The Poet & Peasant

MUSICALLY ORIENTED ANIMATION had long been a popular road to take in shaping the form that a cartoon would take. Ever since Disney's ILLY SYMPHONY Series and especially the Mickey Mouse outing, THE BAND CONCERT, the other studios made their own entries into the sub-genre.

OF COURSE, THE ultimate marriage of the visual with the musical was Disney's FANTASIA (1940); which, of course, spawned a good deal of imitation. Most notably, the Italian film, Bruno Bozetto's ALLEGRO NON TROPPO (1976), has been the best known and most successful. But, we digress!

WITH THE PRODUCTION and release of THE POET AND THE PEASANT, Walter Lanz and Universal Pictures made a powerful move toward staking a claim on their share of the highbrow music cartoon market. As the central character Walter Lanz Studios had but two logical choices as MC/Conductor; that being either Woody or Andy.

IT WAS, OF course, Andy Panda who go the nod for this initial Classic outing. It was more a case of the Panda's getting a boost from the appearance rather than the cartoon's being the recipient of greater viewer-ship due to Andy's presence.

WE HAVE ALWAYS felt that Mr. Lanz & Company never brought the character of Andy Panda to its full potential. He was well handled in this THE POET AND THE PEASANT; but it could have easily been Woody, Chili Willie, Wally Walrus or even Buz Buzzard in the role without any discernible difference.

This short was nominated for an Academy Award and marked the launching of a new series that replaced the previous Swing Symphonies series, which was called Musical Miniatures. It's an Andy Panda short and essentially, this is The Band Concert redone and it does not compare to the Disney short, though it is reasonably good in it's own right. Andy Panda is an incredibly bland character with limited scope. The story has to be engaging or the short falls flat. The Poet and Peasant is entertaining but nothing special. Worth watching.

"Andy Panda" manages to assemble some of his farmyard colleagues together to form the Hollywood "Washbowl" orchestra and embark on a short and lively feature that showcases some of their musical talent peppered with some adept and imaginative use of their varied implements as well as a good dose of who eats who rivalry. This is an enjoyable animation that doesn't hang around right from the start as it mixes some swing-time with more familiar and rousing classical themes as the antics build to a crescendo in parallel with the music. It's maybe not the most original, but it's still packed with mischief and I quite enjoyed it.

" . . . Five blue birds in the hand or tummy is worth more than one silly goose in the bush." THE POET & PEASANT turns out to be surprisingly violent, with our avian friends bearing the brunt of the mayhem. As has been the case since the pattern was set by the profligate Steamboat Willy, food waste features prominently during this musical performance. A pie pumpkin is carelessly shattered, pulp squirting out everywhere. Later the same equine percussionist villain destroys a large quantity of eggs. A popcorn hoarder turns violent defending his stash, and a frog croaks, likely due to his lower limbs being served off-screen. This Andy episode likely will work up a hunger in some of the more voracious viewers, sending them after the Double Bamboo-Eater Burger at Panda Express.