Synopsis
Part cartoon and part documentary, this film offers a humorous look at birds and the ways people perceive them.
It's Tough to Be a Bird
1969 Directed by Ward Kimball
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Alternative Title
C'est pas drôle d'être un oiseau
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Short #69 of my 100 Day Disney Marathon
letterboxd.com/martinjacob49/list/disney-shorts-ill-watch-during-my-100-day/
It's Tough to Be a Bird really confused me. On one hand, I admire this short for being so snarky and humorous in the way it presents the struggle between man and birds. But then the second half goes all preachy on saving the species and it started to get on my nerves, questioning myself why Disney would head that pretentious route. It's also 21 minutes, and it feels excruciatingly long.So yeah, this one's not for me. I admire some of the technical aspects of the short, but the heavy-handed message got on my nerves, more so than that bird rapping about how tough it is to be a bird.
I mean, I love birds like everybody else, but the way it's presented just freaking annoyed me.....
"It is so tough... to be... a... bird!"35/100 (same rating as Heaven's Gate)
NEXT UP..... Destino.
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A lot of Oscar nominated shorts prompt the questions "Who is this for?" or "Why does this exist?". That's certainly true of a lot of the pseudo-educational Disney shorts of the 50s and 60s. This is closer in tone to the groundbreaking Disney short Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land than it is to the True-Life Adventure series, but it's weirder than both. It's essentially just a collection of stuff about birds. Not even facts about birds, but just... stuff. Like how a lot of pop songs mention birds. How mythological creatures like the harpy have the body of a bird, or how Icarus used artificial wings, presumably to be more like a bird. Lots of people hunt and eat birds.…
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A surprisingly long section on the buzzards annual return to Hinkley, Ohio; which is still very much a thing.
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An odd mix of a cartoon short with a cute song, and an educational film about the evolution of birds, and then random assorted facts and fictions about the history and mythology of birds. And I rather liked it.
Part of my effort to watch at least one short film per day. Here is the list I am currently working through, with a random number generator determining the film each day. I will take recommendations for everything that's 40 minutes max.
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They don't even know how to pronounce Da Vinci haha. Anyway, pretty great trippy ending sequence for Disney.
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I don't know why but this shit is so cute and charming and funny? like this bird is just going on about how much shit birds gotta deal with and im like woah
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In my household, we celebrated the holy holiday of Disney Plus Day by watching It’s Tough to Be a Bird. Which won the Oscar in 1969 for best cartoon short.
Except Disney Plus doesn’t even stream this. I had to find it on YouTube. What’s your problem, Disney Plus?
I also watched Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land. (And it’s also absent from the streamer.)
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The Academy voters must have wanted to give Ward Kimball some kind of lifetime-in-film recognition during his waning years at Disney, because no way did this only-sometimes-animated, free association quickie about birds, birds, and more birds merit a win over Of Men and Demons or Walking in the Best Animated Short Film category that year.
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Legit question: how did this win the Oscar for Animated short film when a significant part of it is live-action documentary? doesn't make sense
and that part kinda ruins this
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