A Car-Tune Portrait

The concept alone was reason enough to make me want to see 'A Car-Tune Portrait'. It is a very familiar one in animation (not at the time, this was one of the earliest ones), and while it is not one of the best or most iconic ones it still it very well. Likewise, Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 is one of the most famously featured pieces in animation, and in most cases it's been used very entertainingly and cleverly. Love animation too and Fleischer at their best did a lot of great work.

Fleischer Studios' "Color Classics" series was a very hit and miss one, with some hits, some misses and most in between. The lesser cartoons in the series were mostly from the 40s, which signalled "the fall of Fleischer", and most of the late-30s cartoons were among the best. 'A Car-Tune Portrait' is one of the best and along with 'The Fresh Vegetable Mystery' conceptually it stands out among the rest. 'A Car-Tune Portrait' is one of the cleverest in the series and a strong contender for the funniest.

'A Car-Tune Portrait' is another example of a cartoon where the plot is best forgotten, as there isn't much of one. Otherwise there is very little else to criticise. Animation and classical music fans alike must see and should love it.

Its best asset is easily, and somewhat predictably (in a good way), the music. Not just the actual music itself, which is the very definition of timeless but also the way it's used, the orchestration and use of instruments is so cleverly done especially when the action becomes increasingly chaotic. Also standing out is the animation, right from the first scene with the hand in an interesting technique of the frame-to-frame movement) and the smooth transition into when the action properly starts to the very end, with some of the liveliest and most colourful animation being in the second half when it becomes a riotous musical frenzy.

Furthermore, there is humour aplenty and the good news is that all of it works. The best of it hilarious, whether the wonderfully chaotic slapstick or the dry humour from the lion conductor. Similarly, the energy is constant and when it is intended to be frenzied it is the personification of exuberance. The characters are a lot of fun and have colourful personalities, the most memorable being the lion conductor, slyly voiced by David Ross.

Overall, great. 9/10

This cartoon was done several years before Disney's famous full-length feature "Fantasia" but it has similar elements and is pretty clever material.

We first see some the principal characters in the cartoon drawn first, by the unseen human artist. It's a quick draw, as this artist draws these animal characters in seconds, one after the other. It's finished with a lion dressed in a tuxedo followed by a sketch of a stage and big curtain.

The cartoon then zooms in on the curtain and the story comes to life. The next minute, to me, offered some fabulous dry humor. Dig this elitism from the snobby lion conductor, who introduces the night's music with the following:

"Greetings, my good friends. You all undoubtedly have been under the delusion or shall I say misapprehension that we, of the cartoon animal kingdom, are lacking in the fine sensibilities. Now to disprove this, we shall ask you to forget our former pranks and playfulness, we ask you in the name of dignity and art to put yourselves in a receptive frame of mind and not to expect of us the tomfoolery and clowning you generally associate us with. And now....to our musical program!"

Well, happily, the cartoon animals in the orchestra wind up being whom they are - undignified and clowns - and the symphony winds up in comedic chaos. All the gags are slapstick and some are genuinely funny, along with the conductor's parting words.

This is a very good cartoon and deserves being seen by more people.

"A Car-Tune Portrait" is a cartoon short directed by Dave Fleischer that proves one and all that no matter what you do to make yourself look different, your true nature is going to come out one way or another, and it is especially the case when it comes to the various cartoon animal characters that many moviegoers around this time period are immediately exposed to before the feature film begins.

Right as the picture begins, we are shown some of the characters being drawn by an "animated" hand (it's really a photograph of one moving frame-by-frame) and we transition to a concert hall where a lion conductor informs us that for the first time, we will be shown that the cartoon animals we often see can be more dignified and self-contained by performing classical music. The song the animals play: none other than Franz Liszt's Hungarian Symphony No. 2 (or simply "Number Two"). Everything's all fine and dandy as the tune begins, but as the picture goes on, the characters' true nature begins comes out and becomes a musical frenzy.

While not the first animated short to use Franz Liszt's "Number Two", this is the animated cartoon that practically started the trend of using it as a musical joke throughout the entire picture as opposed to just a small section of it. I'm pretty sure that's what went through the mind of director Dave Fleischer. Several other shorts from different studios would soon follow years later with this concept, including the 1946 Oscar-winning short "The Cat Concerto", directed by Bill Hanna and Joseph Barbera. As for this short, it's well done. The animation is smooth and precise, as usual with cartoons made by the Fleischer brothers, and the build-up to the slapstick was genius at the time. Nowadays, it's seen as another short that happens to use "Number Two" as a primary basis of comedy, but let's be honest, it never gets old when done right.

The film is in the public domain and not under any form of copyright, therefore it is freely available to watch on the internet, specifically YouTube, and in my opinion, it's worth a watch, especially if you're interested in finding out where "Number Two" as a joke got its roots in animation history.

Maestro Lion conducts the other cartoon animals in The Hungarian Rhapsody, with Spike-Jones-meets-Fantasia results. Predates "Fantasia" (1940), Disney's similar "Symphony Hour" (1942), and even Spike Jones first recordings (1941).

A cut above tlhe usual use of animals to portray symphony orchestra members. There are several wonderful tableaus that work well with the classical Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. It's a shame that we have forsaken the portrayal of this beautiful music for our children.