Walt Disney - The Truth About Mother Goose (1/2) - 1957

[shenloken2]

I find the origins of 'Mary Mary' quite interesting: even if Disney didn't fully portray it accurately.

I bet it would be really scary and very depressing if they decided to do the origins of 'Ring Around the Rosie.' I'm not sure how Disney would have portrayed The Black Death here.

[indielovesunicorns]

Mary Queen of Scots is one of my favorite historical figures. I really love the book Queen's Own Fool.

[Inkan1969]

Actually, I thought that the nursery rhyme was based on Bloody Mary instead? Can anyone confirm or debunk?

[Dhampir1987]

huh...interesting, the way mary is moving amongst the men of the court is the EXACT way katrina van tassle did in the icabod cartoon.

[dacianavamp]

I've been looking for this for years. I used to have a video cassette loaded with classic Disney cartoons like this, but it was lost over the years through several moves. (Such is military life.) Thank you so much for sharing this! (Now I can relive my best childhood nightmares! Ha ha!)

[Sorce473]

It always drives me a little crazy that Disney has Mary Stuart at Queen Elizabeth's court. They never met. Elizabeth had her arrested as soon as she came into England; the politics were just too dangerous. Elizabeth wasn't jealous, just politically minded.

[lilrayes22]

i dont know if i agree with the mary mary quite contrary one cuz i have read many historical litterature that states that marys garden was the graveyard and the siver bell, cockle shells and maid were all torture devices so in short, her graveyard garden is growing throught the murder of people through those devices

[akissy]

Watered down Mary, Mary rhyme. The pretty maids were, as far as I know, aborted babies.

[Inkan1969]

@akissy I heard they were the severed heads of court women Mary thought were showing her up because they were prettier than her.

[katehisandhugs]

Im only 13. How long ago did they show this on disney channel? I never saw any of the old disney cartoons when I was little.

[PARKORLOVER4]

omg sexy shit agen in whalt desney who whuda fought at 1;22 the tallist bellding in the far right the one thats light brown exsept for the top wich is a dark brown

[ButterfliBoi]

Which is more creepy: Jack Horner's Nightmare Sequence or Mistress Mary's climb to her death? Either way... it's creepy!

[ccipollini1984]

Don't you think Henry would have gotten wise to the disappearing deed and had Jack Horner executed? I've always wondered that.

[PsycadelicShack]

I remember the bit where Jack Horner is having the nightmares used to scare me when I was little. I don't know why. I think it was the "Jack-Horner, Jack-Horner, Jack-Horrrrrnnnerrrrr!" bit. HAHAH!

[skylur44]

This was my all time favorite cartoon wehn I was little; I LOVED them all but the first, Jack Horner, was my favorite of all of them.

[Hardyman1966]

Classic 50's Disney!

[99mees]

mary mary, why you bugging?

[ep301]

I watched far too much Disney as a kid...and for this reason:

I've just realized that many of the animated scenes of Mary Queen of Scots were borrowed from the Sleepy Hollow Cartoon as well as Cinderella. The part where she's running down the stairwell and turns around slightly is from Cinderella when she loses the glass slipper (3:51-3:55). And 6:08-6:14 is from Sleepy Hollow.

Also both Mary's and Katrina Von Tassel faces bear a striking resemblance to Cinderella. AND Jack Horner = Ichabod.

[blackraspberrytwist]

2:00 doesn't he look like the servant from disney's sleeping beauty who drinks too much wine and falls asleep with his head stuck inside the mandolin??

[ep301]

@blackraspberrytwist

YES! It does! Also I just wrote about how many of the scenes are from other Disney cartoons as well....but Disney did that a lot so I'm not surprised.

[JustMeHuman1]

Good way to show children what is it like in this world... greed, jealousy, easy Mary, kings and queens who can always imprison you if not worse. Indoctrination's goood :)

[andymission]

Mother Creator wants you to enter a drawing.

~~ lOVES yOU ~~

[MrVittorio94]

Classic!!!

[satekmary506094]

Mother Goose is a Genius! Fantastic Disney Short!

Jack is Cute! 1:11

[Bluebelle9289]

I read it took them three "hits" to behead Mary, and that it was said that Mary was still alive during the ordeal.

[GroggyLobster]

3:46 "...bringing with her the gay french ways."

[skylur44]

I saw this when I was about 7 years old and loved it; I did not see it again until I was much older, but the biggest impact was the one where Jack Horner was in his bedroom on the stolen estate, for some reason that bedroom and those huge windows and the song stayed with me, when I saw it again, I was just fascinated, like going back in time. Thanks so much for posting this.

[Titanmoon89]

this was the reason why, that nursery rhyme Mary Mary quite contrary scared the crap outta me.

[sislau]

It is SO refreshing to find this!! I remember watching it as a child, and have LOOOOONGED to see it ... Thank you so much for posting!!! :D

[andymission]

I Love you! and I Love Mother Creator who is Mother Goose. Didn't know there was a disney cartoon of Mother Goose until today.

[kingmoose]

I first saw this twenty years ago and it has stuck with me ever since. In fact the part about Mary Stewart is perhaps why i majored in History in college.

[hangv001]

now that i think about it, mother goose's stories are really creepy

[Hotshotter3000]

How accurate are these explanations?

[buckingtrends]

just discovered this gem last night on disney channel. love that the art is styled so much like sleeping beauty, and that despite it being disney. the jesters are hella creepy, especially at the end of the mary, mary part. definitely one of the darker disney shorts i've seen, especially for its time.

[noirchien]

@buckingtrends yes yes, i think so

[janefvl]

I just LOVE how Disney incorporates history into his works. They're very entertaining and educational at the same time! :)

[Leon61491]

And we can be sure that the king let him have it... SPLAT!!! ROFL!!!!

[adventseditio]

I love the part with Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary, it stuck with me ever since I first saw it on telly years ago.

[CrimsonNineTail]

Wolfgang Reitherman directed this no wonder I liked it sooo. :)

[underworld1623]

Ah...I miss the old disney.

[champolaglow]

@underworld1623

oh my lord SO DO I

UTTERLY

[Welshman2008]

Actually Mary's rhyme is based on both Mary I aka Bloody Mary the daughter of Henry the VIII, and Mary Queen of Scots

[GSEagle85]

I thought about this short, glad could find it, its interesting when you see something when your younger, and then seeing it later and understanding things more

[GojyotheFeared]

The animation style shown here would have scared the crap out of my if I watched this as a kid. I don't know why, but there's just something about those jesters that spook me.

I feel kinda the same way about Showbizz pizza before it became Chuck-E-Cheeze and it still scares me.

But it's one of those fun thrilling kinda scares.

[HighwayJoe]

Saw this for the first time in 1990 on The Disney Channel. They aired it before 'Sleeping Beauty' [which I was taping onto VHS, so I taped this cartoon as well]. Love the animation, and was quite taken by the somber nature of the 'Mary, Mary' segment.

[kcbrownbear]

mostly children watch this video, goelizz. please delete the profanity. you are robbing them of their innocence, seriously. i'm not a holy roller btw, its just common decency.

[yoggin02]

Man, I loved this as a kid. They used to show it on "Quack attack" and "Mouse Tracks" on the Disney channel. I'll admit, though, it scared me as a small child..especially the part about Mary.

[cyberkitkat]

i guess disney couldnt bring up the catholic and protestant stuff w/ mary, mary

[Cationna]

This is wonderful, as always good old Disney! And specially interesting for non-English.

But I'm in two minds about how they showed Mary (who's one of my favourite figures). I'm glad they didn't make her look like a monster in opposite to Elisabeth, like-forgive me-many English do. But instead they suggested she was awful fizgig-and had no interest in country. 5:52 is quite outrageous. And she wasn't like that!

But oh well... let's not be too meticuolous. Children's cartoon and a good one :)

[MasterYoshi813]

This Disney cartoon gave me nightmares as a kid...ah,the good old days when an innocent cartoon could scare the crap out of you! I miss my childhood!

[GoeLiezzz]

so true! I had this cartoon on tape but it was French spoken, I didn't understand a word of it and it still scared the shit out of me!

[spaydthesuperhero]

XD Funny

[MasterYoshi813]

Thanks for the comment...the hardest part in posting it was convincing my cat to type it for me...this too.

[baraka1408]

Thanks for this!!!! Been looking for it for YEARS

[TheDreamingSleeper]

OK...

Now I know more about Mary Queen of Scots.

I readed one book called:

THE KINGS AND QUEENS OF ENGLAND

[Sorce473]

Gah! Mary Stuart never met Elizabeth. Mary spent all her time in England under arrest in the North. Sorry, I re-enact this period, and we get people all the time asking where Mary Queen of Scots is.  (twitch)

[xxdarkhatterxx]

I remember being haunted by this... sooo scary... I miss being a kid!

[comedytonighttt]

I didn't know about this until a few moments ago. I can see the Mary rhyme with a definite tone of sarcasm now that I understand what it is about. :3

[samuraiofsamuraiedo]

ah the memmories. Disney calssics are the best! XD Well, that is until the late '90's when they started doing everything digital, which, other than the first Toy Story and maybe one or two others aren't as great as the classics.

[queenestherrules]

Thanks for adding this, I've been looking for it for over a year!!

[GoeLiezzz]

Had this on videotape when I was a kid :) but it was dubbed in French, I never knew what they were saying because I never understood French before I was 11

[SillySeaWeed]

Oh my goodness!!! YouTube recommended this to me! They used to show this on Disney Channel back in the 80's (very informative for children) and I knew all these songs!! I would sing them to people and they had no idea! Thank you for posting and the memories, thanks YouTube for the recommendation!!

[GaryEngeranoTeh]

thanks alot for uploading this!!!:)...brings back lots of memoriess~..hehe

[faithwillwin]

this and "disney's symposium of popular music" were both cartoon preludes to the movie version of Alice in Wonderland. a friend of ours had the 16mm film and we used to watch it all the time. i never thought i'd find this again. these old cartoons actually have merit, unlike the junk churned out today.

[54spiritedwill54]

One of my favorites! So glad it's up here!

[Welshman2008]

the part about mary is wrong. It wasn't Mary queen of Scots it was bloody mary who was queen of england before Elizibeth the 1st

[trippyhop]

It is accurate, though, because Mary Stuart was the Queen of Scotland, not England, like Blood Mary was (not to mention that Bloody Mary and Elizabeth were half-sisters, and Elizabeth and Mary Stuart were cousins). Mary Stuart was imprisoned and executed, also, not necessarily because of Elizabeth's jealousy, but because Mary Stuart had a strong following amongst Catholics in England, while Elizabeth supported her father's Church of England.

[MaRrRrRry14]

omg...thatsz sooo interesting!! i love learning about this stuff. thankxx for the info ;-)

[Darkdealer651]

@trippyhop what is also worthy of note is that Queen Elizabeth was going to change her mind about Mary's execution, but the privy council, led by Lord Burghley, saw the execution carried out without the Queen knowing.

[BeatlesAmiYumi]

@Darkdealer651 I heard from Wikipedia that Queen Elizabeth feared the consiquences for the "execution" of Mary. That was that Mary's son Prince James, who I think later in life became king James the First, would want revenge for his mother's death by, with the parties of France and Spain, invading England.

[MizuTakishima]

Holy crap this was amazing!! =0 I'm 20 years old but I've never seen this 'til now!

[micah444]

I know im only 19 and ive seen some of the older Disney cartoons but not this one. its amazing.

[tutorgirl082594]

i love this. THANK YOU a million times. :))

i wish they'd make cartoons as great as these now.

[izlude2]

this is gonna sound nasty, but i once saw a fan picture of those 3 jacks in a 3sum.

[UnshackledWoman]

....amazing. I watched this as a child...i had no clue it had history behind the rhymes. when watching this..i watched it for the cartoons. who knew i would finally "get it" at 25!! LOL!!!!

[mrsmilo]

Haha!!  Me too! :-)

[JA268]

I love this short! and I love Mary's story though it was sad

[xXRoconzaXx]

wow I never noticed how dark this cartoon was but it's cool

[Sorce473]

Love this video, the art style is wonderfully done, though Mary never met Elizabeth, and definetely never got near her court as she was arrested as soon as she entered England. And her execution was for getting involved in plots to assassinate Elizabeth. Ah well, disney history never was the most accurate.

[lifestream85]

I used to watch this when I was 5 year old kid.

[wildheart19]

And a little bit of extra history to Mary, mary quite contrary.  If I am correct she also became known as Bloody Mary. Name sound familer?

[briarswt]

Actually, no, it's not true. You're mixing up Mary Tudor and Mary Stuart. Mary Stuart is the one mentioned here. Mary Tudor is known as Bloody Mary (for her burnings of Protestant martyrs).

[silvar68]

No. Bloody Mary is Mary Tudor, the sister of Queen Elizabeth. This one is Mary, Queen of Scotland, also a Catholic Marthyr.

[missomac]

OMG thank you thank you THANK YOU! I remember watching this when i was a kid and i been hoping to see it again!

[twistedminds88]

interesting :]

i love the little twists..

[michikoww]

Great memories :)

[eclaire291]

What in the world?

[F1315NJ]

do u think u could send me the vid file of the entire video? im planning on using the Mary segment as part of a short piece in my upcoming Halloween Music Vid, "Headless Waltz" by Voltaire

[mirrorkat23]

mary mary, quite contrary...

[champthom]

Awesome. I remember watching this when I was little. I still think of the story behind "London Bridge is Falling Down" whenever I hear that tune.

[rebrella]

This is a great concept, I'm glad I found this.

[swarlock]

I thought Mary's story was kind of sad.

[africanrebelrc]

Her final climb of the stairwell was creepy as hell.

[Necroticpus]

The ending was the best part!

[Jal8919536]

For more on the royal figure behind the nursery rhyme, watch "Mary, Queen of Scots" (1971) starring Vanessa Regrave as Mary and Glenda Jackson as Elizabeth II.

[JA268]

Yes I did! here on youtube, and I love it! and Mary has become one of my favorite royal woman

[Dandan1789]

for sure one of my favourite disney cartoons EVER. haven't seen this in like 10+, either!!!

[frenchkitty]

ohh that was creepy, i didnt like at all the ending :(

[rent8907]

the mary mary one was kinda creepy at the end

[Vidda90]

creepy

[SHAUNERDANIEL]

Oh my, I'm so glad to find this...  I can't find it in my videos... Thanks!

[ep301]

omg i love you! i have always wanted to see this cartoon again and i've never been able to until now! i haven't seen this in about 10 years!

[anyabelle]

yes, same here!

[babybookworm003]

there are some flaws about mary queen of scots but this is good they forgot to mention that mary was alos bethroth the the dupiane of france

[johnrolf2006]

i love this short *i subscribed*

[johnrolf2006]

i love this short *i subscribed*

[neoprankster]

The sound is out of sync.

[JA268]

Yes there should an in-sync, HQ version here

[crocetti1984]

One of my favorites! So glad it's up here!

[Hewylewis]

i like the version with ludwig von drake more than this, but this is good too.

[swarlock]

Agreed.

[Hewylewis]

NVM, I like this better.

[smilefumble]

@Hewylewis Have you got the L.V.D. version. I would like it uploaded please if you have it.

[cheerbear237]

I HAVE SEARCHED FOR THIS FOR OVER 20 YEARS! Thank you so much for uploading. You don't know how many times I searched the internet for this cartoon. This is the cartoon that got me interested in history! You made my decade!

[luvesgirl]

This was one of my favs growing up... Who knew history could be so entertaining... Only goes to show you can learn anything if presented in some form you enjoy... Love it...