To close out our week of music I leave you with two of the greatest animated tributes to music. The first is a highly stylized and delightful short called Toot, Whistle Plunk, and Boom, a part of the educational Adventures in Music Series. The short won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short in 1984. This one is directed by Ward Kimball is is very indicative of his more stylized and less realistic cartooning approach.
The second is a featurette produced by Disney in 1962 called A Symposium on Popular Songs. As you know, Ludwig Von Drake is one of my favorite cartoon characters of all time--probably in the top three. This featurette is written by X Atencio, starring Paul Frees as Ludwig Von Drake, music by the Sherman Brothers, and directed by Bill Justice. It's as if they made it just for me.
The featurette was nominated for and a Academy Award for Best Animated Short, and features some really great original songs that both parody and pay tribute to 20th century music.
Enjoy.
CG
Friday, March 18, 2011
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Cartoon Music Part 4
Today is a tribute to cartoon music in television. This is a category that is far too big for me to cover in post, so I'm sure I will miss something. If there's a particular song or show that you would like to recognize, please post it in the comments.
Television animation is rife with music. There are many shows in which the music is almost a character in the show, such as Animaniacs. The writers and performers were lucky on this show. Since the entire Warner Bros. orchestra was sitting around with not much to do, the show was given access to them. As such, Animaniacs features tons of musical numbers and is underscored nearly every second. Here's one of my favorite musical numbers from the show:
Now the music in Animaniacs ranged from "educational" like this one or "The Presidents Song" or "50 US Capitals" to completely silly and ridiculous like "The Monkey Song."
But when it comes to educational musical television, the grandaddy of them all is Schoolhouse Rock! Animated segments that teach children all about things from grammar to math to political science. This one is probably the most iconic, and one of my favorites:
Partially I like it because it features jazz man and comedian Jack Sheldon, who you you might also remember as Louie the Lightning Bug on the old safety PSAs from the eighties.
You'd also be remiss in not mentioning The Simpsons for their contribution to animated television music. Alf Clausen and his orchestra have related many memorable songs for the show, but this one is my favorite. The last couple of seconds is probably my favorite moment in Simpsons history.
That is not do discount numbers like "The Stonecutters' Song," "See My Vest," or the musical version of Planet of the Apes.
Spongebob Squarepants also has some great Musical moments. Tom Kenny and the Andy Paley orchestra are great with coming up with wacky little songs for the show. Though this is not one of the original songs, here is a great one:
But You might also enjoy "The Ripped Pants Song" or "The Campfire Song."
And, of course, we cannot talk about television animation's music without talking about theme songs. I love theme songs. I have over 7 hours of theme songs in a playlist on my iTunes right now. They are so silly and fun. A little weird party trick I can do is to sing the them song to any show you can name. I have been tested, and always pass. But animated series tend to have really great theme songs especially. Here's a little playlist of some of the best from the 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's, and 90's.
I leave you with the theme song to my favorite animated TV series of all time. But as I said at the beginning, if there is anything that has been left off that you think should be included in a TV Cartoon Music post, please post it in the comments or over at the Facebook Page.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Cartoon Music Part 3
Last week I talked about musical numbers in animated features using very strict guidelines for what constituted the list. I used more musical theatre standards for what a musical number is than film standards. So for today's post, I would like to include some feature animation sequences that couldn't necessarily fit into last week's list.
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" from Fantasia
This is the mother of all musical animated features. I chose "Sorcerer's Apprentice" to showcase because it is quite nice and one of the few Mickey Mouse cartoons I actually like. But it could just as easily have been "Dance of the Hours" or "Night on Bald Mountain."
"Rhapsody in Blue" from Fantasia 2000
While we're talking about Fantasia, I might as well mention Fantasia 2000. On the whole, not a terribly great movie, but this sequence by Eric Goldberg based on the work of his hero Al Hirschfeld is quite brilliant. It's probably one of my favorites. Love the song, love the animation, love Hirschfeld. This one is right up my alley.
"The Circle of Life" from The Lion King
Technically probably fits more into the other category, but it didn't follow the rules of the other list, so I'll include it here.
"Pink Elephants on Parade" from Dumbo
Here's a nice little psychedelic piece from Dumbo. You either love this piece or you hate it. I personally think it's pretty cool.
Yellow Submarine
How could we mention psychedelia without this piece. I almost broke my rules last week and put this one on the other list. Here is the film in its entirety because I couldn't decide which one was best to include.
"When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2
I know everyone thinks that I hate Pixar--not true--and that I hate Toy Story--also, not true--but if this number doesn't leave you a little choked up, there's something the matter with you. This is a little short film on its own.
"Digga Tunnah" from The Lion King 1 1/2
This is not great, and it certainly doesn't belong on a top anything in animation, but I really like this freakin' song.
"Worthless" from The Brave Little Toaster
Again, probably belongs on the musical number list, but not in the top ten, though it's quite chilling, and pretty creepy to watch when you're a little kid.
I could keep going and going with these, but you'd be watching clips all day. Like I have been. The point is that in animated features, music and action go hand in hand a lot more than in live action. In live action music can overpower the scene or work against the scene. In animation, the music and action work together symbiotically more often than not. It's a really cool thing to watch.
Side note: I know this list seems a little Disney heavy, but quite frankly the animated feature genre is a little Disney heavy. There haven't been many heavy hitters in the American animated feature racket until the last 20 years or so. I try to be even handed with showings from production companies, but what are you going to do?
CG
"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" from Fantasia
This is the mother of all musical animated features. I chose "Sorcerer's Apprentice" to showcase because it is quite nice and one of the few Mickey Mouse cartoons I actually like. But it could just as easily have been "Dance of the Hours" or "Night on Bald Mountain."
"Rhapsody in Blue" from Fantasia 2000
While we're talking about Fantasia, I might as well mention Fantasia 2000. On the whole, not a terribly great movie, but this sequence by Eric Goldberg based on the work of his hero Al Hirschfeld is quite brilliant. It's probably one of my favorites. Love the song, love the animation, love Hirschfeld. This one is right up my alley.
"The Circle of Life" from The Lion King
Technically probably fits more into the other category, but it didn't follow the rules of the other list, so I'll include it here.
"Pink Elephants on Parade" from Dumbo
Here's a nice little psychedelic piece from Dumbo. You either love this piece or you hate it. I personally think it's pretty cool.
Yellow Submarine
How could we mention psychedelia without this piece. I almost broke my rules last week and put this one on the other list. Here is the film in its entirety because I couldn't decide which one was best to include.
"When She Loved Me" from Toy Story 2
I know everyone thinks that I hate Pixar--not true--and that I hate Toy Story--also, not true--but if this number doesn't leave you a little choked up, there's something the matter with you. This is a little short film on its own.
"Digga Tunnah" from The Lion King 1 1/2
This is not great, and it certainly doesn't belong on a top anything in animation, but I really like this freakin' song.
"Worthless" from The Brave Little Toaster
Again, probably belongs on the musical number list, but not in the top ten, though it's quite chilling, and pretty creepy to watch when you're a little kid.
I could keep going and going with these, but you'd be watching clips all day. Like I have been. The point is that in animated features, music and action go hand in hand a lot more than in live action. In live action music can overpower the scene or work against the scene. In animation, the music and action work together symbiotically more often than not. It's a really cool thing to watch.
Side note: I know this list seems a little Disney heavy, but quite frankly the animated feature genre is a little Disney heavy. There haven't been many heavy hitters in the American animated feature racket until the last 20 years or so. I try to be even handed with showings from production companies, but what are you going to do?
CG
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Cartoon Music Part 2
The Great Carl StallingIf you tried to write about the history of cartoon music without mentioning Carl Stalling, the huge gap in your timeline would make it look as though for many years there was no music in cartoons. Stalling is unquestionably the seminal cartoon musician creating some of the most iconic scores in animation history.
Carl Stalling was from Missouri and at the age of 12 he was the pianist at the local silent movie theatre. From there he moved on to conducting his own orchestra in Kansas City. It was here that he met a young Walt Disney when Walt was making the Laugh-o-Grams. After the success of the synchronized sound in Steamboat Willie, Walt persuaded Carl to come out to Hollywood to create the score for Plane Crazy and Gallopin' Gaucho.
There was always friction between Walt and Carl over which element should inform the other. Should the action inform the music, or should the music inform the action? In a compromise, Walt offered a series of cartoons that would be completely informed by the music called Silly Symphonies. Carl would create the scores for the Silly Symphonies and the animators would animate, while in the Mickey Mouse cartoons, the gag and story men would create the story and then Carl would compose a score. Very quickly, the Silly Symphonies became just as popular as the Mickey Mouse cartoons, and The Flowers and the Trees became the first animated short in color as well as the first animated short to win the Academy Award for best animated short film.
After a couple years at Disney, the friction between Walt and Carl became too much to handle, and Carl left the Disney Studio. After freelancing for a while, Leon Schlesinger hired him to work on the Warner Bros. cartoons, and he remained there for twenty-two years. While at Warner Bros. he would create some of the most iconic musical scores of all time indelibly associating various pieces of classical music with cartoons.
Though many people enjoyed his punny musical scoring, director Chuck Jones did not, saying, 'He was a brilliant musician. But the quickest way for him to write a musical score was to simply look up some music that had the proper name. If there was a lady dressed in red, he'd always play "The Lady in Red". If somebody went into a cave, he'd play "Fingal's Cave"...I had a bee one time, and my God, if he didn't go and find a piece of music written in 1906 or something called "I'm a Busy Little Bumble Bee".'
For scenes at sea, the Spanish tune "Over the Waves"
For machinery, Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse"
For waking up, "Morning Mood"
For characters out driving, "In My Merry Oldsmobile"
For chase scenes, "The William Tell Overture"
Too many to include in one simple blog post. However, if you enjoy the work of Carl Stalling, check this out as well.
CG
Monday, March 14, 2011
Cartoon Music Part 1
Last week I did a top ten list of musical numbers in animated features, and it reminded me that one of my favorite aspects of cartoons is the use of music. So I decided to do a week-long tribute to music in cartoons.
Today, we'll start at the beginning. Picture it, the years is 1928, Walt Disney was in the process of bouncing back from a harsh business failure. His business partner Charles Mintz, in an attempt to take over the Disney Brothers' business, had signed over all of Disney's animators and snatched the popular character Oswald the Luck Rabbit. Mintz believed that he had Disney over a barrel and that Disney would be forced to come and work for him. However, he didn't count on Walt's drive and stubborness.Walt along with his one loyal animator Ub Iwerks sat down to create a new character one that could replace Oswald. What they came up with was one of the most iconic characters of all time: Mickey Mouse. While the rest of the Disney studio ran out the Charles Mintz contract by work on the last few Oswald cartoons that Disney was contractually obligated to produce, Ub worked in a secret locked room on the new character. Ub had created the first two Mickey Mouse cartoons, when something happened to change the face of the entertainment medium. A film called The Jazz Singer starring Al Jolson was released.
While many studios believed that synchronized sound was a novelty and a fad that would pass, Walt decided that this was a huge opportunity to make his new character stand out. So the third Mickey Mouse cartoon was to be made with synchronized music and sound. After developing the process and finding a distributor, Mickey Mouse made his big screen debut on November 18, 1928 in Steamboat Willie.
The other silent Mickey Mouse cartoons Plane Crazy and The Gallopin' Gaucho were fitted with the new technology, and became a sensation. Since then music and sound have become an integral, if not crucial, part of cartoons, but this is the musical cartoon that started it all.
I would also like to remind you as you watch this of the genius of Ub Iwerks. This entire cartoon is drawn by Ub. Every. Single. Drawing. Pretty impressive if you ask me.
Check back in tomorrow as we continue the discussion of music in cartoons.
CG
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Rango Review
I saw Gore Verbinski's and ILM's recent release Rango, the other day, and I am now getting around to my review. (I apologize for my absence this week. It has been a busy week filled with a voiceover audition for a two-year campaign, two pitch meetings for my own animated series, and my birthday.)I must say, I really enjoyed this movie. I knew going in that it would probably like it, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. First off all, I was really fascinated with the way in which the film was made, which you can read about in greater detail here. The process basically involved the cast getting on their feet to play act the script and then the animators would use the actors' performances as reference. In a world of the highly mechanical and fairly unartistic process of motion capture, this creative and and collaborative process really intrigued me.
As far as the animation goes, again I am no expert on the craft of animation, but ILM seems to have knocked it out of the park. The characters are very detailed--almost hyper-realistic--and yet they maintain an exaggerated, cartoonish quality.
The performances are pretty good. Johnny Depp does a fine job, but nothing to write home about. There's also a host of admirable performances from veteran character actors like Stephen Root, Alfred Molina, and Harry Dean Stanton. Abigail Breslin, gives a nice performance. And I even liked Bill Nighy's performance as Rattlesnake Jake, which is basically a weird sounding cowboy version of his Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. Although--full disclosure--you will be hard pressed to find me saying anything bad about Bill Nighy. I am still trying to get him to return my calls and let me pitch him my idea for a reality TV series called "Mike and Bill Nighy Are Best Friends and Go on Adventures." The only performance that is stand-out bad is Isla, man was she annoying and over-the-top.
Finally, the only real I have with the movie is the story. It is pretty formulaic, and you have seen a version of this story in Flushed Away, A Bug's Life, Three Amigos, etc. It's pretty weak and kind of hackneyed, and if the performances and animation weren't as good as they are, I probably would have hated it. But overall I left smiling and I got a few laughs, so all-in-all I think it's pretty solid.
Starting next week, inspired by the early post about musical numbers in animation, I am going to do a week long discussion of music in animation that I think you will enjoy. So be sure to check back.
CG
Friday, March 4, 2011
Top Ten Cartoon Musical Numbers
Yesterday, while doing some errand running, I set my i-pod to a playlist that I hadn't listened to a in a long time. One that has only animated movie soundtracks, cause I'm that freaking cool. There is some really fun music in these things and since I'm someone who--in addition to loving cartoons--also really enjoys musical theatre, I thought I'd share with you my top ten list of animated musical numbers.
This became a little more daunting than I thought it'd be because there are a lot of great musical numbers on television cartoons. Like this one from Animaniacs.
Then there are also musical sequences, but not necessarily musical numbers like "Pink Elephants on Parade" in Dumbo. Or anything from Yellow Submarine. So I decided to set some ground rules. First, these are songs from animated features only. And secondly, they are musical numbers sung by characters in the film, not music over an animated sequence. Is that confusing enough? Good. Here we go.
10 - "Oh, Ratigan" from The Great Mouse Detective.
This one is just really fun, and we've got Vincent Price singing lead. What's not to like?
9 - "Let's make Music Together" from All Dogs Go To Heaven
Another great number that is just a fun good time. And while there are several great songs from this movie, I've got to say that this is my favorite. I love the New Orleansy feel of it and the big soulful gay alligator.
8 - "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" from Song of the South
Yes, the film is not racially sensitive, but this song and this number are iconic. Even has an attraction at Disneyland based on it.
7 - "An Actor's Life for Me" from Pinocchio
This is one of my favorite musical numbers, not for the song necessarily, but for the animation. Watch the way the multi-plane camera let's you move around and through the buildings on the street. You wouldn't notice it if it wasn't there, but because it is, it gives the scene this little touch of believability.
6 - "Why Don't You Do Right" from Who Framed Roger Rabbit
I don't really need to explain this one, do I?
5 - "Prince Ali" - from Aladdin
Really fun 11 o'clock number. Great performance by Robin Williams here. A huge crowd with animals, people, and a market to animate. Nice work all around from all artists involved with this one.
4 - "Jolly Holiday" from Mary Poppins
What can I say? I'd feel dumb if I didn't have a scene from Mary Poppins on here. And anytime there's people and cartoons performing together, I think that's cool.
3 - "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid
A lot of animators I know aren't really fans of this movie, but I think it's gorgeous. Ariel is one of the princess who saved the Disney company. Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel all saved the Walt Disney Studios at one point or another. I think this movie is gorgeous. And while it's, again, not my favorite song from the movie, it illustrates the beauty of this film magnificently. Also, as you watch I want you to look for something. Glenn Keane gave a speech once where he talked about drawing that little wrinkle under her eye. That little line under her eye makes her so much more expressive. I think this movie and this number are both beautiful.
2 - "Help Yourself" from Anchors Aweigh
True, it's not an animated feature, but I made the rules, so I can break them. Ken Muse in this scene is able to make Jerry dance like Gene Kelly in perfect step. I think it's truly amazing. I've watched this scene dozens of times in my life, and I still can't wrap my brain around how it was done.
1 - "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast
I could easily have filled this entire list with numbers from Beauty and the Beast. Not only is it a great animated movie. Not only is it a great movie in general. It is a really well constructed musical. It's one of my favorite musicals of all time, in fact. Solid, fun songs. Really well constructed, and this opening number is just amazing.
And there you have it: The Cartoon Guru's top ten list of musical numbers in animated features. You're welcome. Any missing from this list that you think should be on here? I'd love your thoughts as well.
CG
This became a little more daunting than I thought it'd be because there are a lot of great musical numbers on television cartoons. Like this one from Animaniacs.
Then there are also musical sequences, but not necessarily musical numbers like "Pink Elephants on Parade" in Dumbo. Or anything from Yellow Submarine. So I decided to set some ground rules. First, these are songs from animated features only. And secondly, they are musical numbers sung by characters in the film, not music over an animated sequence. Is that confusing enough? Good. Here we go.
10 - "Oh, Ratigan" from The Great Mouse Detective.
This one is just really fun, and we've got Vincent Price singing lead. What's not to like?
9 - "Let's make Music Together" from All Dogs Go To Heaven
Another great number that is just a fun good time. And while there are several great songs from this movie, I've got to say that this is my favorite. I love the New Orleansy feel of it and the big soulful gay alligator.
8 - "Zip-a-dee-doo-dah" from Song of the South
Yes, the film is not racially sensitive, but this song and this number are iconic. Even has an attraction at Disneyland based on it.
7 - "An Actor's Life for Me" from Pinocchio
This is one of my favorite musical numbers, not for the song necessarily, but for the animation. Watch the way the multi-plane camera let's you move around and through the buildings on the street. You wouldn't notice it if it wasn't there, but because it is, it gives the scene this little touch of believability.
6 - "Why Don't You Do Right" from Who Framed Roger Rabbit
I don't really need to explain this one, do I?
5 - "Prince Ali" - from Aladdin
Really fun 11 o'clock number. Great performance by Robin Williams here. A huge crowd with animals, people, and a market to animate. Nice work all around from all artists involved with this one.
4 - "Jolly Holiday" from Mary Poppins
What can I say? I'd feel dumb if I didn't have a scene from Mary Poppins on here. And anytime there's people and cartoons performing together, I think that's cool.
3 - "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid
A lot of animators I know aren't really fans of this movie, but I think it's gorgeous. Ariel is one of the princess who saved the Disney company. Snow White, Cinderella, and Ariel all saved the Walt Disney Studios at one point or another. I think this movie is gorgeous. And while it's, again, not my favorite song from the movie, it illustrates the beauty of this film magnificently. Also, as you watch I want you to look for something. Glenn Keane gave a speech once where he talked about drawing that little wrinkle under her eye. That little line under her eye makes her so much more expressive. I think this movie and this number are both beautiful.
2 - "Help Yourself" from Anchors Aweigh
True, it's not an animated feature, but I made the rules, so I can break them. Ken Muse in this scene is able to make Jerry dance like Gene Kelly in perfect step. I think it's truly amazing. I've watched this scene dozens of times in my life, and I still can't wrap my brain around how it was done.
1 - "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast
I could easily have filled this entire list with numbers from Beauty and the Beast. Not only is it a great animated movie. Not only is it a great movie in general. It is a really well constructed musical. It's one of my favorite musicals of all time, in fact. Solid, fun songs. Really well constructed, and this opening number is just amazing.
And there you have it: The Cartoon Guru's top ten list of musical numbers in animated features. You're welcome. Any missing from this list that you think should be on here? I'd love your thoughts as well.
CG
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