The Band Concert is a 1935 animated short film directed by Wilfred Jackson. It is the first Mickey Mouse cartoon in color.
Plot[]
Mickey's band is performing a concert at the park. As the film opens they are being applauded for having just played music from Zampa. They next begin Rossini's William Tell overture.
Mickey is first disturbed by Peter Pig's vibrato trumpet playing and Paddy Pig's 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 fife 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 fife, but he only produces another from his clothing. This continues for a while until it is discovered that Donald is carrying dozens of hidden fifes, 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 band. Donald later throws ice cream at the bee, which catches Mickey and Peter in the crossfire. As Mickey plays "Ranz des Vaches", Horace Horsecollar tries to swat the bee with a hammer, but accidentally hits Goofy on the head, driving his head down into his jacket, but he continues playing his clarinet from inside it.
Finally as Horace takes off his coat, the band comes to the "Storm" segment of the overture, which stuns Mickey, but goes on with music anyway. The band starts to intensify the music, which summons an actual tornado, prompting the audience (and their benches) and Donald to run for their lives. It sucks up everything in its path (and entangles Donald in some trees he was climbing to weather the storm), even the pavilion on which the band is playing. But they are so used to distractions by this point that they continue to play from inside it. As it passes, the band members (except Horace and Mickey) are 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 fife and plays "Turkey in the Straw" again, even as the band members throw their instruments at him, ending with him trapped inside a tuba, where he finishes his tune.
Characters[]
- Mickey Mouse - bandleader
- Donald Duck (voiced by Clarence Nash) - vendor, fife
- Goofy - clarinet
- Horace Horsecollar - percussion
- Clarabelle Cow - flute
- Peter Pig - trumpet
- Paddy Pig - tuba
- Unnamed trombone player (named Daniel Dog in the Disney+ audio description)
Songs[]
- "William Tell Overture"
- "The Streets of Cairo"
- "Turkey in the Straw"
- "Call to the Cows" (briefly)
Releases[]
Television[]
- The Walt Disney Christmas Show
- Disneyland, episode #2.5: "The Adventures of Mickey Mouse"
- Walt Disney Presents, episode #7.4: "Donald's Silver Anniversary"
- Walt Disney's Mickey and Donald, episode #27
- Walt Disney's Mickey and Donald, episode #50
- Good Morning, Mickey, episode #5
- Mickey's Mouse Tracks, episode #30
- Donald's Quack Attack, episode #78
- The Ink and Paint Club, episode #1.2: "Mickey Landmarks"
- The Aristocats (Syndication Airing)
- Have a Laugh!, episode #41
- Treasures from the Disney Vault, June 28, 2016
Home video[]
VHS
- Walt Disney Cartoon Classics: Mickey's Crazy Careers
- Mickey's Magical World
- The Spirit of Mickey
- Mickey's Greatest Hits
- Make Mine Music: (Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection)
DVD
- Make Mine Music: (Walt Disney Gold Classic Collection)
- Walt Disney Treasures: Mickey Mouse in Living Color
Blu-ray
- Celebrating Mickey
- Mickey & Friends: 10 Classic Shorts - Volume 2
- Bonus on Make Mine Music
Streaming[]
- Disney+, November 12, 2019
Notes[]
- This short is the first color animated short in the Mickey Mouse series.
- However, it wasn’t the first time that some of these characters appeared on screen in color. Mickey Mouse and Clarabelle Cow appeared in Parade of the Award Nominees, a special color film created especially for the 1932 Academy Awards, while both Donald Duck and Peter Pig made their debut in the 1934 color Silly Symphony The Wise Little Hen.
- Donald's design has changed a bit; Donald now has blue eyes instead of white, and his design is almost different. Donald is now back in color after the two B&W Mickey shorts in which he appeared; however, Donald would make one final B&W appearance in the next short released after that.
- This is the first cartoon in the Mickey Mouse series to feature the yellow sunburst background in the opening card in the original theatrical release.
- The yellow sunburst opening card background used for the Mickey Mouse series would later be re-used for the Goofy and the short-lived Donald and Goofy series as well.
- The opening card for the Mickey Mouse cartoons in Mickey Mouse Works is based on the "Mickey Mouse" opening card from this short, albeit with Mickey's headshot design updated to match his 1939 redesign by Fred Moore.
- In the Mickey Mouse Works short Mickey's April Fools, Mickey imitates this role to prove to a lawyer that he is the real star along with some of his other past roles.
- The short would provide inspiration for the Silly Symphony Swings at Disney California Adventure.
- A bonus level based on this short appears in Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse except in the Super Nintendo version.
- This short appears as one of the projector transition levels in Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two.
- The tornado sequence was later reused in The Little Whirlwind.
- This short is best known for the start of Mickey and Donald’s longtime rivalry, which would later be expanded upon in The Mickey Mouse Club, House of Mouse, and numerous episodes of the Walt Disney anthology series.
Have a Laugh! changes[]
The following scenes were deleted from the short release due to time constraints:
- The entire scene where the band begins to play "William Tell Overture" and Donald keeps interrupting by playing "Turkey in the Straw" on his flute with Mickey breaking it in half.
- Donald fighting off the bee.
- Mickey swatting the bee off with his baton twice, only once is shown.
- The entire tornado scene while the band plays "The Storm" is cut.
Goofs[]
- At times, Peter and Patty Pig wear the same color uniform.
