NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Foreverisacastironmess 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!

chrisbishop5000 The imagination that seemed to have been put into this silly symphony is just remarkable! "Music Land", through its groundbreaking animation, seems more like a late '30s/early '40s short, not one from the mid '30s. As a very little child I practically felt magic from it and I still do now at just over 17 years old and 11 months. The characters here are instruments and they play music for voices and if that's not enough for you, a classical island and a jazzy island furiously clash when a violin princess and a young saxophone prince fall in love and a storm breaks out with the use of excellent technology! It's hard to believe that this gripping, fun-filled animated short is a silly symphony - it's just too innovative! And as for the ending, I'll leave that for you to find out. It certainly has a climatic end!

jlgrosbeck The cartoon is undeniably appealing and well-made. If this is actually about the cultural conflict between classical and jazz, though, it's a little vague about what the reconciliation is supposed to be - what kind of 'crossover' music is getting played on the bridge of harmony? Is George Gershwin the hero here? The soundtrack at the end makes it sound as if the real solution was just for the snooty queen of classical music to, uh, loosen up a little and join the party. Just putting a string section underneath the jazz doesn't make it classical.Anyway, what's most impressive about this cartoon is the high quality of the instrumental voice imitation, which out-wah-WAHs Charlie Brown's teacher any day. "I now pronounce you man and wife" is amazing!Another favorite bit - the goofy little scales in the score, while the two instruments are chasing each other around the tree...the composer was clearly having fun.Is anyone else uneasy when the king twangs the ukelele's strings?

Ron Oliver A Walt Disney SILLY SYMPHONY Cartoon Short.All is not peaceful in MUSIC LAND. The Land of Symphony and the Isle of Jazz are separated by the Sea of Discord, with very little chance of their disharmonious disagreements ever being soothed. So, when Prince Sax & Princess Violin fall in love, they precipitate a culture clash of Wagnerian proportions...This is one of the greatest cartoons of all time. For nine minutes it dazzles the viewer (and listener) with seemingly countless musical motifs. The Romeo & Juliet story is quite simple, but the Disney animators embellish it with a lush treatment which abounds in hidden gags & symbolism. (For example, notice the tune the Prince pens in his rescue note.) If there was ever a cartoon that demanded repeated viewing, this is it.The SILLY SYMPHONIES, which Walt Disney produced for a ten year period beginning in 1929, are among the most interesting of series in the field of animation. Unlike the Mickey Mouse cartoons in which action was paramount, with the Symphonies the action was made to fit the music. There was little plot in the early Symphonies, which featured lively inanimate objects and anthropomorphic plants & animals, all moving frantically to the soundtrack. Gradually, however, the Symphonies became the school where Walt's animators learned to work with color and began to experiment with plot, characterization & photographic special effects. The pages of Fable & Fairy Tale, Myth & Mother Goose were all mined to provide story lines and even Hollywood's musicals & celebrities were effectively spoofed. It was from this rich soil that Disney's feature-length animation was to spring. In 1939, with SNOW WHITE successfully behind him and PINOCCHIO & FANTASIA on the near horizon, Walt phased out the SILLY SYMPHONIES; they had run their course & served their purpose.