Little Boy Blue and Scarecrow sing and dance, Little Bo Peep and her sheep join in. Black Sheep cries "wolf", which causes problems when a real wolf shows up. Animation by U. B. Iwerks.
KS3/4 idea: The juvenile subject matter makes it unlikely that secondary pupils will identify with this movie. However, with the right class, it might make suitable source material in an exploration of how soundtrack conventions have evolved through the history of film / animation. In this very early example there is much more music that simply 'plays on' regardless of the changing subtleties of onscreen emotions or actions than in later cartoons. There are also several sections in which onscreen characters simply 'do a little dance', which might have been interesting for early animators and audiences, but which these days holds little entertainment value for our more sophisticated (or maybe just media-saturated) audiences. Teachers taking this approach may wish to browse our archive to collect other complementary cartoon examples from other periods.
Resource type: This is a Video resource.
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