NFR Project: 'Flowers and Trees' (1932)

NFR Project: ‘Flowers and Trees’

Dir: Burt Gillett

Scr: N/A

Pho: Ray Rennahan

Ed: N/A

Premiere: July 30, 1932

7:50

Walt Disney was smart. He was always looking for innovations, looking to be first. He did so with the first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie, in 1928. He did so again here with the first three-strip Technicolor cartoon, Flowers and Trees.

The three-strip color system was a huge advance on the older two-strip process, which read only in the red and green range. Disney signed an exclusive deal with Technicolor to use their new process for three years. He switched Flowers and Trees from black-and-white to color, markedly increasing his budget. Fortunately, the cartoon was a commercial and critical success, earning an Oscar for Best Cartoon Short Subject.

The film is relatively simple. The trees and flowers awaken. A young male tree courts a young female tree, incurring the wrath of an old, stumpy tree. The old tree starts a fire in spite, which every creature save the old tree itself escapes. Then the boy tree and the girl tree get engaged.

Now, depending on your attitude toward life you will either find this to be either enchanting or nightmare fuel. Disney films consistently take a light, sunny tone, and this one is no exception. Charming, anthropomorphic plants and animals would become Disney’s stock in trade.

The NFR is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Freaks.