars who emerge from a fallen apple.



The quartet of caterpillars begin to dance and play to the music. This dancing is of course very common in Iwerks/Disney cartoons. Nothing new here, but still enjoyable. Once the dancing is over, the caterpillars disappear inside their cocoons.



Out of the cocoons come two butterflies who travel from flower to flower in search of sweet nectar.


The butterflies soon come upon a stick bug who manages to scare them away. The stick bug does a few interesting stiff dance moves before it falls off its branch and into the water.


From there, the action then focuses to four water bugs. These bugs seem like figure skaters as they glide swiftly across the surface of the water.


One thing I do enjoy about this toon is the easy flow it has. The action flows perfectly from one insect to another.



Soon a giant dragonfly flies across the lake with an adventurous and musical ladybug in tow.


The action then shifts to a pair of dung beetles gathering together a dung ball. All goes well until a giant hill causes the ball to tumble.


The dung ball tumbles down the hill and bursts against a dirt wall to reveal a group of beetles.


The beetles dance and spin around the clearing like mythical nymphs.


Out of nowhere a flower springs up from the ground and opens to reveal a quartet of flies.


After the flies dance for a bit, the flower wilts. The flies leave to find another fun activity.


Soon the flies find a sleeping spider and decide to have some fun. They each take a corner of the web and move off to a nearby clearing.


The flies decide to bounce the spider up and down and wake him up. Surprised, the spide awakes suddenly.


The laugh of course is on the flies as the tables are turned. The spider attaches its web to a tree branch and devours each and every fly for disturbing his slumber.


In the end, the spider celebrates his impromptu lunch. As he jumps for joy, the tree leaves fall all around him and the toon ends.


Summer is an entertaining toon, but really is not very remarkable. Just a year prior, the stellar toons The Haunted House and Mickey's Choo-Choo premiered. It's a shame Summer fails to live up to its predecessors' quality.