Who Killed Cock Robin? (1935 film)

Who Killed Cock Robin is a Silly Symphonies short released on June 26, 1935, by United Artists, produced by Walt Disney and directed by David Hand.[1] It is based on the nursery rhyme Who Killed Cock Robin?. It was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Animated Short category.

Who Killed Cock Robin
Directed byDavid Hand
Produced byWalt Disney
Story by
Music byFrank Churchill
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byUnited Artists
Release date
  • June 26, 1935 (1935-06-26)
Running time
8 minutes
LanguageEnglish

An extract from the cartoon was featured the following year in Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage; the film's opening credits thank Disney for giving permission.[2]

Plot

While Cock Robin (caricatured after Bing Crosby) serenades the Mae West-esque Jenny Wren, an unseen assailant shoots an arrow into Cock Robin's heart and he falls to the ground, giving the other birds in the tree the impression he has been shot and killed. The police arrive at the scene and arrest a Harpo Marx-like cuckoo, an Edward G. Robinson-inspired sparrow (possibly an homage to the original story) and a Stepin Fetchit-based blackbird as suspects.

The next day a trial is held over the identity of Cock Robin's assassin, with an owl serving as the judge and a parrot as the prosecutor, interrogating the suspects and showing Cock Robin's body as evidence. The blackbird confesses he hadn't done, seen, or known anything about it. The sparrow refuses to say anything. The cuckoo doesn't know either, but continually points to the judge and the parrot and even himself, showing he is indeed "cuckoo". Everyone is astounded that no one knows who murdered Cock Robin.

At that moment, Jenny Wren arrives and demands that she see justice done for her Cock Robin. Eventually, the judge declares that all three suspects be hanged as they don't know which of them is guilty. Just then, an arrow strikes the judge's hat, and its owner, Cock Robin's supposed killer, is revealed to be Cupid. He reveals that though he did it, Robin isn't dead at all; he simply fell for Jenny Wren and is currently unconscious from landing on his head, the arrow he was shot with is in his armpit. Jenny revives Robin and they kiss, to the excitement of the jury.

Voice cast

Home media

Who Killed Cock Robin? was released on the Walt Disney Treasures Wave One DVD Silly Symphonies, as an Easter egg found in the "Favorite Characters" section.[1]

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. 164–165. ISBN 978-1-4847-5132-9.
  2. "Sabotage (1936): "Who Killed Cock Robin?"". Alfred Hitch-blog. Retrieved 14 July 2019.


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