Environment Planet Earth 1932 Love Story Starring Trees Is the Sweetest Thing (Video) By Melissa Breyer Editorial Director Hunter College F.I.T., State University of New York Cornell University Melissa Breyer is Treehugger’s editorial director. She is a sustainability expert and author whose work has been published by the New York Times and National Geographic, among others. our editorial process Melissa Breyer Updated October 11, 2018 Video screen capture. YouTube Share Twitter Pinterest Email Planet Earth Outdoors Weather Conservation I'm batty for trees. I'm a science-loving urban resident who turns woo-woo hippie when it comes to trees. Like, come on guys, trees are people too. (Case in point: Trees in the forest are social beings.) Which is why this Silly Symphonies cartoon produced by Walt Disney had me cooing like a dove when I first saw it. Directed by Burt Gillett and released by United Artists in July of 1932, it was the first commercial film to be produced in the full-color three-strip Technicolor process. The film was already in production in black and white when Disney decided it should be remade using the new color process – the color version was a success, both critically and commercially ... and picked up the first Academy Award for Animated Short Subject along the way. But aside from the historical place the short holds, it's just a delightfully sweet story that shows a love for nature that still resonates like crazy some 75 years later. And while scientists are quick to question the anthropomorphizing of nature, is it really so wrong to re-imagine the living things we share our planet with in more human and thus humane terms? I say "no" ... bring on the tree people!