An action-packed slog

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This is an excellent cartoon short from Walt Disney. It is not the typical one featuring the star cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. Rather, it features a slew of animals such as birds, frogs, insects and bats going about their lives and daily rituals in or near an old windmill.As a little kid, I remember always rooting for my favorite part of the cartoon to come - the commencing of the storm and the windmill starting to turn. The raging storm reminds you of Mother Nature's fury and the frightened animals remind you of the innocence caught in the commotion. After the storm passes and the windmill is badly damaged, the animals return to their daily activities, serving as a reminder that life moves on.Grade A

In the 1930s, Disney Studio's "Silly Symphonies" were very popular cartoons. They lacked the cute and lovable characters like Mickey but were instead almost like music videos with cartoons--using mostly classical or classical-like music to accompany images--usually of nature. The earlier film FLOWERS AND THE TREES won the Oscar for Best Animated Short and this Silly Symphony also won in the same category a few years later.It's format is very similar to the usual film in the series--exceptional animation and nice music but not a traditional narrative. I honestly think that in 1937, it was seen very differently than people would generally see it today. In 1937, theater goers must have been bowled over by the first use of the multiplane camera, as it gave the film a gorgeous three-dimensional quality as the camera appeared to zoom in and out in the scenes. Crowds also would have been far more accepting of a less insane and cartoony style film--as the insanely fun cartoons that were made in the 40s and 50s were still a style you wouldn't see much of the 1930s. The 30s were filled with cutesy characters and schmaltz--something more hyperactive viewers (myself included) would hate. They certainly are NOT Bugs or Tom & Jerry!! So, overall, I loved the artwork and felt the story a bit dull and old fashioned. Watchable for curiosity sake and for fans of early animation but not to the average viewer.

The Old Mill is based upon the Rembrandt painting The Mill c. 1650 in the National Gallery. Copies have for long been for sale there. The print freezes the final frames of the mill in the Disney cartoon. This is so moving because the war was coming. Hitler was the storm. People who knew about the horrors were waiting for the storm but knew that the Mill would survive. In any event the helpless animals and the good that man had done are themes that do not require a single human character to express. I have used this cartoon over the years to come back to the great days of animation and the ways that brief breaks from the feature could involve youth, who waited for the break, in the issues that the cartoon displayed. The high quality animation was something that the youth loved but thought of differently by the fifties than the weaker animation efforts that they attended with their friends without parents.

I would watch this film almost everyday when I was a toddler, now that I am a teen, I still watch it often. This film has such beauty in it with the color, music, detailed animation, and backgrounds. This film also brings out my love for windmills (which I know may sound kind of crazy). The entire film was beautiful, but I felt that the love doves were kind of a little to childish.