Symphony Hour

A Walt Disney MICKEY MOUSE Cartoon.

Mickey and his pals are all set to make their orchestral debut on the Macaroni SYMPHONY HOUR - not knowing that Goofy has virtually destroyed their instruments.

Many younger viewers may not realize that this very funny little film is set during the broadcast of an old-time live radio show. John McLeish is the program's announcer; Mickey's musicians consist of Donald Duck, Goofy, Clarabelle Cow, Horace Horsecollar and the marvelous Madame Clara Cluck, who inexplicably is given only a few seconds of screen time and was about to disappear from Disney cartoons altogether for forty-one years. Pete is hilarious as Sylvester Macaroni, the program's sponsor.

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by pictures & drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew comic figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that childlike simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.

...except that Mickey, Donald and Goofy are now a triumvirate, each one being equally important. The triumvirate wouldn't last much longer. In fact, this is one of the last cartoons which all three carry together, and, despite its relative neglect, it's every bit as good as earlier ones like "Moving Day". (Perhaps the neglect is due to the misguided application of the loopier aspects of the auteur theory - which leaves critics free to ignore any cartoon not made by, and expressing the personality of, a "name" director like Chuck Jones.) The moment of sublime hilarity comes when Mickey et al. try to make music out of instruments which have been crushed in a lift.

I loved Symphony Hour when I was a kid, and I have had trouble finding it. Finding it on YouTube after five or so years brought all those memories back. The concept of Symphony Hour has Mickey Mouse conducting a radio orchestra with a performance of the popular Light Calvary overture by Franz Von Suppe. It is loved by the sponsor in rehearsal, but after the instruments are crushed in a lift, it falls downhill from there. Along with the Band Concert and Mickey's Good Deed, this ranks as one of the best Mickey Mouse shorts. The music was outstanding of course, but what was even more impressive were the wonderful Technicolour animation, a nice script, expert voice acting from Florence Gill, Walt Disney, Clarence Nash and Pinto Colvig and some truly sublimely hilarious moments. Anything said or done by Pete or Donald is bound to bring you tears of laughter, and Madame Clara Cluck shines in the few seconds of screen time she has. Like Band Concert, symphony Hour is very special to me, and I hope that people now will recognise it as the classic it really is. A definite 10/10 Bethany Cox

In this classical music Disney cartoon, Mickey Mouse takes the baton again, like he did in the "The Band Concert" cartoon, and conducts an orchestra comprised of musicians Donald Duck, Goofy, Clara Cluck, Clarabelle Cow performing Franz von Suppé's Light Cavalry Overture. The symphony performed flawlessly during the rehearsal, but on the day of the concert, Goofy accidentally drops all the instruments down an elevator shaft, so, the music sounded a little out of whack when performed.

The musical piece sounded catchy and great and, during the actual concert portion, sounded funny and hilarious. It will send you roaring with laughter as you hear the funny music and see the musicians struggling with their crushed instruments and see poor Mickey struggling to keep the symphony in order while also trying to please the program sponsor.

As with many Disney cartoons, the ending will surprise you and, of course, a little miracle might happen. See for yourself and enjoy a fun time and hilarious time at the symphony! Grade A