Saturday, October 18, 2014

HELL'S BELLS - Walt Disney - Ub Iwerks - Carl Stalling (1929)

Not to be confused with the 1969 biker flick "Hell's Belles," and "The Roughest Ride In Town"..........

............Nor the 1980 hit single by AC/DC, This Saturday Night Special is a Silly Symphony of a different colour!!

Forty years before "Hell's Belles," and 51 years before "Hell's Bells" came the original Disney Cartoon of the same name, give or take an e or two, drawn by the master Ub Iwerks! The only difference is that this one is actually about Hell!!

Welcome to Hell!!!

Here's a good shot of the legendary three-headed hound known as Cerberus, the guardian of the gates of Hades! You just know that this guy has got some serious fleas!!

It seems silly to say that Satan is just chillin' under these circumstances, so I guess I'll say that Satan is just heatin'!!

Satan has all these little devils running around doing things, this group is the band!

The band members have an odd array of instruments, and once again, the genius of Carl Stalling is the force behind the music!

Then, after a little shadow dancing, the performance starts in earnest!

"Hell's Bells" is essentially a musical, and the little devils are quite graceful! The music they're dancing to should sound very familiar to any fan of 1950's and 1960's TV, because it is the "Funeral March Of A Marionette" written by Charles Gounod that is the exact same song that was used as the theme song for 10 years on one of the most classic TV shows of all time, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents!"          

This dance number goes on for the majority of the cartoon!

Ub must have loved this gag, after the little guy runs into the wall and gets accordioned, he takes a step back, and then proceeds to do it again!

Man, this is making me thirsty, nothing like some fresh squeezed hot milk from one of the devil's cows!

Here's a good close-up of the big guy in charge, Satan, Beelzebub, the angel of darkness also known as Mephistopheles! He not only rules the Underworld, he cheats at cards, and is a nasty drunk too!!

The Devil gets all pissed off and starts taking it out on the little guys for no reason at all! I could make a gazillion comparisons here, but I'll just leave it right there!

After brutally feeding one of the little guys to Cerebus, Satan then goes after another one, but this one isn't going for it! Satan chases him to the edge of this cliff, but there's a tunnel and he manages to come back around and push the Devil over the edge!

I guess for the Devil to burn in Hell is pretty appropiate!

"Burn, Baby, Burn!"


There are 13 more days until Halloween, but for now......
....this is indeed THE END!!

There are more than a couple versions of "Hell's Bells" streaming on Youtube,  Here's the link to just one of them!!

1 comment:

TABONGA! said...

Carl Stalling is my hero!!

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??