The Poet & Peasant is a 1945 animated short film (seven minutes) directed by Dick Lundy, produced by Walter Lantz.
Andy Panda leads a bunch of farm animals in a concert. They're playing an actual musical piece: "Poet and Peasant" by Franz von Suppé. Various wacky things happen: a frog gets under Andy's wig, a bird lands on Andy's baton, and a fox stalks the two ducks that are dancing ballet.
Tropes:
- Bizarre Instrument: The animals use some unusual instruments. A horse makes a drum by banging a large pumpkin against an upturned washtub.
- Cartoon Conductor: Andy waves his arms around in the standard frantic manner.
- Chekhov's Boomerang: Andy's silly red wig. First it provides a gag when a frog is hiding underneath it. Then, after Andy's Pain-Powered Leap hundreds of feet up, he uses the wig to parachute back down.
- The Noun and the Noun: The Poet & Peasant
- Pain-Powered Leap: Andy leaps hundreds of feet in the air when a pitchfork meant for someone else jabs his butt.
- Predation Is Natural: A rare example for the era of a cartoon predator that actually gets to eat his prey. All the birds on Andy's baton get eaten by a cat. And when the fox goes after the two ducks, he actually manages to eat one, although the second escapes.
- Squashed Flat: When the violinist falls asleep, Andy gets some cymbals and boxes the violinist's ears with them, squashing his head flat.
- Titled After the Song: Titled after the overture "Poet and Peasant".
