The Mad Maestro (1939) User Reviews

For Harmon-Ising, it's very good.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 16 June 2019]

"The Mad Maestro" is an MGM cartoon made just before the studio began making great cartoons, such as Tom & Jerry. After leaving Looney Tunes a few years before, the Harmon-Ising team moved over to MGM and there they made films nearly as insipid and useless as the stuff they'd been making for Warner Brothers/Looney Tunes. It wouldn't be until the early 40s and directors like Tex Avery and the Hanna-Barbera team came to MGM and the quality of the films increased dramatically.

Now I am not saying "The Mad Maestro" is a terrible film...and for Harmon-Ising, it's one of their better ones. Like most of their cartoons, this one is not cutesy....though they did seem to love music and singing in their shorts...and this one is about an orchestra. All sorts of things happen which are kind of humorous....excellent for the 1930s but to be eclipsed easily in the 40s when cartoons took on an edgier and funnier tone.

Some Collaborators Are Not Meant To Last

[boblipton · 7/10 · 3 September 2022]

A conductor attempts to lead his orchestra in a von Suppe overture, with many a humorous incident.

The only credit on this, besides Leo speaking for MGM, is Hugh Harman as producer, and given this is a funny cartoon, that's suspicious. Why aren't writer Joseph Barbera and co-director Friz Freleng on view? Had Freleng traitorously fled back to Termite Terrace before the release? Was Barbera ashamed of the movie, or was it just policy to not share credit? What does the simple color design tell us about the situation?

Well, it's pretty good, although there is a very deliberate pacing of the gags. Worth a look or two.

nothing stands out

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 3 September 2022]

The maestro is conducting his orchestra in a large packed music hall. The animals don't all play their instruments well. Soon, the epic music becomes too much and it ends in chaotic destruction.

It's an MGM cartoon from Hugh Harman. It's animals as people cartoon. Non of them are that memorable. The maestro has an interesting look but nothing stands out. I can only imagine a Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny would have much more fun with the material. Maybe only one musician should be screwing up. In that way, this could concentrate the comedic banter. It would become one musician vs the maestro. This one is rather forgettable.

An assorted animals' guide to the orchestra

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 27 June 2019]

Have always loved animation for nearly 30 years and have made that known numerous times. And it is worth saying numerous times being someone who steadfastly refuses to give in stereotyping animation as being just for kids as a lot of people do. Have always been especially fond of Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, but love most anime (namely Studio Ghibli) and Russian animation as well.

Know Hugh Harman (and Rudolf Ising) best for his cartoons that have a cute approach with a lot of sentiment, which is not going to appeal to some. There have been times where this approach has been done sweetly and charmingly, there have also been other times where it can be too cutesy and cloying. 'The Mad Maestro' is one of the former for me. It is cute and charming, but there is not as much cutesy sentiment as other Harman cartoons and it's more humorously entertaining than most.

Although not an animation masterpiece and there are much better, funnier and more imaginative music-themed cartoons, naming them would be unfair though, 'The Mad Maestro is among Harman's better cartoons overall.

The animation is rich in detail for design and backgrounds, vibrant in colour and crisp. The music is outstanding, then again it is Franz Von Suppe and his music works so well in animation ('Morn, Noon and Night' is one of his best-known pieces for very good reason), and used brilliantly to rousing and comic effect.

Characters here engage and despite their appearances are not too cutesy. They are not personality-deprived either and are suitably varied. The conductor's frustration is done very amusingly and one can understand it as well. The pace is energetic, the liveliness constant, and there are some very amusing moments throughout.

For all those outstanding qualities they are not quite enough to disguise that the story is one that is immediately forgotten by the viewer quickly and it's best to keep it that way. There's nothing new about it, not much of one at all and it's not hard to tell where it's all going to go.

Very nicely done on the whole though. 8/10

A minor classic of a musical cartoon

[nnwahler · 8/10 · 8 November 2016]

When it comes to cartoons dealing with a frustrated conductor tackling Von Suppe's "Morning, Noon & Night In Vienna," I'll take this one over Bugs' "Baton Bunny" any old day. Made twenty years before that cartoon, Friz Freleng (who is uncredited co-director on this film) obviously had to have passed some ideas for the later and more well-known cartoon to director Chuck Jones. But "Baton Bunny" is one of Jones' lesser classical music cartoons, as he and his writers are obviously at pains in terms of comic invention. "Mad Maestro" is consistently inspired from start to finish, and is aided along greatly by MGM's top-notch animators and artists--who at this time were every inch on a par with the Disney artists.

The title character is a fine one, even if he wasn't reused after this cartoon. The viewer can feel his frustration, especially at that little mustachioed pup who's still tuning his violin when the conductor starts up the rest of the band. Through the course of the cartoon the pup gravitates over to the bass drum, which is supposed to play only one beat; but his music keeps getting blown away by a tuba. The pup finally does get his opportunity at the tail end, after the applause, and the delirious maestro collapses into a casket-like cello case. The cutaways to orchestra players reveal a fine bunch of clowns, like a bloodhound fiddler twiddling his thumbs even after his solo cue; he takes his own sweet time, even breaking for closeup looks at the next phrase in his sheet music. The milking of this comic moment is flawless; one can feel the conductor's consternation. There is also a mongrel who plays his bow with his fiddle. Not to mention a harpist with a Harpo Marx hairdo.