MUSIC LAND (1935)

 RELEASE DATE: Saturday 5th October 1935

 
SYNOPSIS: Music Land is made up of two opposing islands: The Land of Symphony and the Isle of Jazz. The lands are separated by the raging Sea of Discord. A Romeo and Juliet style romance between two star crossed lovers takes place, with a saxophone prince from the Isle of Jazz and a violin princess from the Land of Symphony. Obviously, neither family wants this match to continue, so it leads to a great war between the nations. What could possibly bring about a future of peace...?

MALEFICENT: That was lovely. Funny. Cute.

WENDY: I really like that one.

IRVYNE: This is one of the all-time best Silly Symphonies. I think what makes it great even today, is that it works on so many levels. If you've got any kind of clue about music, there's a thousand little things that you could pick up while watching this.

PASCAL: It was so cool! I don't even know much about music, but I could recognise all the different references in there. Everything was made out of something musical.

MALEFICENT: The trees, the weapons, everything. There's so much hidden stuff to find.

WENDY: Even metronomes are cool in Music Land!

IRVYNE: It's the kind of thing where you're just chuckling the whole time, at how clever it all is.

SHENZI: Though I want to know, what happened to Mrs. Saxophone and Mr. Cello?

IRVYNE: I wonder. Maybe there's room for a prequel!

HAKU: Back then, jazz wasn't very well-respected by a lot of people, particularly since it grew largely out of the African-American community. So is this cartoon like some sort of demonstration of interracial marriage?

IRVYNE: Quite possibly. A lot of people apparently thought jazz was an evil form of music. I wonder how they would have reacted to this cartoon. Anyway, I love this one. It's beautifully animated, very clever and also hugely entertaining. Two big thumbs up.