The Cookie Carnival
The Cookie Carnival is an animated short produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released May 25, 1935.[1] It is a Cinderella story involving a cookie girl who wishes to be queen at the cookie carnival,[2] and a homage to the Atlantic City boardwalk parade and bathing beauty contest (what eventually became the Miss America pageant) of the 1920s and 1930s.
| The Cookie Carnival | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Ben Sharpsteen |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Story by | Pinto Colvig Ted Sears |
| Starring | Pinto Colvig Marcellite Garner |
| Music by | Leigh Harline |
| Animation by | Paul Allen Johnny Cannon Ugo D'Orsi Nick George Ferdinand Horvath Jack Kinney John McManus Grim Natwick Milt Schaffer Leonard Sebring Fred Spencer Edward Strickland Frank Thomas Don Towsley Bill Tytla |
| Color process | Technicolor |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 8 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Plot
Various sweets and goodies of Cookietown are preparing to crown their new cookie queen. A parade of potential candidates passes by, all based on various cakes and sweets. Far from the parade, on what would appear to be the wrong side of the peppermint stick railroad tracks, a gingerbread man overhears a sugar cookie girl crying. Upon hearing that she can't enter the parade, because she doesn't have any clothes that are nice enough to wear for it, he hurries to remedy her by concocting a dress of colored frosting and candy hearts. He covers her brown hair with golden taffy ringlets and adds a large, violet bow to her dress as a finishing touch. Thus attired, she is entered as the final contestant in the parade: Ms. Bonbon.
The judges, who have thus far been disappointed in the candidates, all promptly declare Ms. Bonbon the cookie queen on sight. The gingerbread man is practically trampled in the sudden surge of the crowd as they carry Ms. Bonbon to her throne, where they place a golden crown on her head. Then she is presented with a large layer cake, which appears to be a carousel of different vaudeville acts. Every queen needs a king, so the newly crowned cookie queen has to choose a husband from those featured.
After being presented with a duet of tap-dancing candy cane kids, a pair of old-fashioned barbershop cookies, a pair of effeminate angel food cakes, two scat-singing devil food cakes, two acrobatic upside-down cakes, and three tipsy rum cookies, she refuses each of them with a giggle and a shake of her head. The judges, with no other suitors to present to her, offer her to marry one of them.
At that moment, the gingerbread man, who has been attempting to gain a closer vintage point, sneaks up onto the dais. He is accosted by the guards who split his cupcake paper hat and tear off a piece of the red jelly roll carpet, so that he looks like he is wearing a crown and an ermine-lined cloak. The cookie queen calls to the guards, "Stop, I say! Don't crown the king that way!" Then the gingerbread man is immediately released, and he takes his place beside his beloved sugar cookie queen. Their closing kiss melts the lollipop intended to screen them from view.
Characters
Hobo Cookie - voiced by Pinto Colvig
Sugar Cookie Girl, (aka Miss Bonbon) - voiced by Marcellite Garner
Cookie Carnival Judges
"Queen of the Cookie Carnival" Contestants
- Miss Peppermint
- Miss Cocoanut
- Miss Banana Cake
- Miss Strawberry Blonde
- Miss Peach (not pictured/possibly cut)
- Miss Licorice
- Miss Pineapple
- Miss Orange Crush (not pictured/possibly cut)
- Miss Jello (The title "Miss" suggests participation in the parade, but it is unclear as she appears after the Cookie Queen is crowned.)
Candy Dates (Cookie King hopefuls)
- Dandy Candy Kids
- Old Fashioned Cookies
- Angel Food Cakes
- Devils Food Cakes
- Upside Down Cakes
- The Rum Cookies
- Cookie Marching Band
- Cookie Armed Guard
Production
Pinto Colvig, most known as the voice of Goofy, provides the voice of the gingerbread man. Vaudeville was dying out by the time The Cookie Carnival made its debut, but audiences would have been familiar with each of the acts represented by the different cookies.
When Miss Bonbon is being outfitted, she transitions from her cookie-like shape into a more humanoid-appearance (especially apparent between creating her dress and powdering her cheeks). This might make her another early example of visually realistic human characters in Disney shorts, and even a precursor to the Snow White look in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
According to Film Superlist: 1894-1939, this cartoon entered the Public Domain in 1963 as its copyright was not renewed.
Comic adaptation
The Silly Symphony Sunday comic strip ran a three-month-long adaptation of The Cookie Carnival called "Cookieland" from April 28 to July 21, 1935.[3]
Home media
The short was released on the 2001 Walt Disney Treasures DVD box set Silly Symphonies.[1] Prior to that, the featurette also appeared on the Walt Disney Cartoon Classics Limited Gold Edition: Silly Symphonies VHS in the 1980s. Most recently, "The Cookie Carnival" was released as a segment in 2005's direct-to-video Disney Princess: a Christmas of Enchantment.
References
- 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. 162–163. ISBN 978-1-4847-5132-9.
- DisneyShorts.org Archived 2009-08-28 at the Wayback Machine
- Duvall, Earl; Taliaferro, Al; Osborne, Ted; De Maris, Merrill (2016). Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics, vol 1. San Diego: IDW Publishing. ISBN 978-1631405587.
