This is a classic short cartoon, all right. It's the art direction that does it - it's VERY 1950s (some would say it's pinched from UPA, but this is false: look at the previous work of Maurice Noble, and the direction in which background design was tending at Disney and to a lesser extent Warner Brothers before UPA was even formed, and you'll see that UPA was merely the most extreme expression of a zeitgeist which arose for as yet unexplained reasons) - but it fits the roasted twilight setting of Wagner like a glove. Colours, sets, linework, framing; all are marvellous.
The cartoon is not, as is commonly asserted, Wagner's fourteen-hour Ring cycle compressed into seven minutes, since none of the content of the story is taken from Wagner (also, the disappointingly lame "Weturn, My Wuv" lyrics are set to a tune from "Tannhäuser"). It would be better still if it WERE a true parody of Wagner. As it is, wonderful and self-contained as the short is, it's also a bit baffling; not funny, but lacking the final ounce of courage required to be truly thrilling or moving, either. It IS a pity that it wasn't even nominated for Best Animated Short of 1957, especially in the absence of serious competition: Disney had shut down its short cartoon unit the previous year, UPA was churning out Mr. Magoo and nothing else, it wasn't a particularly outstanding year for MGM, and (the final indignity) the cartoon that actually WON the award that year was yet another worthless Sylvester and Tweety effort.
