The Band Concert is a 1935 American animated short film produced in 3-strip Technicolor by Walt Disney Productions and released by United Artists. It was the 73rd Mickey Mouse short film to be released, and the second of that year. The Band Concert was the first Mickey Mouse film produced in color. Two more Mickey Mouse films were produced in black and white before they were produced in color on a permanent basis: Mickey's Service Station and Mickey's Kangaroo. Mickey had previously appeared in color in a two-minute clip called Parade of the Award Nominees which was made especially for the 1932 Academy Awards ceremony. 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 actorClarence Nash. The film 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.
Plot
Mickey Mouse's concert band is performing a concert in a park. As the film opens, they are being applauded for having just played music from Louis Joseph Ferdinand Hérold's Zampa. They next begin Gioacchino Rossini's William Tell overture. Mickey's performance is first disrupted by Peter Pig's vibrato trumpet and Paddy Pig's tuba playing Prelude: Dawn. Meanwhile, Donald Duck rolls a vendor cart through the audience selling lemonade, popcorn, and ice cream, which further distracts Mickey. While the band is playing the "Finale" segment, Donald plays Turkey in the Straw at the same tempo as the band. Overhearing Donald, the entire band absent-mindedly find themselves playing Donald's song. Realizing his mistake, Mickey loses his temper over his performance being disrupted in this manner. Mickey splits Donald's flute in two, only for Donald to get another one out. They play the song again and Mickey splits the flute once more. The band resumes the segment, but when Donald pulls out a third flute and plays "Turkey in the Straw" again, Donald breaks the flute himself before Mickey can. The trombonist grabs Donald by the neck, shakes out several of his flutes and forces him offstage, knocking him back into the vendor cart. While Donald tries to play the song again a bee harasses him. When the bee lands on Mickey's hat, Donald throws ice cream at the bee, which sends it into Peter Pig's trumpet; he shoots it out, accidentally hitting Mickey with it. The ice cream slides under Mickey's uniform, making him shake around, causing the band to briefly play The Streets of Cairo until it falls out and he kicks it away. Mickey has the band play Ranz des Vaches and swats his baton at the bee, temporarily causing the band to briefly play notes drastically different than the song. Percussionist Horace Horsecollar tries to kill the bee by squishing it with his cymbals and with a hammer, but accidentally hits Goofy's head instead, driving his head down into his jacket. He continues playing his clarinet from inside it. When the band comes to the "Storm" segment of the overture, it summons an actual tornado, prompting the audience and Donald to run away. The benches that the audience members were sitting on come to life and also begin running for their lives as well. Donald tries to take shelter in some trees only for the tornado to tie them in knots with Donald in the middle. The tornado sucks up and destroys everything in its path, even the pavilion on which the band is playing, but the band is so used to the distractions by this point that they continue to play from inside the tornado. The tornado suddenly freezes when Mickey takes a pause conducting and goes in reverse as the band finishes the last part of the song. As the storm passes, the band is thrown into a tree and they finish the overture. Yet by this time, the only remaining audience member is Donald Duck who applauds enthusiastically. Witnessing Donald playing "Turkey in the Straw" as an encore, the offscreen band members furiously throw their instruments at him.
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 magazine cultural critic Gilbert Seldes wrote that " 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 The Disney Films, Leonard Maltin said that The Band Concert is "one of the best cartoons ever made anywhere... There are nuances of expression in Mickey's character throughout this film that had seldom been explored in earlier shorts. The pacing is also entirely different from the standard Mickey Mouse comedies of the early thirties. Instead of trying to pack in a thousand gags a minute, The Band Concert takes its time and builds to a crescendo." 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. As a result, it was the highest-ranked Disney cartoon on the list, and the only one in the top 5 not produced by Warner Bros. Cartoons.
Legacy
According to Leonard Maltin, the 1942 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, . This cartoon was also the inspiration for the Walt Disney World ResortMagic 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 theme for the Silly Symphony Swings attraction at Disney California Adventure Park. This cartoon was featured in Disney's Magical Mirror Starring Mickey Mouse.
