OllieSuave-007
A cleverly-made Silly Symphony, where two dueling lands of musical instruments go to war over the forbidden love between the children of the the Symphony Queen and the Jazz King. Lots of interesting caricatures, from a metronome jailhouse to dueling notes firepower. And, the classical songs used in the plot, from Beethoven Minuet to Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, were a delight to listen to. Not a bad cartoon, overall. A good mixture of music, action, and silliness. Grade B+
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Music Land" is an American cartoon from 1935 and this means it is over 80 years already. Still it is a color and sound movie and at 9.5 minutes, it is a bit longer than most other cartoons from that era. The name of director Wilfred Jackson is one that shows film buffs immediately that here we got another Disney production, even without the inclusion of Mickey, which you may think if you are mislead by the picture here on imdb. Instead the characters are a group, or I should say two groups, of music instruments, namely string elements and wind instruments and there is a great deal of romance and drama in there, but neither of these two key parts of the film really convinced me I must admit. Still the ending with the metaphorical bridge of harmony was somewhat smart and it elevates everything before that a little bit, but not too much admittedly and certainly not to a level where I would recommend this one. I wonder what Pixar's take on humanized music instruments would be today. Back to this one here, I also felt the music was really underwhelming for a film that so much focuses on the subject of music (instruments). Looks-wise, it is as good as everything else by Disney from that era, but this alone osn't enough. Thumbs down from me. Watch another as this is nowhere near the best Disney had to offer during that time. A bit surprised by the high rating here.
MartinHafer
Unlike some of Disney's Silly Symphony shorts, this one doesn't hold up so well today. Part of it is because the style of animation looks very dated. Part of it is because the story itself is very 1930s--when people actually LIKED insipid musical cartoons! Regardless, today it certainly does not rank as one of the better Disney shorts of the era.This short features lots of musical instruments in anthropomorphic form. It's the story of a lady violin and a young man saxophone and the difficulty that results when they fall in love and their families disapprove of such a mixed marriage! It's all set to big-band music and is animated using very splashy 1930s Technicolor. Not a great film but worth seeing--particularly if you are a nut about all things Disney.
TheLittleSongbird
The story of Music Land is that of when Princess Violin and Prince Sax fall in love with each other, but they belong to two feuding kingdoms the land of symphony and the Isle of Jazz. Loosely based on Romeo and Juliet, but with a happy ending, it is a sweet musical treat for those who are fans of classical and jazz music. The animation is excellent if a little dated (my only criticism here), and I also loved the soundtrack, with Beethoven's Minuet at the beginning, and the very clever fusion of classical and jazz music. The characters are very appealing, like in all of the Silly Symphonies, and I will say I love all of the Silly Symphonies. Overall, an original and beautiful short, though not as good as a short like Flowers and Trees. 9/10 Bethany Cox.
AD
