La fanfare

All budding animators should see this one. It is one of the all time great cartoons. The scene when the twister lifts the band up is transcendent. It still awes after all these years. The cartoon starts off in a light way, with donald duck interfering with the band,playing turkey in the straw against their william tell overture. The action is guided by the music, and vice versa-when mickey tries to swat a bee by waving his arms, the band play his instructions,when he gets ice cream down his pants and tries to shake it off, they play some belly dance music. There's great attention to detail in the cartoon, the music script follows the band as they fly about in the storm, when mickey is flying about and passes through a window frame the blind shuts after him. And the music is great and complements the animation perfectly. They shoulda sent this cartoon into space with the other stuff on voyager.

Mickey Mouse's first official outing in Technicolor {after 'Parade of the Award Nominees (1932),' which wasn't intended for public release} was 'The Band Concert (1935),' directed by the ever-reliable Wilfred Jackson. Like many of Mickey's cartoons, this one is basically a Silly Symphony featuring Disney's most popular character, with relative newcomer Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) having a few lines of dialogue. Being a cartoon built around an already-existing piece of classical music – Gioachino Rossini's "William Tell" overture, in this case – 'The Band Concert' might be viewed as another important step towards the achievements of 'Fantasia (1940).' Mickey plays the irritable conductor of a country band, who is determined to finish his song against all odds. His dedicated band of performers (including Goofy, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar and Peter Pig) continue playing despite the disruptions of Donald – who briefly confuses them into performing "Turkey in the Straw" – a mischievous bee, and a particularly violent tornado.

Donald is amusing, and the bee gags feel a little tired, but 'The Band Concert' reaches full stride in its final act, when a performance of "Storm" from the overture seemingly conjures a real-life tornado. Building upon his work in the Silly Symphony 'The Ugly Duckling (1931),' Jackson somehow turns this meteorological event into something operatic and almost apocalyptic. From the moment Mickey and his band commence this section of the overture, the mood of the cartoon subtly begins to change. Leaves begin to the whirl behind the musicians; the colours are slowly drained from the screen. With Mickey continuing feverishly to conduct the band, even with all this chaos being orchestrated around him, it almost seems as though he's also conducting the weather, suggesting the seeds of the "Sorceror's Apprentice" segment in 'Fantasia.' In 1994, 'The Band Concert' was rated the #3 American cartoon of all time, the highest-rated Disney release. For me, it doesn't beat 'The Old Mill (1937),' but is still a very worthy effort.

For almost three years since Walt Disney bought the exclusive rights to Technicolor's three-strip system for cartoons beginning with his "Silly Symphonies Flowers and Trees," his Mickey Mouse series was so popular he didn't think he needed to spend the immense amount of money it took to make his cartoons in color. But Disney decided to take the plunge and create Mickey's 73rd short film, February 1935's "The Band Concert," a full-color affair.

Disney was especially attentive in making sure Mickey's color debut was a success. He had his top director, Wilfred Jackson, handle his studio's best artists to create the eight-minute cartoon. Audiences applauded the new look of Mickey in "The Band Concert". The world's most respected conductor, Italy's Arturo Toscanini, was so impress by the cartoon he asked the movie theater's projectionist to rewind the reel and play it again, for a total of six times. So moved by the cartoon he invited Walt to stay at his Italian villa whenever he was in the neighborhood.

Mickey is a conductor of a local orchestra playing in a city park in "The Band Concert." Several Mickey Mouse regulars are in the band, including Goofy, Clarabelle and Peter Pig. Donald Duck arrives on the scene with his truck selling popcorn, peanuts and ice cream. Mr. Duck causes a fuss by playing 'Turkey in the Straw." Mickey gets all bent out of shape before the exciting climax, where a tornado rips through the park while the band is playing Gioachino Rossini's 'The William Tell Overture.' Despite all the chaos, the musicians don't miss a beat as they continue playing while caught up in the whirling tornado.

Film critic Leonard Maltin praised "The Band Concert," acclaiming it as "one of the best cartoons ever made anywhere. There are nuances of expression in Mickey's character throughout this film that had seldom been explored in earlier shorts. The pacing is also entirely different from the standard Mickey Mouse comedies of the early thirties. Instead of trying to pack in a thousand gags a minute, The Band Concert takes its time and builds to a crescendo." The Mickey short has been polled by animation professionals as the best Disney cartoon ever made, ranking third in the 'The 50 Greatest Cartoons' reference book.

A beautifully simple Disney short about Mickey Mouse trying to conduct an outdoor concert while constantly being interrupted by, among other things, Donald Duck. This was Mickey's first color cartoon and it's a fun one, despite Mickey never speaking and most of the funny bits going to Donald. What really sells the short is the absolutely stunning Technicolor, particularly for the time in which it was made. I can't say enough about how gorgeous it is. Also the animation itself is really excellent. The characters and backgrounds are all well-drawn and the action scenes are terrific. The music is also enjoyable and, of course, the humor is great. Donald was probably the funniest of the Disney characters and here that's on full display. Lots of fun for Disney fans with some jaw-dropping Technicolor that one can't help but appreciate.

In this, first color, Mickey Mouse short, he stars as a music conductor at a country fair. His band are playing, in the most average way, The William Tell overture. It gets worse though when Donald (playing a loudmouth ice-cream vendor) comes along and muscles in on the band with his flute, playing a bizarre alternate take on the music and causing the band to stray off course.

Mickey gets mad (I like it when Mickey isn't always the clean-cut good guy) and tries his best to silence Donald. Once that's out the way a bee torments each and every band member, causing further collapse of Mickey's conducting. Once Mickey turns the page on his music script a rather difficult segment of music (called 'The Storm') is revealed. How appropriate, at that very moment a twister tears thru the countryside. The band are so lost in their performance that they don't even realize they're sucked up inside a tornado. It's the highlight of the cartoon, with some truly inventive animation and technically brilliant for it's day.

Mickey doesn't actually say anything in this one but his facial expression do all the acting. Like I said, I like it when Mickey isn't always the opposite of Donald (IE not moody and easily frustrated) and this is their pairing here in this cartoon.