The people of Hamelin, overrun with rats, offer a bag of gold to anyone who can get rid of the rats. A piper offers to do the job, and successfully lures the rats into a mirage of cheese, which disappears. The citizens, disappointed that all he did was play a tune, offer only pocket change. The piper, angered, plays a new tune that has all the children of the city follow him, even the new twins the stork is preparing to deliver.
Director
Wilfred Jackson
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This Silly Symphony won the 1934 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, beating Disney's own The Three Little Pigs.
The original Pied Piper legend may reference the 13th-century Children's Crusade or plague depopulation—Disney's version keeps the child abduction but adds dancing rats and a cheese mirage.
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