The Star-fish[1] are characters featured in the 1938 Silly Symphony short Wynken, Blynken and Nod. They are star-shaped creatures that take the form of a fish.
Background
Physical appearance
Most of the star-fish have a yellow coloration around their body resembling that of a typical yellow star. True to their name, they are star-shaped creatures with fish-like characteristics resembling that of a typical angelfish, each fin around their body resembling that of a star's parts with a pectoral fin on both sides of their body, making them a literal interpretation of the word.
Role in the short
Wynken, Blynken and Nod encounter a school of star-fish during a quiet night. Just as they stop, the three use fishing poles with candy cane as bait for the star-fish to capture. As Nod captures one, he tries to capture the baby star-fish with its net. As Wynken and Blynken tell Nod not to scare away the fish by shushing at him, Nod rebelled, but not before four additional fish taunt him. Nod impatient attempts to capture the baby star-fish which suddenly begins leaping on their boat, only for the star-fish to escape.
Wynken then patiently tries to reel his bait for a star-fish which begins licking his candy cane, only for Nod to impatiently reel his bait at the spot where it was licking his candy cane, causing a conflict for the two of them. Just as Wynken and Blynken both hook Nod who is about to fall off, more star-fish swim towards Nod who mistake him for candy cane. However, all the star-fish retreat from a comet passing by. The do not appear again throughout the rest of the short.
Trivia
- The star-fish were inspired by the stars from the original "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" poem by Eugene Field, where Wynken, Blynken, and Nod treated them as herring fish.
- Although every scene where the star-fish appear consist of yellow star-fish, blue-colored variants also appear during the scene where they first appear, making it the only scene where these blue variants are visibly seen.
- Their name is derived from the real-life starfish, making them a literal interpretation of these creatures as star-shaped creatures in the form of fish and also a pun on the word "starfish". In real life, starfish are not actually fish but rather echinoderms, which are actually marine invertebrates.
- The star-fishes' designs incorporated some scrapped elements seen during the "Someday My Prince Will Come" sequence from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, where it showcased a group of cherubic stars bringing the Prince to Snow White in a fantasy sequence as seen through storyboards. This fantasy sequence featuring the stars was dropped and replaced with Snow White singing to the Seven Dwarfs due to the storyboard receiving a major revision.[2] Coincidentally, the designs for these stars (whose designs were incorporated by the star-fish from Wynken, Blynken and Nod) would later serve as an inspiration for the Star character from the 2023 Disney animated feature film Wish.
Gallery
