O Concerto dos Patos

A parody of a great many Disney films, this short is simply fantastic and yet another feather in the hat of Bob Clampett (I know I seem to say that a lot, by Clampett was indeed a genius of animation). The music is magical, the animation is great, and although it might not be nearly as hilariously surreal as most of Clampetts other works, it's still very VERY good and I remain captivated by the short every single time I sit down to watch it. This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2 and also features an optional commentary by Micheal Barrier.

My Grade: A+

A befuddled (and wardrobe challenged) Elmer Fudd leads a symphony playing classic waltzes by Johann Straus ('Tales from the Vienna Woods' and 'The Blue Danube'), illustrated first by Porky Pig (in Mr. Fudd's usual role) hunting a familiar wascally wabbit, and then by a snooty swan-mother rejecting a tiny but troublesome Daffy Duck. This Bob Clampett parody of Disney's Fantasia is funny, and the smooth, imaginative animation is a pleasure to watch. Daffy's toothy grin and the 'hep-cat' buzzard are particularly amusing and, as usual, Bugs is not above cross-dressing to confound pursuers. Surprisingly non-political for a 1942 cartoon (other than Daffy's brief transition into a snarling P40 Warhawk). #47 in the '50 Greatest Cartoons'.

Elmer Fudd is the conductor at Corny-gie Hall. He is struggling to dress and presents the performance of Strauss's waltzes. The first segment is "Tales from the Vienna Woods" where Porky Pig and his dog are hunting Bugs Bunny. The second segment is "The Blue Danube" where a young black duck tries to join a swan family.

The music is classical and terrific. It is a little funny to see Porky Pig taking over Elmer Fudd's role in the first segment. Initially, I thought they might be recycling the segments. That doesn't seems to be the case. I do like the two segments despite the limited dialogue. I really like the use of sound effects to accentuate the music. This is nice.

'A Corny Concerto' is Bob Clampett's inspired parody of Disney's 'Fantasia'. A cartoon in two parts (packing an incredible amount into seven minutes), 'A Corny Concerto' was actually written by director Frank Tashlin. It opens with a magical moment in which Elmer Fudd, taking the Deems Taylor role, emerges in silhouette onto a platform but confounds the audiences expectations of how tall he will be. Elmer's opening speech is a masterpiece of speech-impediment exploitation, a great piece of word-smithery in a largely musical cartoon. Both sections of 'A Corny Concerto' are set to pieces of music by Johan Strauss. The best of the two is the gloriously off-colour 'Tales From the Vienna Woods', in which Porky Pig and a pointer dog hunt Bugs Bunny to the strains of Strauss's music. It opens fairly inoffensively but then heads into the sort of sick territory only Clampett would ever dream of exploring. Porky's gun falls into the hands of a squirrel who fires it randomly at the trio. Fearing they've been hit, Clampett has the three characters dance around in their death throes! This section ends with a bawdy (for its time) gag in which Bugs slaps a bra on the heads of Porky and his dog and pirouettes into the sunset, hilariously collapsing in the cartoon's blink-and-you'll-miss-it highlight. The second section tells a tale set to 'The Blue Danube', in which a baby version of Daffy Duck attempts to find favour with a group of swans. Their rejection of Daffy is hilarious, particularly the moment the mother swan finds him under a rock and uncaringly slams it back down on his head. The short has a happy ending, however, as Daffy saves the baby swans from a vulture and is accepted into their family, It's the sort of story that could have been played straight and with a doe-eyed sweetness but Clampett and Tashlin instead fill it with gags which defy all accusations of cutesiness. 'A Corny Concerto' is a jaw-dropingly event-packed cartoon and another classic in the classic-stuffed Clampett canon.

The Corny Concerto (1943)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Warner Brothers's spoof of Disney's FANTASIA has Elmer Fudd playing the orchestra leader and then we get two different sequences. The first has Porky Pig and his dog stalking Bugs Bunny while the second has a group of stuck up white ducks not playing well with a baby Daffy. This here is certainly a classic film for the series as it really does do Disney better than Disney did in FANTASIA. Both of the stories are extremely good and that's certainly the cast for the first one. I thought the little back and forth between Porky and his dog was quite funny. Of course, the real highlight here was the wonderful music and how it was used for the animation.