I post frequently about how classical music has fled the wasteland that is the concert hall and taken up residence in Hollywood. For a brief, glorious period it also showed up in children's cartoons. I grew up n these, and dare say that some of our readers did as well.
Most famous were the Bugs Bunny cartoons like "The Rabbit of Seville". But this adaptation of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody is very entertaining.
I posted a couple years back about how Franz Liszt was bigger than The Beatles, back in the 1840s. Big enough to get into cartoons.
This subject cannot pass without a mention of what has been called by many as "The greatest cartoon ever made": Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in "What's Opera Doc?" It's a seven minute parody of the entire Ring Cycle by Wagner with Bugs as Brunhilde and Elmer as Zigfreid. There are so many inside jokes on opera that as many times as I've seen it, I'm sure I'm still missing some of them.
ReplyDeleteI have it on one of the Looney Tunes collections. Don't miss it if you haven't seen it.
My bucket list includes going to the summer concert at the Hollywood Bowl (just over the hill from Warner Bros. Studios) when they do an entire night of Looney Tunes with classical music, and the full symphony orchestra plays the exact pieces and arrangements in the cartoon, in real time, while the cartoons play on the big screen.
ReplyDeleteAnd a lot of the audience sings along.
o/~ Kill Da Wabbit, Kill Da Wabbit, Kill Da Wabbit, Kill Da Wabbit!o/~
"Big enough to get into cartoons."
ReplyDelete...a hundred years later.
Will the Beatles be that big in the 2060's?
My first exposure to classical music came from Looney Tunes. That exposure turned into a love for the music which has never left me to this day. So, thank you Warner Brothers and Fritz Freeling and Chuck Jones!
ReplyDeleteYep, grew up with them. I'd LOVE to see the Hollywood Bowl concert, even if I don't hear that well anymore...
ReplyDelete"Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit "
ReplyDelete"What's Opera, Doc?" is in national film registry list
ReplyDeleteWhen I first met my wife, she thought she was introducing me to Classical music. As soon as she put it on, I exclaimed "Ah Cartoon Music!"
ReplyDeleteMy first introduction to classical music was like most of us, through cartoons.
ReplyDeleteHowever, what got me to *love* classical music was when my 5th grade teacher took the class on a field trip to see and hear the Louisville Orchestra.
It was wonderful. They played a lot of the classics, but they also played some of the pop music of that era (1965). It was geared for our age group and we were not the only school group there. I remember the conductor would speak to us and explain some of the nuances and how a lot of modern pop music had its root in the classics. Then the orchestra would play both pieces. My ten year old self just loved it. I didn't want that day to end.
I would pay good money today to relive that experience.
Now, what do you think of when you hear the William Tell Overture?
ReplyDelete