Disney sure visited some rather weird and unique territory with this very memorable and fun animation, one of the most distinctive and visually interesting offerings in the Silly Symphonies series. It's a cartoon with an odd, but very cool idea to it, and some very nice eye-catching artwork indeed! It's a fun, lively little short to watch, with all the architecture and even the animals being musical-themed, and all the characters being musical instruments come to life! The noises that the instrument sprites made were so unreal! I love how they had them speaking that way, instead of just having them speak normal. It helped to make them much more interesting and different. The whole music motif was such a brilliant design and idea. Yet all is not as harmonious as one might expect from two bright and cheery kingdoms of two very different kinds of music, divided by the churning sea of discord-a wonderful visual play on words there! I love the especially rich animation in the scene where the saxophone prince is imprisoned. The way the rays of sunlight shine through the window and his shadow on the floor perfectly matches his movements is beautifully done. It was a very nice poetic touch, having the prison tower be a giant metronome. This is like Romeo and Juliet, but much more cuddly and with a happy ending! Wow, music as a weapon. Now that is a pretty awesome concept for 1935. It's Jazz vs Symphony, giving poignant new meaning to the phrase: battle of the bands! The battle was very similar I thought to another war between two opposing forces that was much more brutal in the 1934 Disney short "The Hot Choc-Late Soldiers." In this strange hazy land of musical strife, music notes can bust holes in walls, demolish jail houses, and sink symphonies! There's a great driving sense of pace and momentum as the two armies go at each other, their completely different musical sequences creating some uniquely cacophonous pieces of thunderous noise over the impressive battle animation. Things get really stirring and amazing when the Symphony side strikes back to the tune of the ever-fantastic "Ride of the Valkeries!!!" But of course it all works out for the best in the end, thanks in no small part to the universal language of...*love!* What there was is perfectly fine, but it's a bit of a shame they couldn't have included a bigger variety of instrument characters, and a few more sight gags would have been nice. I thought the king and queen looked a bit like Laural and Hardy! The queen sure seemed a Little high-strung. I doubt she ever found the time to unwind! Ha-ha. At least they didn't have to worry about hiring a band for the double-wedding! ::: There is something so artfully magical about certain examples of these classic animations. It's amazing what came out of the 30s in terms of the animation and the eventual first feature length Disney movies. Cartoons and music are always such a winning combination!
Review of Music Land
