#740) The Old Mill (1937)

The Plot: As the sun sets on an idyllic farmland, an assortment of birds and frogs and crickets begin to inhabit the night. When a summer storm suddenly arrives, the animals take shelter in a nearby abandoned mill. What this Disney short lacks in story and character it more than makes up for with its artistry and breakthrough technology.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up is mostly a rehash of the film’s technical achievements: the multiplane camera, plus realistic lighting design and animal movement. The film’s visuals are hailed as “dazzling” and Leigh Harline’s score is declared “compelling”.

But Does It Really?: I’m putting this in the same category as “Flowers and Trees”, a decent Disney short whose NFR worthiness is solely technical. There’s nothing wrong with “The Old Mill”, but its technological advances have been so far surpassed that they are no longer part of the film’s entertainment value. And while the realistic animal depictions are commendable, it leaves us without any memorable characters (at least the realistic animals of “Bambi” could talk). Despite my issues, “The Old Mill” is a quick, visually engaging entry in the Disney canon; not so much a cartoon you can watch and enjoy, but more like a moving painting you can view and admire. I understand and support the film’s NFR induction, but I’m not over the moon about it either.

Everybody Gets One: Not his only NFR movie, but shoutout to this film’s director Wilfred Jackson. Freshly graduated from L.A.’s Otis Art Institute in 1928, Jackson got his start at Disney as a volunteer helping custodial wash animation cels. Jackson quickly rose up the ranks, directing early Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphony shorts by 1929. “The Old Mill” was Jackson’s 51^st Disney short as a director, which he worked on concurrently with his responsibilities as one of the five sequence directors on “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”.

Seriously, Oscars?: Since the inception of Best Short Subject – Cartoons at the Oscars in 1932, Disney had a lock on the category, winning every year for the first eight years; “The Old Mill” was the sixth short in this winning streak. Academy rules at the time gave the award to the producer, not the director, which meant Walt took home his seventh career Oscar with this win, while Wilfred Jackson received zero nominations, despite directing three consecutive Oscar-winning shorts (preceded by “The Tortoise and the Hare” and “The Country Cousin”). The NFR write-up mentions that the multiplane camera also received a technical Oscar, but I couldn’t find anything to back that up.

• The music that bookends the short is the song “One Day When We Were Young”, written by Johann Strauss for his 1885 operetta “The Gypsy Baron”. We are definitely hitting the “Symphony” part of this “Silly Symphony”.
• To the best of my knowledge, the frog croaking is provided by Clarence Nash, who at that point had been with the studio a few years supplying his trademark animal noises. Despite being a voiceover in seven different NFR titles, Nash has yet to have one movie on the list where he voices his most iconic character: Donald Duck.
• Yeah, not much else I have to say about “The Old Mill”. It’s beautiful to look at, and I love the score, especially the wind sounds as the storm intensifies, but this isn’t one of my favorites. I enjoyed seeing this film again after all these years, but it’ll be a while before I watch “The Old Mill” by choice rather than by my self-imposed film blog obligation.