Film

The Pied Piper

Other titles called The Pied Piper: the 1972 film.

A early 1930s Warner Bros. cartoon that twists the Pied Piper tale into something darkly comic: a magician lures rats away with music, gets stiffed by the townspeople, then exacts revenge by spiriting away their children. Eight minutes of pre-Code mischief, musical numbers, and genuinely unsettling consequences dressed up in cel animation.

TMDb rating3.3

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love early sound-era cartoons where the animation bounces, the songs do the storytelling, and a folk fable gets told in the time it takes to make a cup of tea.

Skip it if you want dialogue, characters you can get attached to, or any sense of a story beyond a simple musical premise; at eight minutes it has little room for either.

What it asks of you: Eight minutes of brisk, unfussy cheer, light in tone and fast in rhythm; the music does most of the talking.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs1937

The first feature-length animated film, released four years after this, but Disney's version is far more earnest. Watching this Warners take on fairy tales first shows how differently the studios approached the same material—rougher, funnier, willing to let darkness linger.

But If you're expecting Disney-style sentiment, this is glacially paced by modern standards and the animation, while charming, lacks that studio's technical polish.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs poster

Steamboat Willie1928

The Mickey Mouse debut that made animation a commercial medium. Like this film, it's a brief musical showcase that proves animation could be more than educational fluff—it could be genuinely funny and weird.

But Five minutes, heavily restored, and some of the humor hasn't aged well. It's a monument to see, not always a pleasure.

Steamboat Willie poster

The Great Mouse Detective1986

Sherlock Holmes as a mouse, solving kidnappings in Victorian London. It's proof that you can make a fairytale adaptation clever rather than sentimental, with real stakes underneath the whimsy.

But It's a 1980s Disney film in a kid's movie slot—some of the voice acting and emotional beats feel soft compared to what you've just watched.

The Great Mouse Detective poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Pied Piper

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters1988

Both are brief, violent, and willing to let their characters suffer for laughs. Both are pure entertainment uninterested in teaching lessons. Both are Warners cartoons understanding that comedy lives in cruelty, just dressed up in music and color.

A feature-length compilation of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts bracketed by new material. It's the closest you can get to experiencing the theatrical cartoon experience as adults did then—shorts designed to warm up a live-action feature, meant to be funny and weird in thirty seconds flat.

But It's a clip show, and compilation films feel rickety and low-effort. Some of the animation is from the 1950s and looks musty next to this 1933 print's crispness.

Daffy Duck's Quackbusters poster
More like this (6)

Sleeping Beauty1959

Disney's most genuinely menacing fairy tale. Maleficent is the reason to watch, and she carries real darkness into a princess story in ways most animated films won't risk.

But It's three times as long as this short and much of it is genuinely dull. The plot takes forever to happen, and some sequences drag badly.

Sleeping Beauty poster

Peter and the Wolf1946

Another brief (nine-minute) animated take on a classic tale, also from the 1940s, with Prokofiev's score driving the whole thing. It proves animation paired with real music can be devastating.

But It's almost entirely earnest where this film is cruel. If you want the darker energy, this won't provide it.

Peter and the Wolf poster

Cinderella1950

The film that saved Disney Animation after the company nearly folded. It's technically immaculate and genuinely moving, showing how animation matured in fifteen years.

But It's relentlessly wholesome, with barely a sharp edge. If you're chasing the moral complexity of this Warners short, you won't find it here.

Cinderella poster

Fantasia1940

Animation married to classical music, no dialogue, pure visual storytelling. The Chernabog sequence especially—the Night on Bald Mountain segment—proves animation could be genuinely frightening.

But It's two hours and wildly uneven. Long stretches are bewilderingly boring, and it requires patience that modern viewers often don't have.

Fantasia poster

Song of the South1946

A technically impressive blend of animation and live action, with animated sequences as dazzling as anything you'll see from that era. The craft is undeniable.

But Its racism isn't incidental—it's the entire premise. Disney has kept it in the vault for decades for good reason, and watching it requires stomach for something genuinely offensive.

Song of the South poster

Allegro non troppo1976

Both pair animation with classical music to tell stories without dialogue. Both treat the pairing as a serious art form rather than decoration. But where your 1933 film uses music for humor and moral consequence, this one uses it for discomfort and satire.

An Italian animator's response to Fantasia—classical music paired with animation, but deliberately grotesque and sexual where Disney was ethereal. Extraordinary craft in service of genuine weirdness.

But It's deliberately unpleasant. The humor is sometimes crude, and the animation is often more conceptually ambitious than visually pretty. Also seventy-five minutes—a commitment.

Allegro non troppo poster

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