Konterr Brilliant and touching

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

mraculeated The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

classicsoncall I try to picture myself as an audience member in the theater watching this for the very first time back in 1935. That had to be quite the experience, not only because it was Walt Disney's first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color, but the vibrancy and dynamic action make it a blast to watch even today. There's just so much going on when the picture first starts out that it's difficult to zero in on any one item, you just don't want to miss anything. As conductor Mickey gets the William Tell Overture under way, Donald Duck begins hawking ice cream, and then a busy bee starts to give Mickey fits. As a huge, black tornado breaks things up, the creativity of the cartoon artists really comes into play. As a fan, I found this to be a wonderful treat, certainly raising the bar for future Disney endeavors and other studios as well.

rbverhoef This short is about Mickey Mouse leading a band. The band plays the famous William Tell Overture when Donald is selling ice cream, hears the band and grabs a flute to play along. Mickey is not very pleased with this.The first Mickey Mouse short in color is nice but I was not as pleased as I normally am with a short like this. Still very nice and perfectly done.

Ron Oliver 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.

Robert Reynolds 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.