Music Land

Music Land (1935)

Simply Spellbinding Silly Symphony!

Musical instruments are the stars of a romantic fable set in the Land of Symphony and the Isle of Jazz, two islands separated by the Sea of Discord. The violin princess and the saxophone prince fall in love, but must meet secretly in order to avoid the wrath of their parents, the Symphony queen and the Jazz king. The queen finds the boy saxophone on her island, attempting to woo her daughter. She has him locked in the metronome, but the young lover manages to send a note - in fact, several musical notes on sheet music - that conveys the message that he has been imprisoned. The Isle of Jazz declares war by blasting musical notes across the sea. The only thing that can bring peace and harmony to the Sea of Discord is love.

Date of release
1935-10-05
TMDB
6.9 / 10 (61)
Runtime
10m
Genres
Animation, Music, Romance
Director
Wilfred Jackson

Interesting facts

Music Land is a Silly Symphonies animated short film produced by Walt Disney and released in 1935.

Production

In an attempt to bridge the gap between classical music and jazz, the short features music from Beethoven's Eroica and Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries", as well as various popular classical, jazz, and miscellaneous tunes. The film contains no actual speech, but has the characters instead communicate with musical tones, with each 'speaking' through use of the sound of the particular instrument upon which they are based.

According to Leonard Maltin, the film's story originated in the genuine musical dilemma of American society; some people in the 1930s viewed jazz as the end of civilization, similar to how some parents today tend to be perplexed by their children's music interests. Incidentally, the saxophone prince's father is a caricature of the "King of Jazz", Paul Whiteman.

The film was edited into a Walt Disney Presents episode titled "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom" (after the 1953 short) in 1959 with reorchestrated music and narration by Professor Owl (Bill Thompson), and was featured in Walt Disney Cartoon Classics Limited Gold Edition II: The Disney Dream Factory (1985), The Best of Disney: 50 Years of Magic (1991), Songs of the Silly Symphonies (2001), and The Making of 'Pinocchio': No Strings Attached (2009).

In an exhibition of "some of the most inspired and memorable uses of classical music in animation", the film was screened in its entirety at 'What's Opera, Doc? – Animation and Classical Music' as part of the 'Marc Davis Celebration of Animation' hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills in May 2010.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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