Goliath II

Goliath II is an animated short film, produced by Walt Disney Productions and was released on January 21, 1960. It was the first time the Xerox process was used in a Disney cartoon.^[1] Sterling Holloway narrates this cartoon film, starring Kevin Corcoran. It was released to theaters in the U.S., alongside the Disney live-action motion picture Toby Tyler. The short received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short, but lost to Gene Deitch's Munro. The cartoon is also called "Slonić Ćiro" or "Slonić Ćira" in Serbo-Croatian and was very popular there during the late 1970s and the early 80s.

Synopsis

Goliath II is a miniature elephant (about 3 to 4 in. tall, although the consistency of this is variable) who tries everything to impress his father, the biggest elephant of them all. Because of his size, his father doesn't care about him; only his mother does. An orangutan is also seen wandering throughout the jungle. A nasty tiger named Raja is curious of tasting an elephant or any animal he sees in his path and tries to attack Goliath and a nearby peacock, but Raja is stopped by his mother and a rhino. Afterwards, the peacock escapes, and Eloise (member of the herd) almost accidentally steps on Goliath II. Later, he's nearly eaten by a crocodile (which appears to be the same one from Peter Pan), but his mother saves him.

One day, a herd of antelopes were seen grazing, and when the elephants are marching through the jungle, Goliath follows two snails but gets lost and his mother panics, causing the other elephants to crash (similar to the elephant crash in The Jungle Book, which was released seven years later). Goliath II's Mother and the Tiger, Raja, search for Goliath and manage to find him in a snail hole. After a short tug of war between Goliath's Mother and Raja, Goliath is rescued. Raja goes after the antelope herd, but the antelopes had fled to escape. Shortly afterwards, Goliath is scolded for dishonoring his Mother's warnings on not wandering off and is put into a bird's nest as punishment. It is at this point that Goliath is now fed up with being treated like a baby (even though he's nine years old) and feels confident that he can take care of himself.

That night, while the herd is sleeping, Goliath runs away and vows never to return. Afterwards he is startled by various jungle noises and is again attacked by Raja after mistakenly waking him up with a cattail, and he walked on and crying for his Mother. After his mother hears his cries she goes to his aid and finds that he is being taken away by Raja. After saving Goliath from Raja's grasp, she grabs the tiger by his tail and throws him straight into the crocodile's mouth; he escapes from its belly and runs away, scared out of his wits, never to be seen again. Afterwards, Goliath gets a spanking from his mother for trying to desert the herd, because a deserter from the herd is branded a "scoundrel, a rogue elephant, a traitor to that high and imperial order of pompous pachyderms", and to make it worst, he has disgraced his father.

The next day, while the elephants are marching through the jungle again, Goliath I screams because of a 6 inch mouse, stopping,and causing the elephants to crash again. The mouse scares away and panics the herd, which flee and jump into a river, scaring the crocodile out of his wits, causing the antelope herd to scatter, shaking a tree belonging to an owl along with the orangutan family, and a chameleon, startling the peacock and rhino, and provoking the mother bird again. While the mouse is laughing hysterically at the elephants' misfortune, he finds Goliath II, staring at him. Shocked, he asks Goliath if he is afraid, but Goliath replies that he is not as they are the same size. Enraged, the mouse points out that Goliath is an elephant, and adds that elephants are afraid of mice as he deliberately pulls on his Trunk, flaps his ears, and kicks his "Baggy Pants" and threatens Goliath by telling him that if he doesn't run away until he counts 3, he will hurt him.

After the mouse counts 3, a tussle starts between the two as Goliath I and Mother watch. The fight ends with Goliath holding the mouse over a cliff, where below is the waiting hungry crocodile. Not wanting to become the crocodile's next meal, the mouse cowardly begs Goliath not to drop him and tells him that he (Goliath) is the champ. Goliath agrees and spares the mouse. After this, Goliath is respected by his father and is named the top elephant of the herd.

Cast and Characters

Release

The short was released on Volume 6 (Reluctant Dragon) of the "Walt Disney Animation Collection: Classic Short Films" DVD collection in May 2009.

References

External links

• Goliath II at the Internet Movie Database