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

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

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

The Oscars

Per a debate going on over at the Facebook page, I decided I should take a second to fully explain my thoughts on Toy Story 3 and the Oscars over here. First of all, let me say that over on the Huffington Post, Michael Barrier made a similar argument not to long ago, and articulated these ideas far better than me.

Let me also say that I do not think that Toy Story 3 or ANY Pixar work is bad, except--to quote Lisa Simpson--Cars. I think Pixar is terrific, and if you give me the opportunity to go see a Pixar movie or any other piece of work from Studio X that's out at the same time, I'm going to go see the Pixar movie, and I will enjoy it. I have pals that work at Pixar. I have Monsters Inc., Ratatouille, and Finding Nemo toys on my desk where I'm writing this. So this is not about me not liking Pixar movies. I don't even take the hard-line stance that Barrier does. I just don't go into Pixar movies with the blind do-no-wrong attitude with which a lot of fans see these films.

The fact of the matter is, though, that the reason people like Pixar movies is largely an emotional trick. It's like people sit down at these movies and say, "All right, here we fuckin' go. It's cryin' time." The films use music, lighting, and a series of story-telling tricks to manipulate audiences and their emotions.

"But other movies do that!" I can hear you yelling at me as I decry Woody and Buzz. Yes, you're exactly right; other movies do that. These are time honored tricks of story-telling. But people don't seem to see them as that. For some reason, when people see a Pixar movie they think that Pixar has achieved some magic story-telling feat. Praising Pixar for their truly original story-telling. The fact is, if I read you the story for Toy Story 3 or Wall-E or Up they wouldn't seem that original. In fact they're kind of formulaic with toys, robots, or crank old guys and weird birds placed in the spots normally occupied by people. I could take them one by one and show you, but I don't want to. You're smart people, and you can figure it out.

Again, though, that does not mean that these movies are bad. Part of good movie making is hiding the tricks. And the tricks seem to be hidden pretty well from people who are fans. Partly because you're watching a story about a fish instead of a kid and partly because the audience has a knee-jerk response to like whatever Pixar puts out. "That's not true. I don't automatically like everything Pixar puts out. I didn't like Cars." Nobody liked Cars. That's not an argument.

Toy Story 3 is a good movie. Up is a good movie. They are not great movies. I think that Barrier say it best: "There's a sentimentality in most Pixar pictures that are [sic] very manipulative and completely unconvincing to me. They are congratulating their audience for feeling these synthetic emotions..."

Having said all that, enjoy the next Pixar film. I'll probably see you there. Until then you've got a friend in me.

CG

Tiny Tunes Nostalgia

Currently running on television is a commercial for Citi Bank where the narrator guy is talking about his parents getting adjusted to living in Istanbul after his father gets transferred there for his job.

First of all, what job do you have that's going to transfer you to Istanbul? I can't think of any industry of which Istanbul would be the hub. At least I can't think of one that doesn't sound racist: your magic carpet manufacturing, your camel sales, etc.

Anyway, every time I see that commercial all I can think of is this:


Remember when after school cartoons were this good? Funny, smart comedy shows that didn't talk down to kids, that encouraged you to learn why the joke was funny if you didn't get it. Keep an eye on the forthcoming Cartoon Guru Podcast because I have a couple of Tiny Tunes writers and story guys lined up.

CG

Angry Dad The Movie

Though it probably wasn't nearly as funny to non-animation industry people, last night's very meta Simpson's was one of the funniest episodes I've seen in a while.

Loved Ricky Gervais in this episode, obviously, and the homage/jabs at Pixar and Nick Parks. This reminded me of the kind of good pop culture satire that The Simpsons used to do all the time, and not the movie parodies they seem to be doing every third episode now.
Give it a watch.

CG

CG Remakes

Dear Studio Executives,
Doing this to cartoons does not make them better. It does not "turn them on to a whole new generation of kids." It does not "bring them into the 21st century." It does not "give them a new attitude." What it does is piss off fans of the originals, make the characters look horrible and creepy, and bastardizes the humor and the work of the people who created these characters.

If you really want to "introduce these characters to a whole new generation," how about just introducing these characters to a whole new generation. Why not put Rocky and Bullwinkle back on television? Or re-release Yogi Bear?

And who wants these characters "brought into the 21st century?" Here's an idea, how about having an original idea and creating new great characters for kids to watch instead of profiteering off of brilliant minds from fifty years ago.

And maybe, just maybe we could use the WABAC machine to go back and stop this from happening.

Thanks,
CG