Mr. Strauss Takes a Walk (1942) User Reviews

Mr. Strauss Takes a Walk is fine for exposing a new generation to classical music

[tavm · 7/10 · 13 January 2007]

Mr. Strauss Takes a Walk is a George Pal Puppetoon that purports to tell the story of how famous composer Johann Strauss got the inspiration to write "Tales of the Vienna Woods". We see him going to the woods to observe all the animals doing what comes naturally to them. As all this is going on, Strauss writes musical notes on his bib. After he is finished, he conducts an imaginary orchestra in front of his animal audience and also imagines wooing an imaginary woman who looks just like him! He then says good night to all the forest creatures (even a skunk!) as he leaves and him and the narrator bid us goodbye as the short ends...Pretty entertaining with one big laugh at the end. I first heard "Tales of the Vienna Woods" in A Corny Concerto, Bob Clampett's spoof of Disney's Fantasia so the music here was very familiar. It's cartoons like these that exposed me and I'm sure many others to many classical pieces that probably might've faded away today, if not completely disappeared, in today's more exclusive musical tastes of certain markets. So I'm glad for the timeliness of films such as these. Definitely worth seeing for Pal and classical fans.