Musical Moments from Chopin

. . . to one of the most problematic conundrums of this Our Modern 21st Century. What do you do with a piano--particularly those of the so-called "grand" variety--when some elderly would-be Chopin who has not touched it or even had it tuned for decades eventually passes on to the Eternal Choir Practice? MUSICAL MOMENTS FROM CHOPIN suggests calling in the fire brigade. Given that most people find it difficult to lug a piano out to a dumpster, or even find Four Guys & a Van willing to tackle this task, burning such a musical ebony elephant under carefully controlled conditions probably will cause less damage to a dwelling than attacking a Steinway with battle axes and sledge hammers. It certainly does the trick for Woody and Andy in terms of clearing a barn of anachronistic keyboard instruments featuring now illegal ivory. Their unsolicited flame brigade makes short work of a pair of overweight instruments.

"Andy Panda" is serenading his barnyard colleagues with some Chopin when he is, quite literally, dusted down by his pal "Woody". Before long they are playing a duet, on two pianos, with the woodpecker using his beak, his feet and even a broom to make music all whilst the antics of an audience of sneezers, sweet eaters and even fire-razers observe these pianists endeavour to get to the end of the "Polonaise". It's good fun this, with plenty going on and some nice touches to the animation that has faded a little, but has still some cheeky detail to it. The accompanying soundtrack consists of three pieces from Chopin that are fairly familiar, too, and this makes for an enjoyable and lively eight minutes or so.

Was very fond of Woody Woodpecker and his cartoons as a child. Still get much enjoyment out of them now as a young adult, even if there are more interesting in personality cartoon characters and better overall cartoons.

That is in no way knocking Woody, because many of his cartoons are a lot of fun to watch and more and also still like him a lot as a character. While with a very familiar concept in animation, and it has been done with more hilarity and imagination elsewhere (especially Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry), 'Musical Moments from Chopin' is a great blending still of animation and classical music.

Andy Panda is slightly bland, even in his cartoons where he was more a lead and Woody was support Woody made more of an impression on him, and Woody does work better with stronger in personality characters like Wally Walrus and even Buzz Buzzard. He still works well with Woody though.

While there are more interesting characters, Woody is an amusing character and never too obnoxious even when intentionally annoying.

As ever, the animation is great. The characters are well drawn, but even better are the rich colours, meticulously detailed backgrounds and smooth backgrounds.

Music is some of the best of a Woody Woodpecker cartoon, and some of the best utilised too. It's wonderful music, of course it would be as it is Chopin who wrote some of the best music for piano there is, and the use of it has much ingenuity.

The whole cartoon goes at a snappy pace, especially in the second half, and there are some very well-timed and extremely funny gags, with a riotously wild climax.

Overall, great. 9/10 Bethany Cox

This short, nominated for the Academy Award, is another in a long line of shorts that take music (in this case, classical music) and set animation to the music. Music and animation in concert (sorry) with one another. While all the studios did this, with varying degrees of success, Walter Lantz, with his Swing Symphonies (set to jazz) and Musical Miniatures (classical) was most successful in doing these types of shorts routinely. As usual, Woody Woodpecker quite outshines Andy Panda, but the short is great fun and well worth hunting down. It's a pity that the Lantz material isn't in wider circulation than it is at present. Recommended.