Pluggers by Rick McKee for May 24, 2022

What’s opera, Doc?

One of those cartoons that you follow the bouncing ball. Is how i learned to spell Mississippi.

I learned Mendelssohn’s “Spring Song” from the cartoon where Wile E. Coyote tried to lull the sheepdog to sleep by playing Pan pipes…

thanks for the earworm

I learned to appreciate the Second and Third Movements of the “William Tell Overture” from the old Warner Brothers cartoons; background music for a thunderstorm and for a pleasant sunrise, respectively. And as for the Fourth Movement – well, Hi-yo, Silver and all that.

I’m proud o say that I learned to appreciate classical musicand opera from cartoons.

Thank you, Termite Terrace!

And all those cartoons were done by hand ! No computer generation ;-)

what a shame that today’s kids can’t see the real buggs……

Ozzy Fudd, the Wabbit Swayew! https://youtu.be/jLeOtRf6_1g

Bugs Bunny conducting:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX1ljYx3g3k

Elmer Fudd was one of the most unappreciated of opera stars ever and you can’t change my mind.

Good old Elmer Fudd, a man of many talents. However, successful hunting of rabbits wasn’t one of them.

Beethoven’s 9th second movement on NBC News.

There are many references to classical music in Warner Brothers cartoons. Bugs Bunny in particular. Hard to go to a concert and not recognize something… and smirk a little.

I attended a concert in Philly where the orchestra would do the original score, then they would play along with a cartoon, repeat. It was great.

Me too! I must be a plugger.

Opera and classical music aside, it was watching Warner Brothers cartoons where I first learned about The Great Gildersleeve.

When playing “The Rabbit . . I mean . . . Barber of Seville”, I always have the words going through my head.

Also discovered opera through the cartoons, and I discovered Beethoven through The Huntley-Brinkley Report

“HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY!” – Mighty Mouse

Be vevvy vevvy qviet. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lDeR9YUCKOxpTydNGlvpZiRTmsdv7FsSQ&feature=share

And because most folks don’t know where this comes from, a mystery solved…

https://youtu.be/qaC0vNLdLvY

I still say that it’s duck season. :)

absolutely

Nothing beats Andy Panda’s version of “The Poet and Peasant Overture”.

“Hillbilly Promenade”, after Bugs pulled the plug. Sound effects were great, as they’d “Whomp your partner!,” “Poke-’im in the eye!” “Yank his beard!”, etc., and end up “Wallow-around in the mud, like a an-ol’ fat-sow!”

And somewhere in that episode, the two-‘billys in the dynamite shed, needed some “illumination”. One of ’em-whupped out a lighter. Sounds of “scritch-scritch”, followed by, "Durned-thang won’t light!!". Forget now, but, what’d Bugs give ’em? A box of matches maybe? Whatever it was, ONE-time was all it took…!☺

I’ve always liked classical music, but just about the only way I can stand opera is in the Warner Bros. or Little Rascals versions.

that was the best way to get somebodes attention

Vintage Tom and Jerry sometimes has opera and classical music while they beat the crap out of each other too

“What’s Opera, Doc?” was a passion project for Chuck Jones and it shows. Warner Brothers gave Jones a fixed budget for each short he produced, so he scrimped and cut corners on other shorts until he had amassed enough money, time, and talent to put this together.

Bugs: “Kill da wabbit?!”

Learned Wagner’s background music from Buster Crabbe’s Flash Gordon and Buck Rodgers serials.

I was raised on classical music, including opera, so it was just an extra delight for me to hear such things in cartoons, too. When I got older and realized it was strange for an adult to still like cartoons, it just made me feel sorry for the other adults. And what’s a sunrise without the accompanying music from the Peer Gynt Suite?

Did y’all know that Lang Lang was inspired to become the great pianist he is today when he watched a Tom and Jerry cartoon that showed them playing a piano overture with an orchestra. That interview is on YouTube if you want to hear him talk about it.

Classical music which was off of copyright was available to use at no cost.

My parents had a lot of records of classical music including operettas in addition to those of current (then) musicals. And I sort of figured every child back then had a record of “Peter and the Wolf” – classical music for children. (“See now the music changes as Peter is out in the woods and walking along…”)

Plus all the programs for children to hear and learn about classical music that were inexpensive from school programs.