[7.0/10] I think this is a case of Citizen Kane Effect for me, because I know *The Skeleton Dance* was groundbreaking for its time, and still iconic today, but it didn’t do much for me. It’s perfectly fine, with plenty of bits of creativity, but with nearly a century of animated works that have followed in its bony footprints, it’s hard for it to have the same impact to modern eyes.

I get that this short was revolutionary for how it synced sight and sound for animation. To its credit, that’s the best part of the cartoon, with neat little movements that dovetail nicely with the soundtrack. But the gags themselves aren't that striking, with a certain repetitiveness and “Let’s play that bit of animation back except mirrored” routine. It’s all cute enough, but not that novel to folks who’ve seen decades of output from this short’s inheritors.

That said, the sequence where the skeletons are dancing around in a circle remains visually striking, with a sense of depth and three-dimensionality that are truly impressive for the time. Although, while my sample size is small, I’m left to wonder how many of Disney’s early Silly Symphonies shorts have a combination of makeshift musical instruments and animal abuse, because it seems like a lot.

Overall, this is still good, but what makes it revolutionary will probably be lost even on sympathetic late-comers like me.