A 1935 animation cel featuring Mickey Mouse in The Band Concert will be auctioned off on February 24-25. The animation art is estimated t be worth over $100,000. It is thought to be the only production setup in existence from the first Mickey cartoon that features Mickey and the entire band.
“This cel is, in many ways, the ultimate Mickey Mouse item a collector could ever hope to acquire,” said Barry Sandoval, Director of Operations of the Comics category at Heritage. “The Band Concert was the very first theatrical Mickey Mouse cartoon in color, and has long been cherished by Disney fans worldwide.”
The Band Concert itself is an intensely funny short cartoon, crammed with colorful gags involving Mickey’s ragtag orchestra – who never stop playing, no matter what is happening around them – and the efforts of soft drink salesman Donald Duck to subvert the program by playing “Turkey in the Straw” on his piccolo. The film culminates with an intense windstorm, just as the band plays “The William Tell Overture”.