Posted on 07/23/2017 2:02:30 AM PDT by iowamark
I recently picked up Mark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court for the first time. Finding the plot rather amusing, I began relaying it to my father over the weekend. Because he had never read the book, I was rather surprised when he began asking informed questions about the story. In no time at all, he was the one schooling me on plot elements I had not yet reached.
“Wait a minute,” I asked. “Are you sure you’ve never read this book?”
“No, never have,” he replied, “but I saw a cartoon version of the story when I was younger and everything I know comes from that.”
His revelation was intriguing, and to be honest, not the first of its kind. Like many in the Boomer generation, my father grew up watching classic cartoons, numbers of which were produced by the likes of Warner Bros.
But those cartoons did more than mind-numbingly entertain a generation of children. They also introduced millions of young people to key facets of cultural literacy, particularly in the realm of literature and music.
Beyond the aforementioned case of Mark Twain’s novel, these cartoons introduced children to stories such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde through the medium of Bugs Bunny. Key quotations and scenes from William Shakespeare’s works were the main theme in a Goofy Gophers cartoon known as A Ham in a Role. And Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha was placed front and center in a Walt Disney short called Little Hiawatha.
Perhaps even more famous than the literature references are the many ways in which cartoons introduced children to the world of classical music, including both instrumental and operatic selections, one of which is the famous Rabbit of Saville. American film critic Leonard Maltin describes the situation well:
“An enormous amount of my musical education came at the hands of [Warner Bros. composer] Carl Stalling, only I didn’t realize it, I wasn’t aware, it just seeped into my brain all those years I was watching Warner’s cartoons day after day after day. I learned Liszt’s Second Hungarian Rhapsody because of the Warner Bros. cartoons, they used it so often, famously when Friz Freleng had a skyscraper built to it in Rhapsody and Rivets.”
But Maltin wasn’t the only one learning from these classical music forays. In fact, as the famous pianist Lang Lang testifies, it was Tom and Jerry’s rendition of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody in The Cat Concerto which first inspired him to start piano at age two.
Tom and Jerry - 029 - The Cat Concerto [1947] by milagrosalease
These examples just brush the surface of the cultural literacy lessons which the old cartoons taught our parents and grandparents. Even if they never learned these elements in school, they at least had some frame of reference upon which they could build their understanding of the books and music and even ideas which have impacted culture and the world we live in today.
But can the same be said of the current generation? Admittedly, I’m not very well-versed in current cartoon offerings, but a quick search of popular titles seems to suggest that the answer is no. A majority of the time they seem to offer fluff, fantasy, and a focus on the here and now.
In short, neither schools, nor Saturday morning cartoons seem to be passing on the torch of cultural knowledge and literacy. Could such a scenario be one reason why we see an increased apathy and lack of substance in the current generation?
I will NEVER buy ANYTHING from a company named ACME!!!!!
Or if you are an opera singer like Giovanni Jones, make sure that you do not drink alum before your performance, lol.
Speedy Gonzalez’s lay about friends got him on the un PC list.
Bookmarked!
Are you curious why classical music was part of early radio and television?
There was no computer complied database of music but there was a huge storehouse of music they could play without having to pay the writer.
The Lone Ranger theme for example was the William Tell Overture.
Great post! But I think today’s generation of kiddies’ parents would be offended at the ersatz violence and display of guns, etc. Public education failed the kids of the 70’s and 80’s, and we are now saddled with a generation of dunces and snowflakes.
But ACME specializes in heavy things like pianos and safes.
Somebody post the link to Trump as Buggs giving to to the CNN Pavarotti.
Timely and SO educational!!
What is also kind of interesting is finding out that the Bugs Bunny cartoons I grew up watching were in some cases cut or censored for TV viewing (myself having been born in 1970 and grew up watching the Bugs Bunny/Roadrunner Hour on Saturday mornings back in the day). As an example, I recall reading about how the Giovanni Jones one had a scene in which Bugs, dressed up as a bobbysoxer, asked for an autograph and gave Jones a stick of TNT disguised as a pen. Did not see this until watching a full, uncensored version of this cartoon on You Tube a few years back.
Not just classical: Bugs Bunny would always be singing “I Dream of Jeanie” or “When the Swallows Come Back to Capistrano” or would dance to show tunes.
I for one enjoy the juvenile mind numbing humor of classic cartoons for the sake of juvenile minding numbing humor.
But you sure know about saving the planet from global warming
In addition to classic cartoons, in the United States we were lucky and blessed to watch the worlds greatest opera singers on TV talk shows! Merv Griffin , Mike Douglas, Dick Cavett, and of course Johnny Carson regularly had Judith Blegen, Luciano Pavarotti, Martina Arroyo, Marilyn Horne, Carol Neblett, and Plácido Domingo, Robert Merrill and Sergio Franchi as guests.
The late great American soprano, Beverly Sills was a special favorite. Funny and witty with her red hair and amazing voice, that bubbly gal from Brooklyn charmed the hosts and audiences alike. It’s such a treat to have so many of these gems available on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn227ShOc5k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEuUvGVbSxY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yTeixRxPBg
Exactly. Most young people would have no idea about the “great white whale” if you asked them now. Our cultural vocabulary has gotten reduced to almost nothing.
The cartoon Peter and the Wolf is still played to our grandchildren and truly helps them to understand music and storytelling.
Lordy, what have we come to that the decline of the culture is measured in cartoon devolution?
A professor I had at the University of Northern Colorado called Carl Stalling’s cartoon soundtracks, when heard without the accompanying cartoon, some of the first ‘avant garde’ music.
It’s an opera. What did you expect, a happy ending?
Favorite literary reference: “And I will love him, and I will squeeze him, and I will call him George.”
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