THE BAND CONCERT (1935)

 

 RELEASE DATE: Saturday 23rd February 1935

  

SYNOPSIS: Mickey has been given the conductor's baton to lead the band in a concert featuring the overture from William Tell. The only thing he wasn't counting on was a party-crashing duck with a flute who just wants to join in... Then a storm appears and things get really out-of-hand!

The main selling point of this cartoon is that it was the first time Mickey Mouse had ever been seen in colour! (Donald beat him to it!)

IRVYNE: This is a very entertaining cartoon!

MALEFICENT: It's the first one that's got a round of applause from all of us.

WENDY: I wonder if we would have enjoyed it as much if we didn't recognise all of the characters. Were they as popular back then as they are now? Donald Duck was still pretty new.

IRVYNE: And we had Peter Pig in there too, I think! I'm pretty sure that was him playing in the band.

MALEFICENT: Goofy, Clarabelle and Horace were there too. It was a big Disney ensemble!
 
 

IRVYNE: I love all the little details, like how the tuba was all banged up and covered in patches.

WENDY: All the instruments looked beaten up.

SHENZI: Nothing was quite "right."

IRVYNE: Except Donald's flutes, funnily enough... Well, until Mickey got to them, anyway.

WENDY: I've never seen Mickey Mouse get so angry!

IRVYNE: He was a real bathtub in this cartoon, wasn't he? Poor Donald! I mean, if I was trying to conduct William Tell and some clown appeared and started playing Turkey In The Straw I'd probably be pretty peed off too, but it does seem a little out-of-character for Mickey. Of course, the grand irony of this is that seven years earlier, MICKEY was the one getting in trouble for playing that exact same tune during Steamboat Willie!

MALEFICENT: Donald cracked it in this cartoon as well. I wonder if that's the first time anybody ever saw Donald's bad temper.

IRVYNE: It's possible. I think this was either Donald's third or fourth cartoon.

SHENZI: Even though this is a colour cartoon, did you notice that almost all of the characters are still black and white? They just wear colourful clothes.

MALEFICENT: I really liked the cyclone. This was four years before Wizard of Oz, too. There was some great animation in how it sucked everything up.

IRVYNE: There were lots of clever little touches in this cartoon. I get the feeling they wanted to make this quite a big "event" cartoon, since it was Mickey's first time in colour, and they knew everybody would be watching.