User reviews

These are the kind of neighbours you'd want to fire into space! Initially they get on fine, then a chirping songbird arrives and encourages one to buy an harmonica. Unwittingly, he ends up blowing into it whilst asleep one night to the chagrin of the other and next thing we know, it's all out musical war! His neighbour buys an even bigger mouth organ then there's a violin, a double bass, a trumpet before a French Horn manages to take the houses from their foundations. Kettle drums, cymbals then the coup de gras - a grand piano v a pipe organ! Surely they will call a truce now? Nope. Choristers arrive for a cacophonous sing-off that reduces all to rubble. The moral? Well apart from watch with the sound down, it seems to be to consider those around you and be thoughtful!

Dušan Vukotić's "Piccolo" has to be one of the best cartoons that I've seen from Zagreb Film. I interpreted it as a parody of the Cold War: the neighboring men try to play music louder than the other until something unpleasant results. A similar allegory was Dr. Seuss's "Butter Battle Book": the two sides risk blowing up the world over a ridiculous topic.

So yes, this is a clever and hilarious cartoon from Zagreb Film. I've liked every animated short of theirs that I've seen. I suspect that they had fun creating these cartoons. It just goes to show that one doesn't need a lot of resources to create a good piece of work; one just needs the talent, and that's exactly what went into "Piccolo".