Anchor's Aweigh

The Silly Symphony Frolicking Fish (1930) is from a period where cartoons could get away with no, or next-to-no, story, so long as there was animation synchronisation in time to the music. Thus we get scenes of fish dancing because that’s about all that is required of this cartoon.

There’s also an octopus that is alternately menacing or goofy, depending on what’s needed for a particular scene.

In the cartoon’s climax, a fish escapes from the octopus and conks him with an anchor.



Bubbles pour out of the octopus and fill the screen. Since bubbles opened the cartoon, director Burt Gillett ends it that way.



Disney skips a chance to have “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” in the background. He’d have to pay for it.

To be honest, I like the Aesop Fable The Haunted Ship, also released in 1930, better than this. It has weirdly-designed sea creatures, and a barbershop quartet of drunken tortoises.