RyothChatty ridiculous rating

FrogGlace In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Kodie Bird True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Robert Reynolds This is one of the shorts in the Silly Symphonies series produced by Disney. There will be spoilers ahead:The opening shot is a pan in on a china plate. It goes from a static shot to animation and the story starts. It involves the daughter of a Chinese mandarin and a young fisherman. First, we see servants of the mandarin serving him food, then musicians and dancers entertaining the mandarin.The daughter enters the short in a dance sequence and then follows a butterfly outdoors. The action cuts to a nice sequence of the fisherman using a bird to bring in fish. The girl falls in the water and is rescued by the fisherman. They start chasing the butterfly together.The butterfly flies into the house and lands on the chair in which the mandarin is snoozing. The fisherman tries to catch the butterfly, only to roughly grab the mandarin instead, who wakes up in very bad temper. The two begin to fight as the daughter tries to stop them.Eventually, the daughter and fisherman escape in a rickshaw, with the mandarin soon in pursuit. The mandarin meets up with a dragon, which eliminates one threat only to become a greater threat to our happy couple. They vanquish the dragon in the end and go off on their own (with the bird) on the boat.All of the characters are Chinese and are mildly stereotypical. This short is available on the Disney Treasures Silly Symphonies DVD set and both the short and the set are worth getting. Most recommended.

Shawn Watson The artwork on a Chinese plate comes alive and the characters start moving about in time with the music. That's it, that's the premise for the entire cartoon. You have to wonder how Walt Disney never managed to get bored of making these repetitive shorts. They wear thin very, very quickly.It's an early black-and-white effort with nothing at all to give it any lasting appeal all these years later. Some people have complained about the cartoon being "racist" or using "stereotyped characters". I wouldn't pay too much attention to that, it's harmless. These accusations are the only thing that stop it from being completely forgettable though.

TheLittleSongbird I have always much enjoyed the Disney Silly Symphonies, and while not quite in my top 10 favourites The China Plate is one of the better early ones to me. It is simply but still beautifully animated, with something always interesting to watch such as the umbrella reveal and the lovers' hands, and the music, with very effective use of In a Chinese Temple Garden, is both authentic and energetic, always enhancing the always entertaining action such as the tapping of the girl's shoes. There are also some interesting gags, especially the fishing gag, and the more romantic aspects are genuinely charming. The characters are in a way ethnic stereotypes but are done in a mild way, so I never felt offended watching The China Plate. The fight scene is exciting with well-incorporated and fitting music, and the story is engaging and deserves credit for choosing a setting different to nature or in a barnyard. Overall, really excellent. 10/10 Bethany Cox

Dawalk-1 I first saw this Disney short on Youtube a few months ago. I've become enraptured with it ever since. Everything about it I find great, but what I really love most about it is the Chinese musical score featured in it. It's one of my favorite compositions used in a Silly Symphony and I think one of the best. I never paid much attention to Chinese music before this, but this instrumental Chinese song grabbed me like no other. Maybe it was just all in a matter of finding what I'd consider to be the perfect tune in that sub-genre of world music that actually appealed to me. Despite the Chinese stereotypes, I read somewhere that this was one of the few (allegedly) racist Disney shorts that actually aired on the Disney cartoon anthology show The Ink And Paint Club. It must not have been that supposedly bad enough to ban it, the stereotypes must be slight only if that's the case, at least I can't find anything bad in it, not sure what that would be. Anyway, a delightful short in which we get a different look at the country China: From the plate and what takes place on it. I don't know for sure if this is one of the first cartoons in which we get to see things come to life, but if it is, then it's certainly among the pioneers and is groundbreaking for its time, not to mention imaginative. I like the Chinese boy coming to the aid of the Chinese girl (too bad the father had to be such a ruffian) the chase scenes, and the boulder being rolled into a dragon's mouth and in its stomach. One of my favorite Silly Symphonies.