The Band Concert



The first color Mickey Mouse cartoon, and still one of his most popular of the Classic Disney Shorts, "The Band Concert" is a 1935 cartoon in which Mickey attempts to conduct Giacomo Rossini's William Tell Overture at a outdoor picnic, but is frequently interrupted by Donald Duck, who attempts to play "Turkey in the Straw" with his infinite arsenal of fifes. Hilarity Ensues.

The short currently holds #3 on Jerry Beck's "The 50 Greatest Cartoons" list, the highest ranking Disney short on it.


 * Amusing Injuries: Horace Horsecollar hits a colleague instrumentalist with his cymbals and a hammer in an attempt to kill an annoying bee.
 * Call Back: The Sega CD version of Mickey Mania has a level based on this cartoon included as a bonus.
 * House of Mouse in one episode had Mickey briefly don his band concert uniform for a second when he was shifting through his many designs over the years to prove he was really Mickey in that episode.
 * When Mickey meets Horace Horsecollar in Epic Mickey, Horace tries to entice Mickey's memory of him with this cartoon among others. (The provided photo had Horace almost out of frame.)
 * Cartoon Conductor
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: Near the end the entire orchestra hangs from a large tree, resembling a Christmas tree.
 * Do Not Touch the Funnel Cloud
 * Early Installment Weirdness: Mostly with Donald's long-billed appearance. Donald also seems to be almost a toned-down Screwy Squirrel here, and is much shorter than Mickey.
 * Exactly What It Says on the Tin: It's a band concert.
 * Mickey Mousing Despite a lot of the music coming from on-screen instruments, there is still a lot of this going on.
 * Nice Hat: Mickey and several of the band players wear them.
 * Ice Cream In My Pants
 * Running Gag:
 * Mickey's sleeves are too long and keep falling over his hands and baton.
 * Donald playing Turkey in the Straw on his fifes.