Why Oswald's Saxophone is Actually a Secret Weapon

So, I finally sat down with Music Hath Charms from 1936. If you like those old-timey cartoons where music literally saves the world, you should watch it today. If you can't stand high-pitched 1930s energy or hillbilly jokes, you’ll probably hate it. 🦗

The whole thing takes place in a place called Hillbilly Hollow. It's exactly what it sounds like. Lots of rickety fences, animals in overalls, and that dusty atmosphere you only see in Walter Lantz shorts.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is the star here. But he is not the same Oswald you see in the old Disney stuff from the 20s. By 1936, he looked a lot more like a generic white bunny. He’s rounder and looks like he’s made of marshmallows.

The premise is that Oswald loves his saxophone. 🎷 The problem is, everyone else in the Hollow hates it. They basically tell him to get lost because he's making too much noise.

It’s a bit sad, actually. He’s just trying to express himself through art. But then, a literal plague of grasshoppers descends on the area. And when I say plague, I mean they cover everything.

The way the grasshoppers are animated is actually pretty cool. They don't just land; they swarm like a dark cloud. It reminded me a bit of the frantic energy in Lots of Nerve.

These bugs are hungry. They start eating everything in sight. There’s a specific moment where a grasshopper eats an entire wooden fence in about three seconds. The sound effects are all crunchy and fast.

It’s kind of scary if you actually think about the physics of it. These bugs have big, blank eyes and they don't have personalities. They are just a hungry, vibrating mass of legs and wings.

Hillbilly Hollow is getting completely depleted. The crops are gone, and the people are panicking. That’s when Oswald steps up with his saxophone.

At first, you think it’s just going to be more noise. But in cartoon logic, the music has a physical power. The grasshoppers stop eating the second he hits a note.

They start to vibrate to the rhythm. It’s like the music is literally holding them back from eating. The sax music is really loud and brassy, with that old-school recording quality that sounds a bit distorted.

The grasshoppers aren't just stopped; they are soothed. They start dancing. Some of them even pair up and do a little jig on the dirt.

It is such a 1930s way to solve a problem. Just play some jazz and the disaster goes away. I really wish real life worked like that.

The backgrounds in this short are worth looking at. They have that hand-painted, slightly blurry look. It makes the Hollow feel like a real, dusty place that's been there forever.

I saw a similar rural vibe in A Hunting We Will Go. Lantz really seemed to like these country settings. Maybe they were just easier for the background artists to draw than big cities.

There’s a moment where Oswald hits a really high note and his whole body stretches out. His ears even stand straight up like antennas. It’s a classic bit of animation that doesn't need to make sense.

I noticed one grasshopper in the background that was slightly off-model. Its legs went through its body for a couple of frames. I love finding little mistakes like that in old hand-drawn stuff. It makes it feel like real people actually sat there and drew it.

The bugs eventually get so into the music that they forget to be hungry. The area is 'restored,' though I’m not sure how music can grow back corn that's already been eaten. Again, don't think too hard about it.

I wonder if the writers, Walter Lantz and Victor McLeod, were just big fans of jazz. Or maybe they just needed a reason for Oswald to be loud and annoying. Either way, it works for what it is.

Is this a masterpiece of cinema? No. It’s a bit repetitive in the middle parts.

But it has that specific 1936 energy. It’s caught between the old silent era style and the newer, more polished cartoons that were coming out. It’s a little bit messy, but in a good way.

I like messy animation because it feels more human. You can see the lines where the ink was a bit thick on the cells. It has more soul than the perfectly smooth CGI we get today.

If you like this, you might also want to check out Uncle Si and the Sirens. It has that same kind of weird, musical humor that doesn't always land but is interesting to watch. Or maybe The Cock-Eyed World if you want something from a similar era but totally different in tone.

One thing that bugged me—pun intended—was the ending. It just sort of... stops. The bugs are dancing, and then the cartoon is over. I wanted to see them actually leave or see the townspeople apologize to Oswald.

But I guess the seven minutes were up and they had to ship it. Anyway, it's a fun little watch for a rainy afternoon.

"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast." Or in this case, a really hungry bug with no self-control.

Final thought: Oswald’s saxophone is actually bigger than