The Band Concert

The first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color, The Band Concert was an early triumph for Walt Disney's artists. The cartoon involves a performance of the William Tell Overture by an orchestra led by Mickey and frequently disrupted by Donald Duck. The concert is swept up by a passing tornado, a maelstrom of comic chaos that found Disney's animators furiously detailing dozens of comic ideas simultaneously.

Critic Gilbert Seldes called the film "Disney's greatest work" and hailed the "miraculous" effect of simultaneous "comedy of detail. . . comedy of structure. . . comedy of character. . . [and] comedy of action." Composer Jerome Kern told the New York Journal that Disney was responsible for "the 20th Century's only important contribution to music" for his marriage of visual comedy to synchronized music. Arturo Toscanini saw The Band Concert six times, and then invited its maker to Italy.

By David Kalat