Concerto Bandistico

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.

Very good, a short one that everyone should watch. Highly recommend.

I have always found The Band Concert an unforgettable Disney short, and to me is a true classic. The animation, considering it was made in Technicolur and made in 1935, is very impressive indeed, and for a variety of reasons the short is compulsive viewing for Disney and classical music lovers. From Mickey Mouse conducting in his intentionally over-sized band conductor's uniform, to Donald Duck causing trouble during the band performance of Rossini's rousing William Tell overture. This is special to me, as my dad is a conductor, I love animation and I was raised on classical music. For all these reasons, I have always found the Band Concert a wonderful gem, that would enthrall the younger generation as well as educate them to the world of classical music for years to come, just as much as it has enthralled me. 10/10 Bethany Cox.

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

THE BAND CONCERT which Mickey is conducting in the City Park becomes a titanic contest of wills & determination as the Mouse lets absolutely nothing stop his little group from completing their performance.

Mickey Mouse made his Technicolor debut & Donald Duck became a full-fledged cinematic star in this truly classic cartoon. It is easy to read so many things into this little film - Mickey as the standard bearer for stubborn authority & Donald as the leader of the coming revolution, for example - but perhaps it's safer to leave the philosophizing to the greybeards. Walt Disney and his animators wanted nothing more than to entertain an audience for a few minutes before the main picture began. What we now recognize as one of animation's seminal moments didn't even earn an Oscar nomination at the time. It is with hindsight that true appreciation grows.

Perfection can be found in the details: Mickey's look of fierce resolve as he struggles to conduct in his oversized uniform jacket; Donald's insouciant legerdemain as he produces an endless supply of fifes; the naughty little bee which causes musical mayhem; the absorption with which Clarabelle Cow (flute), Horace Horsecollar (percussion) & Goofy (clarinet) relentlessly continue their performances; the tornado, perfectly cued to the band's music, frightening away not only the audience, but their park benches as well; Mickey, perched on his box, being swept through the storm's debris (including the detritus of a destructed home's living room) without ever missing a measure of the music. Any of these moments would have been the pride of a lesser film;here, they are simply individual gems strung together to create a stunning whole.

It is worth noting that Donald was originally slated to appear as the band's saxophonist, but Walt wanted his part expanded. The rest is history and the Duck (his unique voice supplied by Clarence Nash) never looked back. For the record, the music heard during the opening credits is from the 1831 opera Zampa, by the Frenchman Louis-Joseph-Ferdinand Herold (1791-1833). Mickey's main offering, of course, is the Overture to the 1829 opera William Tell, by the Italian Gioacchino Antonio Rossini (1792-1868). 'Turkey In The Straw' is the triumphant tune played by the Duck.

THE BAND CONCERT is the perfect short subject to watch before viewing either FANTASIA (1940) or FANTASIA 2000 (1999).

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work will always pay off.

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.