Monday, October 27, 2008

Black Cats, Superstition and Witchcraft!

Below I present some creepy screencaps perfectly suited for the Halloween season. They are from an obscure Disney animated short... I'll reveal its title at the bottom of the post. If you're a Disney fan, see if you can guess.

Oh, that's a giveaway right off, eh? This spooky moonlit sky is instantly recognizable from The Adventures of Ichabod Crane, right? Yes, and no. While the shot is clearly recycled from "Ichabod..", this short uses a slightly longer, uninterrupted cut than the version that appeared in that earlier film.


At first glance this spooky graveyard, used to illustrate the devastation caused by the plague, might look vaguely similar to one in the "Night on Bald Mountain" segment of Fantasia, but it isn't.



The forboding gallows await those condemned to death for practicing witchcraft. Bedknobs and Broomsticks? No way.



This superstitious old woman fears strangers passing in the night...she believes they cause stormy weather! She looks like she could live up the block from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but she's on an entirely different continent!



The sinister stare of the black cat caused some villagers to fear it was casting a supernatural EVIL EYE upon them. One of the siamese cats from Lady and the Tramp? Ha!



A torch-bearing mob roves the village square in search of demons, which they believe can disguise themselves in the form of a common housecat! Are you getting warmer?

So were you able to identify the Disney short these screencaps came from? Scroll below for the answer.

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The short is The Great Cat Family (1953), a segment from Disney's Wonderful World of Color which depicts the history and cultural influence of the domesticated cat, from ancient Egypt to colonial America. Find it in the extras on The Aristocats Special Edition.

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