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The Poet & Peasant
Andy Panda conducts the "Hollywood Washbowl Orchestra" (an ensemble of farm animals, on a farm) in the title tune. After Andy removes a frog from under his wig, he begins. All is well until his shirt gets stuck on a nail; while he's fighting it, the orchestra breaks into a swinging tune. Back under control, a talkative squirrel in the audience annoys the pig sitting next to him; the pig zips the squirrel's mouth shut. A bird lands on Andy's baton; he waves it, and 2, 3, 4, and 5 birds appear (apparently, his baton's become a magic wand). He waves some more, and the birds disappear one by one, finally replaced with a very happy cat. Two ducks dance as ballerinas; then one fox and one duck, but the second duck is not as easily captured.
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Please don't spend money on this.
Perfect cast and a good story
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
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.
I watched this cartoon when I was a child. I thought it was so stupid that Andy Panda wore that ugly red wig as the conductor. The pig needed to zip the squirrel's mouth shut when he kept on asking about his popcorn. I wished that fox would have eaten both of those stupid ballerina ducks instead of just one. At the end, the surviving ballerina duck is riding on a fox playing a horn. The song "The Poet and The Peasant" is also played in a Popeye episode. It was the episode when Popeye's hyper quadruplet nephews tried to help him build a house. Another rendition of this song was also done in the Tiny Toons video game, Buster Busts Loose in one of the later levels. But you will never hear it if you play the game on the easy level.
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.
