The Overture to 'William Tell' (1947)

Such a frustrating disappointment

It is a performances centric movie

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

This short was one of a series of shorts Walter Lantz made which were built around either a musical piece or a musical style, with classical and jazz predominating. Here, a very familiar piece of classical music was used to show the "workings" of an orchestra. I plan on discussing some details, so there will be spoilers: In a fairly rare short featuring Wally Walrus without Woody Woodpecker around to give him problems (I can't think of another one at the moment, so this may be the only one) Wally conducts an orchestra in a performance of "The William Tell Overture". Much of the orchestra appears to be either dozing or disinterested, even while they're playing! There are various sight gags having to do with rather odd playing styles and with musicians startled from slumber. Some are actually playing while they're asleep.Then comes a "dramatic" effect-a stagehand actually creates the conditions of a thunderstorm in the concert hall. Lightning strikes one horn player with a nice visual gag as the payoff, various musicians take shelter from the rain in different (usually very humorous) ways and the climax comes when the stagehand pulls the plug (literally) to drain the water out.You now see musicians drying out their instruments and sheet music. The end of the short comes, rather incongruously, when a horse is struck by a musical instrument and a rather indignant horsefly comes out and starts annoying Wally Walrus. Wally's efforts to get the horsefly result in the destruction of the performance and the orchestra.Excellent use of classical music to time the movement of animation. Well worth watching. Recommended.

Seems to combine the Fleisher Brothers ("A Car-tune Portrait"), Walt Disney ("The Band Concert"), Milt Britton (whose comedy band destroyed all instruments by the end of their concert), and, of course, Spike Jones. It's interesting to note that Spike used the gag of the dwarf playing the bass fiddle from the inside (!) AFTER this 1947 cartoon was made. After a while you lose track of who might be copying who, and just enjoy the good fun. The advantage of musical cartoons (and Lantz made many!) is that they hold up well after repeated viewing.