It's Tough to Be a Bird - Misplaced Pages

(Redirected from It's Tough to be a Bird) 1969 animated short film by Ward Kimball

It's Tough to Be a Bird
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ward Kimball
Story by	Ted Berman Ward Kimball
Produced by	Ward Kimball
Starring	Ruth Buzzi Richard Bakalyan John Emerson Jim Swain Ann Lord Hank Schloss Walter Perkins Rolf Darbo
Edited by	Lloyd J. Richardson
Music by	George Bruns
Animation by	Eric Larson Art Stevens
Layouts by	Joe Hale
Color process	Technicolor
Production company	Walt Disney Productions
Distributed by	Buena Vista Distribution
Release date	December 10, 1969 (1969-12-10)
Running time	21 minutes
Language	English

It's Tough to Be a Bird is a 1969 American animated educational short film directed by Ward Kimball and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The short won the Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons in 1970 and was nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for Best Animated Film in 1971. This was the last animated short film produced by Disney to win an Academy Award until Paperman (2012) and thus the final animated cartoon short released by Disney in the golden age of American animation.

Summary

In the short, a red bird (voiced by Richard Bakalyan) explains how birds have contributed to human culture, even as people often try to kill them. He claims this may be because humans were jealous that birds can fly but people cannot, mentioning the legend of Icarus and featured films of early unsuccessful flying machines.

In Disney's D-TV in the 1980s, clips from this short were set to Bobby Day's cover of "Rockin' Robin".

Cast

Ruth Buzzi as Soprano
Richard Bakalyan as M.C. Bird
John Emerson as Bird Fancier
Jim Swain as Bird Fancier
Ann Lord as Bird Fancier
Hank Schloss as Bird Fancier
Walter Perkins as Bird Fancier
Rolf Darbo as Bird Fancier

References

D23
"Dick Bakalyan, Character Actor Who Appeared in 'Chinatown', Dies at 84". Variety. 2015-03-11. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
""Escalation": This 1968 anti-war animated film by Disney legend Ward Kimball is as timely as ever". nightflight.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-22. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
"Richard Bakalyan, Tough Guy Character Actor and a Cop in 'Chinatown', Dies at 84". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2017-07-17.
Cone, Nathan. "Disney Draws On Young Talent For New Collection". Retrieved 2017-07-17.
DTV Bobby Day Rockin' Robin by Rayzor-YouTube

External links

Ward Kimball

Disney works

Animated shorts	Melody (1953) Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953) It's Tough to Be a Bird (1969)
TV episodes	"Man in Space" "Man and the Moon" "Mars and Beyond"
Other	Babes in Toyland Bedknobs and Broomsticks The Mouse Factory World of Motion

Non-Disney works

Escalation

Walt Disney Animation Studios short films

Lists by year

Mickey Mouse
and friends

Short series	Mickey Mouse film series (1928–2013) Donald Duck film series (1937–2024) Pluto film series (1937–51) Donald & Goofy film series (1938–47) Goofy film series (1939–2007) Chip 'n' Dale film series (1951–54) Humphrey the Bear film series (1956) How to Stay at Home (2021)
Stand-alone shorts	Donald's Decision (1942) All Together (1942) Out of the Frying Pan into the Firing Line (1942) Morris the Midget Moose (1950) Donald and the Wheel (1961) Aquamania (1961) Donald's Fire Survival Plan (1966)

Additional
short series

Laugh-O-Grams (1921–1923)
Alice Comedies (1923–27)
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (1927–28)
Silly Symphony (1929–39)
Winnie the Pooh (1966–1983)
Roger Rabbit (1989–93)
Prep & Landing (2009–11)
Short Circuit (2020–22)
At Home with Olaf (2020)
Olaf Presents (2021)

Stand-alone
short films

Ferdinand the Bull (1938)
The Thrifty Pig (1941)
Food Will Win the War (1941)
Stop That Tank! (1942)
Chicken Little (1943)
The Grain That Built a Hemisphere (1943)
Education for Death (1943)
Reason and Emotion (1943)
The Pelican and the Snipe (1944)
The Brave Engineer (1950)
Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952)
Susie the Little Blue Coupe (1952)
The Little House (1952)
Ben and Me (1953)
Melody (1953)
Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953)
Football Now and Then (1953)
Social Lion (1954)
Pigs Is Pigs (1954)
A Cowboy Needs a Horse (1956)
Jack and Old Mac (1956)
The Truth About Mother Goose (1957)
The Story of Anyburg U.S.A. (1957)
Paul Bunyan (1958)
Noah's Ark (1959)
Goliath II (1960)
The Saga of Windwagon Smith (1961)
It's Tough to Be a Bird (1969)
The Small One (1978)
Vincent (1982)
Fun with Mr. Future (1982)
Oilspot and Lipstick (1987)
Off His Rockers (1992)
John Henry (2000)
Destino (2003)
Lorenzo (2004)
One by One (2004)
The Little Matchgirl (2006)
Glago's Guest (2008)
Tick Tock Tale (2010)
The Ballad of Nessie (2011)
Paperman (2012)
Feast (2014)
Inner Workings (2016)
Us Again (2021)
Far from the Tree (2021)
Once Upon a Studio (2023)

Based on
feature films

7 Wise Dwarfs (1941)
Casey Bats Again (1954)
A Dairy Tale (2004, direct-to-video)
Super Rhino (2009, direct-to-video)
Tangled Ever After (2012)
Frozen Fever (2015)
Olaf's Frozen Adventure (2017)
Once Upon a Snowman (2020)

v t e Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
1932–1950	Flowers and Trees (1932) Three Little Pigs (1933) The Tortoise and the Hare (1934) Three Orphan Kittens (1935) The Country Cousin (1936) The Old Mill (1937) Ferdinand the Bull (1938) The Ugly Duckling (1939) The Milky Way (1940) Lend a Paw (1941) Der Fuehrer's Face (1942) The Yankee Doodle Mouse (1943) Mouse Trouble (1944) Quiet Please! (1945) The Cat Concerto (1946) Tweetie Pie (1947) The Little Orphan (1948) For Scent-imental Reasons (1949) Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950)
1951–1975	The Two Mouseketeers (1951) Johann Mouse (1952) Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953) When Magoo Flew (1954) Speedy Gonzales (1955) Magoo's Puddle Jumper (1956) Birds Anonymous (1957) Knighty Knight Bugs (1958) Moonbird (1959) Munro (1960) Ersatz (The Substitute) (1961) The Hole (1962) The Critic (1963) The Pink Phink (1964) The Dot and the Line: A Romance in Lower Mathematics (1965) A Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass Double Feature (1966) The Box (1967) Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968) It's Tough to Be a Bird (1969) Is It Always Right to Be Right? (1970) The Crunch Bird (1971) A Christmas Carol (1972) Frank Film (1973) Closed Mondays (1974) Great (1975)
1976–2000	Leisure (1976) The Sand Castle (1977) Special Delivery (1978) Every Child (1979) The Fly (1980) Crac (1981) Tango (1982) Sundae in New York (1983) Charade (1984) Anna & Bella (1985) A Greek Tragedy (1986) The Man Who Planted Trees (1987) Tin Toy (1988) Balance (1989) Creature Comforts (1990) Manipulation (1991) Mona Lisa Descending a Staircase (1992) The Wrong Trousers (1993) Bob's Birthday (1994) A Close Shave (1995) Quest (1996) Geri's Game (1997) Bunny (1998) The Old Man and the Sea (1999) Father and Daughter (2000)
2001–2025	For the Birds (2001) The ChubbChubbs! (2002) Harvie Krumpet (2003) Ryan (2004) The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation (2005) The Danish Poet (2006) Peter & the Wolf (2007) La Maison en Petits Cubes (2008) Logorama (2009) The Lost Thing (2010) The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011) Paperman (2012) Mr Hublot (2013) Feast (2014) Bear Story (2015) Piper (2016) Dear Basketball (2017) Bao (2018) Hair Love (2019) If Anything Happens I Love You (2020) The Windshield Wiper (2021) The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (2022) War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko (2023)
Submissions for Best Animated Short Academy Award

Categories:

Summary

Cast

See also

References

External links