Mickey, o Maestro

This short is the first one that Disney made starring Mickey in color and what a glorious way to bring the Mouse into color! This is one of the best animated shorts of all time. Often imitated, but never duplicated. Disney was at the top of the mountain as far as animation was concerned and this one is justifiably considered a classic. Well worth looking for. Most highly recommended.

'The Band Concert (1935)' is a fantastic short film. It casts Mickey as a conductor trying to work his way through 'William Tell' as he contends with Donald Duck's mischievous flute playing and a cow-swallowing hurricane. The thing is entertaining right from the off. Its sight gags are splendid and it's genuinely funny. The animation is also just amazing, some of the best I've seen. It starts out a little slow, but it's a wonderful experience that should keep a smile on your face throughout. 8/10

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.

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.