Mickey leads an 8-piece orchestra (that's counting the bass played by three birds as one) through the most recognizable parts of the Poet and Peasant Overture. The setting, as the title implies, is a barnyard, and some of the instrumentation reflects that (including various animals used as instruments, like a tuned group of piglets whose tails Mickey pulls).
Similar titles
Reviews
You won't be disappointed!
Touches You
Blistering performances.
The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.
This is an early Disney cartoon featuring Mickey Mouse. There will be spoilers:It is said that even a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. With regard to the development of both Mickey Mouse specifically and Disney cartoons generally, the early Mickey Mouse shorts show the evolution of Disney animation. The early shorts, while certainly fun to watch to a greater or lesser degree, are the baby steps which had to happen for shorts like The Band Concert to be as good as they are. Disney animators learned their craft in the early days.I selected this short because it's all but impossible to avoid comparing it to The Band Concert. This short suffers in comparison, somewhat unfairly, because five years is a long time and you progress rapidly if you study what you do long enough.The gags here are typical of the types of gags being used in the late 1920s-early 1930s. The gags are cute enough, but they aren't as sharp and the timing isn't always as good as it could be. The best gag is the concluding one, where The Law of Unintended Consequences bites Mickey. There's an outhouse gag and Mickey gets music from animals, both staples of animation in this period. These shorts were a training ground and the payoff is the quality of the average short just four or five years later. The same holds for the Silly Symphonies series, where more experimentation was done. A hairpiece being sucked in by a tuba is nice training for an animator on the road to even better work.This short is available on the Mickey Mouse In Black and White, Volume Two Disney Treasures DVD set and is well worth tracking down.
Generally I do like the Mickey Mouse cartoons with the barnyard setting. The stories aren't groundbreaking and there have been times where they have been derivative of other cartoons. But these aside, these cartoons are generally well animated, have great music and are fun. That is exactly the case with The Barnyard Concert. It will draw inevitable comparisons between the later cartoons The Band Concert and Symphony Hour, which also has Mickey taking on the roles of a conductor. Comparing, The Barnyard Concert is not as good as those two, and I wasn't expecting it to be, but it is a good set up to those two. The story is rather thin on the ground and is routine in places. However the animation, apart from some objects disappearing and then re-appearing, is clean and smooth with backgrounds as far away from sparse as you can get and well-drawn characters. The music has always been a high point in the Disney shorts, and its beautiful and energetic themes The Barnyard Concert is no exception. The gags are funny especially when Mickey yanks on the piglets' tails to make the music and when the outhouse jumps to let Mickey and the runaway piglet pass under it. It was interesting also to see the difference in how the instruments were played between now and then. Mickey is a revelation here, his look of disgust and horror at the interruptions caused by the pig with the trumpet, and the angry conducting and happy dancing make him so much fun to watch. The other characters are cute without feeling too saccharine. Overall, a good short with lots of fun and charm. 8/10 Bethany Cox
I've got to be honest about cartoons--I really hate singing cartoon shorts from the 1930s. Sure, there are some that I love (such as some of the beautiful Silly Symphonies from Disney), but in general I find the music and saccharine characters hard to take. As a kid back in the 60s and 70s, I saw a lot of this sort of stuff on Saturday mornings--and I remember hating it even then! This was usually when my brother and I would go get a snack or take a bathroom break!! However, despite "The Barnyard Concert" being a musical, it was quite enjoyable! I was surprised but found it differed from the cutesy musicals quite a bit. First, the timing was exceptional--the characters moved in perfect unison with the music. Second, the cartoon was fun--as the barnyard animals did lots of cute cartoony things as they played their song. Third, the characters were not saccharine-like. Sure, a few were kind of cute, but no wide-eyes bunnies or other cute nonsense in this one--just a lot of fun. So, if you are an old grouch like me, don't immediately discount "The Barnyard Concert" because it's a musical--it's really quite good.Soud issue
Mickey Mouse plays a conductor in this short, leading a band of barnyard animals (hence the title of the short)who are playing the "Poet and Peasant Overture." This short was okay, but I wouldn't call it one of my favorites. There were some funny scenes like were a pig is playing a trumpet and his hair falls out onto his face, giving him a beard & moustache. One was copied from "Steamboat Willie" where Mickey pulls nursing piglets in tune to the music.
Top Streaming Movies
