Walt Disney Records and Fairfax Classics have revealed all 8 covers from The Silly Symphony Collection. The Silly Symphony Collection is a first-of-its-kind box set featuring the complete restored soundtracks from all 75 Silly Symphony shorts from 1929-1939, with more than 8 hours of music over 16 vinyl LPs. The box set is available for pre-order at Disney Music Emporium, www.sillysymphonycollection.com.
Less than a year after Mickey Mouse’s debut in Steamboat Willie, the Walt Disney Studio embarked on a decade-long series of music-driven shorts whose breakthroughs would forever change the direction of animation and would have a massive impact on popular culture. The 75 cartoons – called Silly Symphonies – pioneered “three-strip” Technicolor, introduced Donald Duck, and created a pop music phenomenon with “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” They won seven Academy Awards® for Best Short Subject (Cartoon) between 1932 and 1939.
The limited edition collection is housed in 8 tip-on gatefold jackets with original animation art in a beautifully constructed foil-stamped and numbered slipcase. Soundtracks of Disney classics such as The Skeleton Dance by Carl Stalling, Three Little Pigs by Frank Churchill, and Donald Duck’s debut The Wise Little Hen by Leigh Harline will be presented in full for the first time ever on record. Each gatefold jacket includes detailed liner notes for every short by Disney historians J.B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt, authors of the definitive book on the series, Walt Disney’s Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series.
The Silly Symphony Collection will include a free digital download with purchase of the box set and will retail for $399.98. Each guest who pre-orders The Silly Symphony Collection will receive a free limited edition 10” vinyl single featuring “The Skeleton Dance” on the A side and “Three Little Pigs” on the B side.
Noted documentary director Steve Elkins has produced a short film that explores the historical significance of the Silly Symphonies and the making of The Silly Symphony Collection box set. The Silly Symphony documentary features J.B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt, as well as Dave Bossert, Head of Special Projects at Walt Disney Animation Studios and Grammy®-winning producer Randy Thornton from Disney Music Group.