''The Miller's Daughter'' is a 1934

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated comedy short film series distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was part of the ''Looney Tunes'' franchise and featured many of the same characters. Originally running from August 2, 1931, to Septem ...

'' cartoon directed by

Friz Freleng Isadore "Friz" Freleng (; August 21, 1905May 26, 1995), credited as I. Freleng early in his career, was an American animator, cartoonist, Film director, director, Film producer, producer, and composer known for his work at Warner Bros. Cartoons ...

. The short was released on October 13, 1934.

Plot

A cat trying to catch a caged bird knocks over a small ceramic figurine of a young country girl, breaking it. A maid gathers the broken pieces and puts them in a bin in the attic. The matching boy figurine, a shepherd, comes to life, and he and his lamb go to the attic to rescue their companion. After the shepherd boy glues the girl back together, they dance to a medley that includes "The Miller's Daughter" by

Lou Handman Lou Handman (September 10, 1894 – December 9, 1956) was an American composer. Born in 1894 in New York City, in his early career he toured in vaudeville shows in Australia and New York. Handman worked closely with lyricist Roy Turk, with who ...

and Al Bryan, a Cuban instrumental, and the Blue Danube Waltz. The lamb unwisely awakens a lion figurine, who pursues him. As the girl, boy, and lamb escape the attic, the lion dashes himself to pieces against the attic door. The shepherd boy, girl, and lamb escape back downstairs, breaking a table lamp in the process. The maid, believing the cat to have broken the lamp, swats it with a broom and chases it outside.

Production

According to animation historian

Michael Barrier Michael J. Barrier (born June 15, 1940) is an American animation historian, author, and critic, best known for his extensive research on the history of American animation and comic art. He is the author of ''Hollywood Cartoons: American Animat ...

, the film was amongst the first ''

'' short films directed by then-new director

. It was only his 7th film for the series; Freleng became the main director of this series in early 1934. Barrier stated that some of the earliest films directed by Freleng came "surprisingly close" to the contemporary Disney animated shorts in both spirit and execution. In particular, he stated that ''The Miller's Daughter'' in particular was "rich in production values". Barrier found that the "painstaking" drawing of the film, its modeling, and the use of

rotoscoping Rotoscoping is an animation technique that animators use to trace over motion picture footage, frame by frame, to produce realistic action. Originally, live-action film images were projected onto a glass panel and traced onto paper. This pr ...

for the movement attested to the effort devoted to its production, calling it a significant improvement over previous ''Merrie Melodies'' films.Barrier (2003), Warner Bros., pp. unnumbered pages The drawing of the film was "Disneyish", but Barrier found the subject matter (china figurines coming to life) to be reminiscent of an actual Disney short. (The film is similar to '' The China Shop'', released by Disney as part of the ''

Silly Symphonies ''Silly Symphony'' (also known as ''Silly Symphonies'') is an American animation, animated series of 75 musical short films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Productions from 1929 to 1939. As the series name implies, the ''Si ...

'' earlier that year.) ''The Miller's Daughter'' was one of the few Freleng-directed films that came close to matching the ''Silly Symphonies'' on their own terms. However, competing with Disney turned out to be too difficult and expensive. The production budgets for the animated films of Leon Schlesinger Productions (the company later known as

Warner Bros. Cartoons Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. was an American animation studio, serving as the in-house animation division of Warner Bros. during the Golden Age of American animation. One of the most successful animation studios in American media history, it was ...

) were lower than their counterparts for

Walt Disney Productions The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was founded on October 16 ...

. The directors of the Schlesinger studio also completed animated short films at a faster pace than the Disney directors. A new Schlesinger film was ready for release every four or five weeks. Any extra time that Freleng devoted to the production of a single film, would come at the cost of cutting corners in the production of another one. ''The Miller's Daughter'' is a

black and white Black-and-white (B&W or B/W) images combine black and white to produce a range of achromatic brightnesses of grey. It is also known as greyscale in technical settings. Media The history of various visual media began with black and white, ...

film, one of the last ''Merrie Melodies'' released in black and white. In April 1934, the first ''Merrie Melodies'' film directed by Freleng was released. It was ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

'', a color film using a two-color process. However, the next six films directed by Freleng (including ''The Miller's Daughter'') were all in black and white. A new release season started in November 1934, with the release of '' Those Beautiful Dames'' in color. From then on, all ''Merrie Melodies'' were color films. Meanwhile, the sibling ''

Looney Tunes ''Looney Tunes'' is an American media franchise produced and distributed by Warner Bros. The franchise began as a series of animated short films that originally ran from 1930 to 1969, alongside its spin-off series ''Merrie Melodies'', during t ...

'' series continued to be released in black and white. Barrier notes that the change in color came with an increase in payments made from

to producer

Leon Schlesinger Leonardo Schlesinger ( ; May 20, 1884 – December 25, 1949) was an American film producer who founded Leon Schlesinger Productions, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoons studio, during the Golden Age of American animation The gold ...

. Warner Bros. made a payment of 1,750 dollars for each black-and-white ''Merrie Melodies'' film. It made a payment of $9,250 for the color films of the series. Despite an increase in the production budget of the series, the Schlesinger budgets continued to be smaller than the Disney ones. According to Barrier, the switch to color did not translate to "greater refinement" for the ''Merrie Melodies'' under the direction of Freleng.

Sources

References

External links

*
''The Miller's Daughter'' on the Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller's Daughter (1934 film), The 1934 films Films scored by Norman Spencer (composer) Short films directed by Friz Freleng Merrie Melodies short films Rotoscoped films Animated films about lions Animated films about sheep 1930s Warner Bros. animated short films American animated black-and-white films 1934 animated short films