The Skeleton Dance (1929) on Netflix
Midnight in a graveyard: a hound bays, two cats fight over a grave, and bats leave the belfry. A skeleton climbs out to frolic, then four of them dance.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.6/107,607 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
The minute hand on a church clock reaches twelve and the bell begins to toll, sending bats out of the belfry. Below, in the graveyard, a hound bays at the full moon while two cats squabble over a grave. An owl on a branch watches it all. A skeleton rises from its grave and frolics among the headstones, then ducks behind one at the sound of the owl. Annoyed at itself for being startled, it unhooks its own head and hurls it at the bird. Four skeletons then come up out of the ground together and begin to dance, making music on the bones of one another, one of them bowing a cat's tail.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Skeleton Dance (1929)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Skeleton Dance was banned in Denmark, a ban reported by The New York Times in March 1931, because the film was considered "too macabre".
- The Skeleton Dance found a new, much larger audience in the late 2000s and early 2010s as a recurring meme on Reddit and YouTube, largely because it was paired with the Andrew Gold song "Spooky, Scary Skeletons".
- Ub Iwerks animated the majority of The Skeleton Dance himself in almost six weeks, starting in January 1929, and took inspiration for the skeletons from pictures drawn by the English cartoonist Rowlandson.
- The Skeleton Dance became the first picture in the history of New York's Roxy Theatre to have a return engagement, playing there as a Columbia release in September 1929.
