There’s a moment about halfway into The Bears and The Bees that perfectly summarizes the entire raison d’être of the Silly Symphonies series, which modern viewers may take for granted. The short is a simple one: two cute bear cubs (who bear more than a passing resemblance to Mickey Mouse) are playing, and looking for good things to eat. When they find a berry bush, an older bear takes it from them and chases them off. Then they find a hollow tree where bees have built a hive and start to gorge on honey. The bees are alerted to their trespass, and by the time they return to defend their hive, the older bear is now in place for his ultimate comeuppance. As the short starts, Frank Churchill’s melody plays a typically lovely background to the action on screen. But a couple of minutes in, when the bees realize that their hive is threatened, they rise from the flowers and their humming buzz joins the soundtrack. The melody is now coming from the onscreen characters. When the Silly Symphony series started just three years earlier, Carl Stalling’s idea was to merge the action with the music. For contemporary audiences, these shorts weren’t just an entertainment, they were a revelation.

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