BCDB: Cartoon Reviews: The Song Of The Birds

Supposedly based on a dream by Dave Fleischer, this story is about a group of robins frolicing about in celebration of spring. At a nearby house, a young boy is shooting an air rifle inside, hitting a the pendulum of a grandmother's clock, a line of copper pots hanging on the kitchen shelf, and a wall switch, turning the light on and off in the process. Meanwhile, a baby robin has hatched and its parents are teaching it to fly, and it wonders off. The boy goes outside, looking for another targert and aims at the baby robin, shooting it, and knocking it from the sky. The baby robin hits the ground and remains motionless. Realizing that he may have killed the baby bird, the boy sneaks off in guilt. The bird parents find their child, and the mother sings out a durge in agony. As the rest of the flock forms a funeral procession, it starts to rain, as if the whole world is weeping. Seeing and hearing this the boy is sorry for his action, and prays for the baby bird he has killed. Just as the grave is being dug, the baby bird wakes up. The rain stops, a rainbow forms, and all the robins hop around, encircling the baby bird. To this, the boy breaks his air rifle and runs outside with a box of bird seed, and personally feeds the baby bird. This is a different cartoon from Disney's BIRDS IN SPRING as it deals with a serious moral issue. This storyline is a precurser to one used on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW where Opie accidentally kills a mother bird with his slingshot and ends up nursing a baby bird in the nest. The moral in both stories is that it is a sin to kill an innocent. A message that is still relevant today.