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As the mother of a toddler, I find that my world is filled with animated characters. Our occasional down time tends to include Mickey Mouse, Phineas and Ferb, and a variety of Disney princesses. And that often brings back memories of the animated characters that I grew up with—like Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, Daffy Duck, and the other characters that belt out the tunes in the cartoon collection Looney Tunes Musical Masterpieces.
In this 18-short collection, Bugs, Elmer, and others explore a variety of styles of music—whether they’re singing opera in “Rabbit of Seville,” playing jazz with the three little pigs in “Three Little Bops,” or exploiting a piano-playing mouse in “Pizzicato Pussycat.” The disc also includes a Fantasia parody, “A Corny Concerto,” a singing giraffe who makes it big in “Nelly’s Folly,” and the amphibian classic, “One Froggy Evening.”
Though it’s been years (and maybe even decades) since I last sat down to watch Looney Tunes cartoons, I was surprised to find that I instantly remembered many of the shorts in this collection. There’s just something about the music in these animated classics that makes them some of Looney Tunes’ most memorable shorts—from the high-stepping frog crooning “Hello! Ma Baby” to the baby owl who loves to “singa.” And it won’t be long until you’re singing along—not to mention humming the songs for days afterward (for better or for worse—my two-year-old has been wandering through the house singing “Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit...”).
Musical Masterpieces offers a wide variety of music—from symphonic to operatic to jazz—as well as a wide variety of animated stars. While some of the cartoons include well-known characters, others allow the music to take center stage—like “High Note,” which features a bunch of musical notes preparing for a performance of “The Blue Danube,” or “Rhapsody in Rivets,” with a lion foreman conducting a symphony in the middle of his construction site.
Whether they feature Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd or musical mice and dancing frogs, though, these musical features are often remarkably imaginative and wildly creative. They’re often surprisingly sophisticated, too—with striking animation and clever concepts that you probably didn’t appreciate during your Saturday morning viewings as a kid. Of course, they’re quite violent, too—so if you’re eager to introduce your kids to these musical cartoons, be warned that they may spend the next few days shooting the dog with a pretend gun while singing arias.
If it’s been a while since you sat down with a bowl of Froot Loops in front of the TV and watched Bugs and the gang on Saturday morning, you might be surprised by the art and imagination of these classic cartoons. And though the release itself is rather basic, it’s filled with some of your favorite shorts—so fans of classic animation are sure to enjoy this anthology of Musical Masterpieces.
DVD Review:
There’s definitely nothing fancy about this Looney Tunes DVD release—but while the extras are all rather dated, they’re still worth a look. The bare-bones special features menu includes four commentaries. While some of them are quite dry, animator Eric Goldberg’s commentary of “Rabbit of Seville” is an entertaining and insightful extra. There are also four Behind the Tunes behind-the-scenes features. Two of them discuss the making of “One Froggy Evening” and “What’s Opera, Doc?” while others explore certain aspects of the Warner Bros. musical masterpieces. Perhaps the most interesting of the bunch is Merrie Melodies: Carl Stalling and Cartoon Music, which discusses the imagination and innovation that went into these musical toons—but all four are sure to give you a whole new appreciation for your Saturday morning cartoons.
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