Flowers and Trees (1932): National Film Registry 2021

December 15, 2021 by
December 2021–The Library of Congress announced the latest annual additions to the National Film Registry, its compendium of pictures that were judged to be culturally, aesthetically or historically important and worthy of preservation for future generations.
In addition to Hollywood studio classics and box office hits, the Registry also protects independent films, documentaries, experimental works, cartoons, music videos, educational films, advertisements, and even amateur home movies, in what is the most democratic of all film lists.
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© WALT DISNEY COMPANY

Two-color Technicolor had already been employed in several Hollywood features in the late 1920s and early ’30s (including “The Vagabond King,” “King of Jazz,” and “Under a Texas Moon”), but it paled against the rich hues available through the new three-strip Technicolor process.

Walt Disney was the first filmmaker to utilize it with this short “Silly Symphony” cartoon, whose vibrant hand-drawn animation charmed audiences, and presaged Disney’s transition to full color in all his shorts – and, later, his groundbreaking feature-length cartoon, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”

Flowers and Trees is also notable for being the first animated film to win an Oscar.

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