The Emperor's New Clothes (Silly Symphonies short)

The Emperor's New Clothes is a 2031 hand-drawn animated short directed by Natalie Nourigat and produced by Clark Spencer for Walt Disney Animation Studios and Disney+. Released as part of the 2031 Silly Symphonies collection of shorts, tge film retells the classic story of an emperor who is conned by two swindlers into trading his clothes for ones only visible by intelligent people.
The short was released in July 1, 2031, and was met with praise for its humor and characterization.
== Plot ==
During the nedueval times, in a far away kingdom, Emperor Richard ruled his lands in a self-serving way, with all being ordered by him and for him, and everybody looking down on him but believing him too powerful to be stopped. Perceiving the lack lf respect from his subjects, Richard travels to the town in order to find out how to earn their respects. There, he meets two supposed "seamstresses" who create clothes "only the intelligent can see", named John H. Foulfellow and Gideon. Believing he can earn his subjects' respects by making them "see" how dumb they are compared to him, Richard hures them to make such clothes for him. In truth, Foulfellow and Gideon are swindlers who plan to take advantage of him.
In the castle, Foulfellow and Gideon are given a room were they can "work"; secretly instead lazying around and enteryaing themselves while occasionally spying on Richard to see whether he believes their lies. When the two present their "work", Richard pretends that he can see the clothes to not to appear a fool in front of everybody. After a few days, Foulfellow and Gideon "finish their work", so Richard organizes a march througth the town. While everybody is at first fearful of saying his on his underwear, the kids quickly begin to say it out loud, and the rest soon join. Publicly humilliated, Richard tries to take his revenge on the swindlers, only to find out they escaped with his money. The incident causes the townsfolk to lose any fear they had on him, seeing him as a buffoon instead, while his guards and court lose respect for him. Richard is soon dethroned and turned into the royal court's buffoon, while a new, more humble emperor, is placed.
== Voice cast ==
* Clancy Brown as Emperor Richard
* Corey Burton as Honest John
* Kaith Soucie as Little Child
* Mel Blanc as Gideon. Blanc appears througth unusued archival recordings for Pinocchio.
== Production ==
=== Development ===
Work on a Disney adaptation of The Emperor's New Grooves dates back to the early 1920s, as a proposed short for the Silly Symphonies series, but failed to materialize. A few years later, a second attempt at an adaptation was made, as a Mickey Mouse short or featurette, with characters such as Goofy and Donald also considered to be part of the plot, but once again plans failed.
In April 2031, it was announced that Disney was adapting The Emperor's New Clothes as the first short to be part of a new series of Silly Symphonies shorts for Disney+. Natalie Nourigat was announced as director, with Clark Spencer producing. The short was selected by Nourigat after doing a research on the original shorts on the Disney archives, finding out Disney's previoys failed attempts, causing her to be interested in "finally bringing this old story to the House of Mouse". She choose to include Honest John and Gideon from 1940's Pinocchio due to her interest in working on classic Disney characters.
=== Animation ===
For the short's animation, artists were inspired by shorts such as Disney's The Tortoise and the Hare and Robin Hood. However, they also wanted the short to feel modern, so they incorporated modern animation techniques into its visual style, resulting in what Natalie Nourigat described as "a blend of old and new looks". Animators studied work for the original Pinocchio film to faithfully potray the movements of Foulfellow and Gideon.
== Trivia ==
* The horses in Foulfellow and Gideon's vehicle are the Colonel from One Hundred and One Dalmatians and Frou Frou from The Aristocats.
* Several of the citizens in the kingdom are characters from Robin Hood.
* At one point, Foulfellow is heard singing "(Hi-Diddle-De) An Actor's Life for Me", the same song he sung in Pinocchio.
* Foulfellow and Gideon previously appeared as the swindlers in a Disney book adaptation if The Emperor's New Clothes.