The Opry House
| The Opry House | |
|---|---|
| Directed by |
Walt Disney Ub Iwerks |
| Produced by | Walt Disney |
| Music by | Carl Stalling |
| Animation by | Ub Iwerks |
| Studio |
Walt Disney Studios Celebrity Productions |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | March 28, 1929 |
| Running time | 7:25 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Preceded by | Plane Crazy |
| Followed by | When the Cat's Away |
The Opry House (1929), first released on March 28, 1929, was the fifth Mickey Mouse short to be released, the second of that year. It cast Mickey as the owner of a small theater (or opera house according to the title). Mickey performs a vaudeville show all by himself. Acts include his impersonation of a snake charmer, his dressing in drag and performing a belly dance, his caricature of a Hasidic Jew and, for the finale, a piano performance.
The cartoon starts with the opening of a theater and Mickey Mouse sweeping and using the broom as an instrument and a dance partner. Mickey is then faced with a large show goer, who must be deflated in order to fit through the doorway. The band takes over, with a large variety of short gags occurring throughout. Following, Mickey Mouse becomes the star of the show, taking on the multiple roles of a vaudeville star. The cartoon ends with a humorous fight between himself and a piano and a stool. Mickey's interactions are highly stylized in order to capture the essence of what a vaudeville performance should be.
The Opry House was the fifth Mickey Mouse cartoon released by Walt Disney Productions. It appears in black and white, and the audio was recorded using Pat Powers's cinephone system. It was animated mostly by Ub Iwerks, Walt Disney's first employee who later became known as a “Disney Legend”. The short became the most expensive early Disney short, its negative cost being almost $2,500 more than the Steamboat Willie cartoon produced just a year prior.
This short is an early example of how the Disney studio's animated shorts became more sophisticated than previous ones. The short shows more realistic animating. The early Disney cartoons, like Steamboat Willie show many similarities to the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons that preceded them. However, as Mickey Mouse evolved from the silent film era, the cartoons became more intricate. Mickey Mouse began interacting within his space in his cartoon world to create a more realist feel.
Walt Disney himself reinforces this idea:
“...Our characters were beginning to act & behave like real persons. Because of this we could begin to put real feeling and charm into our characterization. After all you can't expect charm from animated sticks and that is what Mickey Mouse was in his first pictures”.
This short features no dialogue and consequently its humor relies on a long series of visual gags. The accompanying musical pieces notably include "Yankee Doodle", Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# Minor (Op. 2/3)" and George Bizet's Carmen. It is also the first appearance of "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt in a cartoon, and its use heavily influenced later cartoons including "The Cat Concerto", "Rhapsody Rabbit" and "Rhapsody in Rivets" and a Walter Lantz cartoon Convict Concerto with Woody Woodpecker.
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