026 The Band Concert

Title: The Band Concert
Studio: Disney
Date: 02/23/35
Credits: -
Series: Mickey Mouse
Running time (of viewed version): 9:19

Commercial DVD Availability: MMLCv1

Synopsis: Band plays concert, in spite of bad weather.


















Comments: Rather unconvincing crowd noise for the first giantly famous cartoon of the year. The first color theatrical Mickey Mouse short, this is iconic for its readily identifiable red costume on Mickey. Benefits from Mickey not speaking in his unbearable voice. I have trouble remembering Donald Duck's trouble making role, in his stupid hat with his stupid long duck face. Is this the source cartoon for all the various band cartoons to come, or did someone else innovate "when the baton moves outside the music, the music follows"? I primarily remember the bit with the storm. Kansas leaving its grimy impression on Disney cartoons, as NYC and California did on so many other cartoons. THere's almost no menace from the storm. I do remember Donald's appearing flute, tho I couldn't have told you it was in this cartoon. The band is Mickey (conducting), Clarabell (flute), Horace (percussion), two dog men (one Goofy?; trombone and clarinet, I think), and two pigmen (tuba and trumpett). And Donald selling food and playing flute outside the band. Donald's last musical phrase is a comedu tag line for someone (laurel and Hardy maybe?). I think this may have been on the old hand cranked film cartridge thing I had as a kid.

025 Fireman, Save My Child

Title: Fireman, Save My Child (no comma in retitle)
Studio: Terry
Date: 02/22/35
Credits: -
Series: (Terrytoons?)
Running time (of viewed version): 5:41
Commercial DVD Availability: -

Synopsis: Fireman go to fire; no one asks them to save their child.

















Comments: Truncated beginning. Fire horses, but none of them old enough to be the '39 cartoon of that name. Man, I hate these Puddy dogs which exist in a wide plane of types of existence. The firemen just break stuff. Child saving is at best an afterthought in this cartoon. Living fire is good looking. People leap out of a very tall building and fail to be properly caught. Much internal repetition.

024 Be Kind to "Aminals"

Title: Be Kind to "Aminals"
Studio: Fleischer
Date: 02/22/35
Credits:
Directed by
Dave Fleischer
Animated by
Willard Bowsky and Charles Hastings
Series: Popeye
Running time (of viewed version): 5:36
Commercial DVD Availability: Pv1D2

Synopsis: Bluto barely whips his chattel, Popeye beats up and enslaves a human.













Comments: Awesome lady fish sculpture/fountain; I wonder if it is a known real life thing. That's one un-Popeye Popeye voice; so very Bill Murray. How common were horses in everyday city life in 1933? My mother remembers a horse drawn vegetable cart in the '50s (complete with foreign accent), but not in a city. Love In Bloom is played. Popeye is stealing food from the vegetable man (including spinach, which you'd think he'd keep on hand). Popeye's chest sprouts pubes. It's weird seeing Olive simply hating Bluto. Olive's eaten shoe retains continuity.

023 When the Cat's Away

Title: When the Cat's Away
Studio: MGM
Date: 02/16/35
Credits: A High Harmon - Rudolph Ising Cartoon
Series: Happy Harmonies
Running time (of viewed version): 07:55
Commercial DVD Availability:

Synopsis: Cat goes on date, mice run rampant













Comments: As the WB rabbits look primitive, so too do the MGM mice. Even mice don't like the pope's nose on a chicken. Who's a Horses ass plays. Little Brown Jug played on utensils and such. Then La Cucaracha (sp). The rat seems to be the more important adversary to the mice. This smacks of short sightedness (tho to be fair the rat is a threat; it eats from the same plate). Significant amounts of twining in the cheese shot. The cartoon is barely (i.e., not very) funny.