# Cartoons and classical music



## cournot (Jan 19, 2014)

I think that for many people above a certain age (ahem!), among whom I include myself, cartoons and especially Warner Bros. cartoons served as an early introduction to classical music. Often I didn't think of these pieces as classical so much as music from Bugs Bunny or Porky Pig. Most famous of course was What's Opera Doc with its blend of music from Wagner's Ring and Tannhauser. They showed that one at my college every finals week. But I also remember the first time I heard Chi me frena in tal momento in a recording of Lucia di Lammermoor and thinking: That's a Bugs Bunny tune isn't it?

What cartoon/comic uses of classical music do you remember fondly?


----------



## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

I have never been into cartoons and comics. The only time I ever read comics was when, as children, my sister and I would sit in the back seat of the car on our annual summer vacation. Comics have never interested me. Cartoons the same. The rash of 'adult' (I'm not referring to x-rated) full-length cartoon movies have bored me. I just don't like the genre.

But, I did grow up in the TV age. As a child, my daily fare consisted of Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, Tom and Jerry, Micky Mouse, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Popeye, Hercules and more.

I don't recall classical music offhand, but I think there was a lot of early jazz, Dixieland, I believe, in the early Mickey Mouse cartoons.


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

The only thing that comes to mind is one of the Warner Brothers cartoons -- it may be the opera one above -- with characters singing the "Figaro, Figaro" bit over and over. I grew up associating this aria or whatever it was with opera without ever knowing which opera it came from. (I still don't know, except it's not The Marriage of Figaro. The Barber of Seville maybe? I was once told but have already forgotten.) 

Then of course Mendelssohn''s "Spring Song" from Songs Without Words, with bird songs in the background, was often used when someone got clunked on the head. I never quite figured out why. I still don't have Songs Without Words today for fear of not liking the cliched sounding "Spring Song."


----------



## bigshot (Nov 22, 2011)

Fantasia clinched it for me. I've always loved Stokowski.


----------



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Oh, yes...the 'sneaking' of pizzicato violins; a sharply-plucked violin when Moe Howard would pull a nose-hair out of Larry; the boom of tympani when Curly received a stomach-blow...the depiction of poverty with a violin playing "A Cup of Coffee, a sandwich, and you...


----------



## JCarmel (Feb 3, 2013)

I remember going to see Fantasia 'en famille' & that made a big impression upon me...especially 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' with those fiendishly animated broomsticks collecting more and more water. I've got a copy of the film now & it still gives me the eeby-jeebies! But I started to listen to music from the earliest age as Dad always was listening to it on the radio or playing records.


----------



## cournot (Jan 19, 2014)

Weston, the Figaro part comes from the Rabbit of Seville which I remember watching on tv as a little boy. I came to Fantasia late because I didn't see it till college, but when I did, I was entranced. I also liked the somewhat more cynical take on Fantasia, Allegro Non Troppo from Italy. Anyone see that?


----------



## mirepoix (Feb 1, 2014)

^^^That sounds interesting. I'll try and see it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_Non_Troppo


----------



## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

Obviously Fantasia, that was a childhood staple.
Tom and Jerry had a few moments I remember. One episode Jerry and his mouse friend ice skated to the famous waltz from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty
And of course, the Looney Toons episode where the reference multiple Wagner operas. *Sigh* those were the days






This segment with the horse is still one of the funniest things I've seen in a cartoon


----------



## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

cournot said:


> Weston, the Figaro part comes from the Rabbit of Seville which I remember watching on tv as a little boy. I came to Fantasia late because I didn't see it till college, but when I did, I was entranced. I also liked the somewhat more cynical take on Fantasia, Allegro Non Troppo from Italy. Anyone see that?


Allegro Non Troppo is in my Netflix queue. It has been in "short wait" status, meaning no one knows when it's available, but I look forward to seeing it someday soon.


----------



## cournot (Jan 19, 2014)

Well, What's Opera Doc, was selected the best cartoon of all time by a selection of leading cartoonists.



Cosmos said:


> Obviously Fantasia, that was a childhood staple.
> Tom and Jerry had a few moments I remember. One episode Jerry and his mouse friend ice skated to the famous waltz from Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty
> And of course, the Looney Toons episode where the reference multiple Wagner operas. *Sigh* those were the days
> 
> ...


----------



## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

IT is common in anime to hear chamber music & orchestral music,like in one anime i heard music of Tchaikovsky.


----------



## mtmailey (Oct 21, 2011)

TOM & JERRY had some CHOPIN piano music i think, i have not seen the cartoon for a long time though.


----------



## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

*Walter Lantz Musical Miniatures*

Walter Lantz, creator of Woody Woodpecker, produced a series of cartoons based on classical music entitled Musical Miniatures. I remember the one based on _Zampa_.


----------



## GGluek (Dec 11, 2011)

I couldn't cite individual cartoons, but pieces I remember from them include the most familiar Hungarian Rhapsody (you know the one, even if not the number), the "little" march from A Midsummer Nights Dream, the Zampa Overture, the Poet and Peasant Overture. There was even a brief Saturday morning "Melo-Tunes" series that tried to portray the stories of well known light classics in cartoon form -- several episodes of thr Peer Gynt saga, a hokey Waltz of the Flowers, etc.


----------



## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

cournot said:


> Weston, the Figaro part comes from the Rabbit of Seville which I remember watching on tv as a little boy. I came to Fantasia late because I didn't see it till college, but when I did, I was entranced. *I also liked the somewhat more cynical take on Fantasia, Allegro Non Troppo from Italy. Anyone see that?*





mirepoix said:


> ^^^That sounds interesting. I'll try and see it.
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegro_Non_Troppo





Weston said:


> Allegro Non Troppo is in my Netflix queue. It has been in "short wait" status, meaning no one knows when it's available, but I look forward to seeing it someday soon.


Yes, I saw it.
It's a sort of Fantasia for adults (no sex, don't worry...). Quite ironic and mordacious.
Bruno Bozzetto, the author, is one of my favourite cartoonists.
I enjoyed a lot Bolero and Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, but all episodes are very good indeed. I loved the old-ladies orchestra...


----------



## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

[video=dailymotion;xetg19]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xetg19_fantasia-2000-rhapsody-in-blue_music[/video]


----------



## Varick (Apr 30, 2014)

Rhapsody Rabbit was always one of my favorites. Bugs Bunny (Warner Brothers) was so clever down to every detail. Great memories.

V


----------



## Pysmythe (May 11, 2014)

Including the facsimile of a Beethoven autograph-score at 6:56...


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Russia and Eastern/Central Europe has a very fine tradition for artistic cartoons and puppet animation films.

*Shostakovich* wrote cartoon music, including for this film from 1940, "The Silly Little Mouse"





*Yuri Levitin*, another talented Russian composer from the USSR years, wrote a good deal for animated films, including this "Dobrynya Nikitisch" 



 and "The Adventures of Murziki" (1956) 



 and this


----------

