The Band Concert
Encyclopedia
The Band Concert is an animated
short film produced in Technicolor
by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on February 23, 1935 by United Artists
. The film was the first Mickey Mouse film produced in color and remains one of the most highly acclaimed of the Disney shorts. The story is about a small music band conducted by Mickey Mouse
which struggles through a distraction-filled public performance.
The Band Concert was directed by Wilfred Jackson
and featured adapted music by Leigh Harline
. The only speaking character in the film is Donald Duck
who is performed by voice actor Clarence Nash
.
. They next begin Rossini's
William Tell overture
.
Mickey is first disturbed by Peter Pig's vibrato
trumpet playing and Paddy Pigs tuba playing Prelude: Dawn. Later Donald Duck
appears rolling a vendor cart through the audience selling lemonade, popcorn, and ice cream. Donald's voice disturbs Mickey as he can be heard over the music.
Donald then pulls out a small flute and hops up on stage uninvited. As the band is still playing the "Finale" segment, Donald begins playing "Turkey in the Straw
" at the same tempo as the band. The entire band, seemingly unaware of themselves, begin to play Donald's song instead of the prepared music. Mickey angrily breaks Donald's flute, but he only produces another from his clothing. This continues for a while until it is discovered that Donald is carrying dozens of hidden flutes, some of which he seems to pull from thin air
.
After Donald has been kicked off stage, a bee comes along and harasses him. Donald fights the bee off and it goes on to bother the already agitated Mickey. Mickey's swatting of the bee is taken as a cue from the orchestra. Donald later throws ice cream at the bee which catches Mickey in the crossfire. As Mickey plays Ranz des Vaches Horace Horsecollar hits Goofy's head with a hammer and Goofy is seen headless.
Finally the band comes to the "Storm" segment of the overture which summons an actual tornado, prompting the audience and Donald to run for their lives. The tornado sucks up everything in its path, even the pavillion on which the band is playing. But the band is so used to distractions by this point that they continue to play from inside the twister. As the storm passes the band is thrown into a tree and the overture comes to its natural conclusion. Yet by this time the only remaining audience member is Donald Duck who applauds enthusiastically. He then produces one last flute and plays "Turkey in the Straw" again, but the band members throw their instruments at him.
cultural critic Gilbert Seldes
wrote that "[none of] dozens of works produced in America at the same time in all the other arts can stand comparison with this one." The Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini
was such a fan of The Band Concert that he saw it six times in the theater and later invited Walt Disney to his home in Italy.
In 1994 The Band Concert was rated third in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons
, which rated the greatest cartoons of all time by members of the field of animation.
, the 1941 Mickey Mouse film Symphony Hour
was somewhat of a remake of The Band Concert.
In the 1942 wartime cartoon, All Together, Mickey and his whole band from the cartoon is seen in the parade.
In the video game Kingdom Hearts II
, in the Garden area of Disney Castle, there is a topiary
sculpture of all characters in the band besides Mickey, Donald, and Goofy.
The Band Concert was also the basis for, and title of the secret level in the game, Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse (in the Sega Genesis and Sega CD versions only).
This cartoon was also the inspiration for the Walt Disney World Resort
Magic Kingdom
show Mickey's PhilharMagic
.
The short was one of the many featured in Donald Duck's 50th Birthday
, Donald remembers it in a psychiatric session with Dr. Ludwig Von Drake
and says that Mickey invited Donald to play with his band.
The Band Concert is the major theme for the new attraction, Silly Symphony Swings
at Disney's California Adventure
.
Animated cartoon
An animated cartoon is a short, hand-drawn film for the cinema, television or computer screen, featuring some kind of story or plot...
short film produced in Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters on February 23, 1935 by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
. The film was the first Mickey Mouse film produced in color and remains one of the most highly acclaimed of the Disney shorts. The story is about a small music band conducted by Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
which struggles through a distraction-filled public performance.
The Band Concert was directed by Wilfred Jackson
Wilfred Jackson
Wilfred Jackson was an American animator, arranger, composer and director best known for his work on the Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies series of cartoons and the two segments Night on Bald Mountain and Ave Maria of Fantasia from The Walt Disney Company.Wilfred Jackson was born in Chicago,...
and featured adapted music by Leigh Harline
Leigh Harline
Leigh Adrian Harline was a film composer.-Career:Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, he worked for various radio stations before joining the Walt Disney studios in 1932 as arranger and scorer...
. The only speaking character in the film is Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
who is performed by voice actor Clarence Nash
Clarence Nash
Clarence Charles "Ducky" Nash was an American voice actor, best known for providing the voice of Donald Duck for the Walt Disney Studios...
.
Synopsis
Mickey Mouse's orchestra is in performing a concert at the park. As the film opens they are being applauded for having just played music from ZampaZampa
Zampa, ou La fiancée de marbre is an opéra comique in three acts by French composer Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold...
. They next begin Rossini's
Gioacchino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini was an Italian composer who wrote 39 operas as well as sacred music, chamber music, songs, and some instrumental and piano pieces...
William Tell overture
William Tell Overture
The William Tell Overture is the instrumental introduction to the opera Guillaume Tell by Gioachino Rossini. William Tell premiered in 1829 and was the last of Rossini's 39 operas, after which he went into semi-retirement, although he continued to compose cantatas, sacred music and secular vocal...
.
Mickey is first disturbed by Peter Pig's vibrato
Vibrato
Vibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
trumpet playing and Paddy Pigs tuba playing Prelude: Dawn. Later Donald Duck
Donald Duck
Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created in 1934 at Walt Disney Productions and licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor suit with a cap and a black or red bow tie. Donald is most...
appears rolling a vendor cart through the audience selling lemonade, popcorn, and ice cream. Donald's voice disturbs Mickey as he can be heard over the music.
Donald then pulls out a small flute and hops up on stage uninvited. As the band is still playing the "Finale" segment, Donald begins playing "Turkey in the Straw
Turkey in the Straw
"Turkey in the Straw" is a well-known American folk song dating from the early 19th century.The song's tune was first popularized in the late 1820s and early 1830s by blackface performers, notably George Washington Dixon, Bob Farrell and George Nichols. Another song, "Zip Coon", was sung to the...
" at the same tempo as the band. The entire band, seemingly unaware of themselves, begin to play Donald's song instead of the prepared music. Mickey angrily breaks Donald's flute, but he only produces another from his clothing. This continues for a while until it is discovered that Donald is carrying dozens of hidden flutes, some of which he seems to pull from thin air
Sleight of hand
Sleight of hand, also known as prestidigitation or legerdemain, is the set of techniques used by a magician to manipulate objects such as cards and coins secretly....
.
After Donald has been kicked off stage, a bee comes along and harasses him. Donald fights the bee off and it goes on to bother the already agitated Mickey. Mickey's swatting of the bee is taken as a cue from the orchestra. Donald later throws ice cream at the bee which catches Mickey in the crossfire. As Mickey plays Ranz des Vaches Horace Horsecollar hits Goofy's head with a hammer and Goofy is seen headless.
Finally the band comes to the "Storm" segment of the overture which summons an actual tornado, prompting the audience and Donald to run for their lives. The tornado sucks up everything in its path, even the pavillion on which the band is playing. But the band is so used to distractions by this point that they continue to play from inside the twister. As the storm passes the band is thrown into a tree and the overture comes to its natural conclusion. Yet by this time the only remaining audience member is Donald Duck who applauds enthusiastically. He then produces one last flute and plays "Turkey in the Straw" again, but the band members throw their instruments at him.
The band
- Mickey Mouse - ConductorConductingConducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
- Goofy - ClarinetClarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
- Unnamed dog - TromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
- Clarabelle Cow - FluteWestern concert fluteThe Western concert flute is a transverse woodwind instrument made of metal or wood. It is the most common variant of the flute. A musician who plays the flute is called a flautist, flutist, or flute player....
- Horace Horsecollar - PercussionPercussion instrumentA percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
- Peter Pig - TrumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
- Paddy Pig - TubaTubaThe tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
Reception
Although The Band Concert did not receive any Academy Award nominations, it has nonetheless become one of the most highly acclaimed Disney short films. Esquire magazineEsquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
cultural critic Gilbert Seldes
Gilbert Seldes
Gilbert Vivian Seldes was an American writer and cultural critic. He was editor and drama critic of The Dial. He also hosted the NBC television program The Subject is Jazz....
wrote that "[none of] dozens of works produced in America at the same time in all the other arts can stand comparison with this one." The Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
was such a fan of The Band Concert that he saw it six times in the theater and later invited Walt Disney to his home in Italy.
In 1994 The Band Concert was rated third in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons
The 50 Greatest Cartoons
The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals is a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck, consisting of articles about, and rankings of fifty highly-regarded animated short films made in North America, as well as many other notable cartoons. It generated a significant...
, which rated the greatest cartoons of all time by members of the field of animation.
Legacy
According to Leonard MaltinLeonard Maltin
Leonard Maltin is an American film and animated film critic and historian, author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives.-Personal life:...
, the 1941 Mickey Mouse film Symphony Hour
Symphony Hour
Symphony Hour is a 1942 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released to theaters by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon depicts Mickey Mouse conducting a symphony orchestra sponsored by Pete. The film was directed by Riley Thomson and features music adapted from the...
was somewhat of a remake of The Band Concert.
In the 1942 wartime cartoon, All Together, Mickey and his whole band from the cartoon is seen in the parade.
In the video game Kingdom Hearts II
Kingdom Hearts II
is an action role-playing game developed by Square Enix and published by Buena Vista Games and Square Enix in 2005 for the Sony PlayStation 2 video game console...
, in the Garden area of Disney Castle, there is a topiary
Topiary
Topiary is the horticultural practice of training live perennial plants, by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, perhaps geometric or fanciful; and the term also refers to plants which have been shaped in this way. It can be...
sculpture of all characters in the band besides Mickey, Donald, and Goofy.
The Band Concert was also the basis for, and title of the secret level in the game, Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse (in the Sega Genesis and Sega CD versions only).
This cartoon was also the inspiration for the Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort
Walt Disney World Resort , is the world's most-visited entertaimental resort. Located in Lake Buena Vista, Florida ; approximately southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States, the resort covers an area of and includes four theme parks, two water parks, 23 on-site themed resort hotels Walt...
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom
Magic Kingdom Park is one of four theme parks at the Walt Disney World Resort located near Orlando, Florida. The first park built at the resort, Magic Kingdom opened Oct. 1, 1971. Designed and built by WED Enterprises, the park's layout and attractions are similar to Disneyland in Anaheim, California...
show Mickey's PhilharMagic
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Mickey's PhilharMagic is a 4-D film attraction found at the Magic Kingdom theme park in the Walt Disney World Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland and at Tokyo Disneyland. The film was directed by George Scribner, who is best known for directing Disney's 1988 animated film, Oliver and Company...
.
The short was one of the many featured in Donald Duck's 50th Birthday
Donald Duck's 50th Birthday
Donald Duck's 50th Birthday is the 1984 television special broadcast on The Magical World of Disney on November 13, 1984 on CBS. As the title suggests, it was produced for the 50th anniversary of the Donald Duck character....
, Donald remembers it in a psychiatric session with Dr. Ludwig Von Drake
Ludwig Von Drake
Professor Ludwig von Drake is one of Walt Disney's cartoon and comic book characters. He was first introduced on September 24, 1961, as the presenter in the cartoon An Adventure in Color, part of the first show of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color on NBC...
and says that Mickey invited Donald to play with his band.
The Band Concert is the major theme for the new attraction, Silly Symphony Swings
Silly Symphony Swings
Silly Symphony Swings is a "wave swinger" attraction in Paradise Pier, at Disney California Adventure, at the Disneyland Resort in California. Themed to Disney's The Band Concert conductor Mickey Mouse conducts the attraction from high atop, synchronized with the music...
at Disney's California Adventure
Disney's California Adventure
Disney California Adventure, or simply California Adventure, is a theme park in Anaheim, California, adjacent to Disneyland Park and part of the larger Disneyland Resort. It opened on February 8, 2001 as Disney's California Adventure Park. The park is owned and operated by the Walt Disney Parks and...
.