The Grasshopper and the Ants (film)

The Grasshopper and the Ants is a 1934 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists. Part of the Silly Symphonies series, the film is an adaptation of The Ant and the Grasshopper, one of Aesop's Fables. It was directed by Wilfred Jackson and stars Pinto Colvig as the voice of the grasshopper "Hop."[1]

The Grasshopper and the Ants
Title card.
Directed byWilfred Jackson
Produced byWalt Disney
Story byBill Cottrell
StarringPinto Colvig
Music byLeigh Harline
Animation byArt Babbitt
Dick Huemer
Albert Hurter
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • February 10, 1934 (1934-02-10)
(USA)
Running time
8 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The film introduced the song "The World Owes Me a Living" (later "I Owe the World a Living") by Leigh Harline and Larry Morey,[2] which later became associated with the character Goofy who was also voiced by Colvig. According to Leonard Maltin on the Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies DVD, this was an early example of the idea of having a character turn blue with cold, when full-spectrum Technicolor was still new at the time.

Plot
Hop entertains the ant colony after they take him in during the winter

The grasshopper is playing his fiddle, dancing and eating leaves. He notices some ants working hard collecting food. He laughs and calls an ant to him. He tells the ant that there is food on every tree and he sees no reason to work. He dances and sings that The world owes us a living. The ant begins to dance too. The queen ant arrives, carried in a sedan chair, and sees the ant playing instead of working. The ant notices the queen and immediately goes back to work. The angry queen warns the grasshopper that he will change his tune when winter comes. The grasshopper blithely dismisses the queen's warning, saying that winter is a long way off.

Autumn passes and winter arrives. The grasshopper trudges through the snow, cold and hungry. He finds one withered leaf, but it blows away before he can eat it. Meanwhile, the ants are feasting on their stored food. The grasshopper knocks on their door and collapses. The ants carry him inside and warm and feed him. The queen ant approaches him. He begs to be allowed to stay. She tells him that only those who work may stay, and tells him to take his fiddle. Thinking that he is being dismissed, he starts to leave, but the queen tells him to play the fiddle. While the ants dance, he happily plays and sings I owe the world a living!

Home media

The short was released three times on DVD, the first time on Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies in 2001, then on Walt Disney's Timeless Tales Volume 1 in 2005 and again on Walt Disney Animation Collection: Classic Short Films Volume 5: Wind in the Willows in 2009.

It was released on Blu-Ray in both 2009 and 2016 as a bonus feature on A Bug's Life.

Voices

References
  1. Merritt, Russell; Kaufman, J. B. (2016). Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (2nd ed.). Glendale, CA: Disney Editions. pp. 140–141. ISBN 978-1-4847-5132-9.
  2. "WORLD OWES ME A LIVING". ASCAP. Retrieved January 12, 2018.
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