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.

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

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.

A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.THE CHINA PLATE on the shelf has much to tell, if you examine the picture on its face carefully. There you'll find the story of a dreadful old mandarin who forbids the love of his daughter for a simple fisherman...An interesting black & white cartoon, which alternates between action/reaction antics & the plot of the romantic story. The animation is stylized to look somewhat like a blue willow pattern plate. Quite a few racist elements in the story.The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.