Little Hiawatha

Little Hiawatha
Silly Symphonies series
Directed by David Hand
Produced by Walt Disney
Music by Albert Hay Malotte
Animation by Dick Huemer
Charles Thorson
Ollie Johnston
Fred Moore
Frank Thomas
Studio Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by United Artists
Buena Vista Distribution (Reissued)
Release date(s)
  • May 15, 1937 (1937-05-15)
(USA)
Color process Technicolor
Country United States
Language English
Preceded by Woodland Café
Followed by The Old Mill

Little Hiawatha (also called Hiawatha) is a 1937 animated cartoon produced by Walt Disney, inspired by the poem The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The animated short appears on the Gold Collection DVD of Pocahontas II: Journey to a New World and the 2012 Blu-ray of Walt Disney's Pocahontas. It is the last Silly Symphony to be released by United Artists.

Synopsis

Over opening narration, a Native American boy named Little Hiawatha is seen paddling his canoe down a river — at one point backwards — on his way to hunt game. Upon reaching land, he steps out and immediately falls down a hidden hole in the water, bringing about the laughter of the animals in the forest. Hiawatha gives chase to them — with his pants often falling down as the cartoon's running gag.

Hiawatha pursues a grasshopper, but is foiled when it spits in his face, much to the amusement of the other animals. He chases them again and manages to corner a baby rabbit on a tree stump; he finds, however, that he cannot bring himself to kill it, especially when it repeatedly gives him sad glances, and even after he arms it with a spare bow and arrow. Frustrated, he shoos it back to its family and then breaks his bow and arrow, to the animals' great delight.

Shortly afterwards, Hiawatha comes across a set of bear tracks, which leads him to a face-to-face encounter with a bear cub. He chases after it, but runs into the cub's protective mother, who aggressively chases him through the forest. In gratitude for Hiawatha sparing their lives, the other animals band together to keep him out of the bear's clutches, including raccoons using a vine to trip the bear, opossums flinging Hiawatha through the air, and beavers cutting down trees in the bear's path, among other things. Finally returned safely to his canoe, Hiawatha rows off into the sunset as the animals gather together and bid him farewell.

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