The Skeleton Dance

"The Skeleton Dance" (English: "The Skeleton Dance") is a black–and-white short musical cartoon by Walt Disney, released in 1929. It is the first musical cartoon in history, as well as the first work in the cycle "Silly Symphonies".

The cartoon ranks 18th in the list of the 50 greatest cartoons compiled by animation historian Jerry Beck in 1994.

An ominous darkness envelops the ancient cemetery, where funny skeletons dance next to the graves after midnight. But the first morning cry of the rooster will interrupt the dancers.

The animated film shows people who have risen from the graves, whose bodies have decomposed to skeletons. They are completely devoid of flesh, but this does not prevent them from dancing and using bones for musical accompaniment. They easily detach body parts, swap them and reconnect again. They are also able to assemble into a single organism and move together.

Like the classic evil spirits, skeletons live in the old cemetery, getting out of the graves only at night. At dawn, they are frightened by the crowing of a rooster, after which they tend to return to any unoccupied burial place.