The Curious Connection Between Cartoons and Classical Music 

I always assumed it had to do with copyrights, and much of classical being in the public domain, unlike the popular music of the day...

Many people have commented on the fact, kids are no longer exposed to classical music bc cartoons no longer do that and I totally agree. What a pity 😢

Being born poor with parents that had a limited education, the music from Loony Tunes was my introduction to Classical music. Thank you!

Bugs Bunny was one of my introductions to classical music and I fell in love with it. The musical episodes were and still are amongst my favorites.

I remember hearing the Barber of Seville used in a commercial when I was a kid and I immediately thought of the Bugs Bunny cartoon Rabbit of Seville. In many ways these cartoons, which are classics themselves, helped preserve culture as well as introduced it to those who wouldn't normally hear it.

I remember going to see the Rossini opera "The Thieving Magpie" and as soon as the overture started, we all had the same image of Bugs Bunny tiptoeing through a garden...

Classical music is a library of perfectly dramatic devices for animation, providing standout HITS for the cartoon violence we enjoy so much. Many of us Americans actually came to love orchestral, piano and opera music beyond cartoons, often learning to play in schools, after school and at summer camps (obviously or not so obviously). Yes, it is pretty much the opposite of popular culture, but we learned that the road less-travelled can make all the difference to paraphrase Robert Frost. There are so many videos to help the curious get started, but learning an instrument over years is the surest way.

I don't know if i love classical music and jazz because i love old cartoons or if i love old cartoons because i love classical music and jazz

One well-used composition was "The William Tell Overture", and it wasn't JUST "The Lone Ranger" theme! Part of the piece was used when there was a storm depicted. Another movement was used when "dawn" was on the screen

I started my love of classical music through these cartoons and am sorry kids today don’t have this chance. They were delightful.

Not to mention that with classical music, Warner Bros. didn't have to worry about copyrights.

It is such a shame that most people in my generation and later have had so little exposure to classical music that their only reference point was a handful of WB cartoons. I had the fortune of growing up in a musical family, with my mother being a music teacher and learning classical from a young age. Because of that upbringing, I ended up developing a sense of patience and active listening skills with music that most people whom I personally know will sadly never enjoy.

My great appreciation and love for classical music BEGAN because of these cartoons.

I remember the road runner cartoons made frequent use of the "dance of the comedians" by Smetana.

I was embarrassed to admit that these cartoons helped me pass my Music Appreciation class.

When I first saw the promos of the helicopter attack scene in Apocalypse Now, I thought about Elmer Fudd singing , “Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit! Looney Tunes also introduced me to the Blue Danube, the Hungarian Rhapsody and many other classical music pieces. If I hear certain classical music pieces, I immediately think of the Looney Tunes cartoon I saw as a kid. By the way, I am 66 years old.

To this day I cannot hear Ride of the Valkyries without hearing "Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!" In my head. Thanks so much Elmer Fudd!!! 🤣😂☠️

I miss seeing Bugs Bunny on Saturday mornings. The spear and magic helmet opera bit from Bugs Bunny is a classic.

It's timeless and evocative - there's no real mystery here. Kids today might not get the subtle references, but I was introduced to many actors who were gone before my time (Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, Carmen Miranda, etc) through these cartoons. When I saw a film with them later, I'd recognize them from their cartoon caricatures. It saddens me to know these classics are not on Television anymore, and are increasingly difficult to find online...

The Carl Stalling Project is available on Spotify. And just letting it play in the background makes me feel like I'm 11 years old and it's Saturday morning again. Some of the rhythms and instrumentations he uses are fascinating. And the musicians are so good. I don't imagine any of them had any idea their work would still be admired this many years later.

I work in a bar where I'm frequently subjected to music I do NOT care for. When I feel particularly put-upon, I turn to my old pal Carl Stalling and give them back a good ration of Hill Billy Hare. It's about 10 minutes long.

Tom and Jerry also used classical music. Remember the cartoon where Tom was conducting an orchestra of cats in the Hollywood Bowl? He was conducting music by Johann Strauss.

I was able to take my children to the Symphony when they preformed live classical music to cartoons. I could appreciate how hard it was for the musicians to stay in sync with the cartoon.

This was the start of my love of all music.

I've been listening to classical music since before I was born (literally), my Mom used to play cd's of Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and even discs of The Three Tenors and Andrea Bocelli. But a few years ago I gave myself the task of discovering the names and composers of those classical pieces that are used in media, thanks to RU-vid videos like "instrumental pieces you've heard but don't know the name", so I downloaded all those pieces in my latptop and decided to take it into school, then I would play those pieces and my friends would hear them, hum them and even reminding where they hear it, I would tell them the titles, composers and the context behind each one, I don't think I had turn my friends into classical music listeners like me, but I know they decided to search those pieces thanks to me. It's not just Looney Tunes but other cartoons like Tom and Jerry, and radio, movies, tv series and commercials, etc... even Disney with films like Fantasia or Fantasia 2000, the whole soundtrack of Disney's Sleeping Beauty is Tchaikovsky's homonymous ballet but with lyrics added, some movies use classical music in an original and masterful way like Stanley Kubrick did, I think that orchestral film music by composers like John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Ennio Morricone, Bernard Hermann, etc... might have mantained the interest of people in classical music, even if the rest of the population dosen't know that is classical, film scores are just as classical as ballet or opera, is written in the same language (e. g. leitmotivs: melodies that accompany characters, an idea, a place, an object or a feeling), is also called "incidental music" which used to accompany the action in plays.

Part of our education! Although, I can never hear the Ride of the Valkyres without hearing "kill the wabbit!".

Interesting video. Funnily enough, the idea of using snippets of popular songs to enhance the gag was later used a lot in the Looney Tunes inspired show Animaniacs. Although, I guess because it was a kid's program (while classic Looney Tunes was played before films for mature audiences) most of these songs are kids songs. LIke for example in one episode, when a train comes a running, the orchestra plays "Working on the Railroad". And in the Thanksgiving episode "Turkey Jerkey", we both have "A Hunting We Will Go" when the antagonist of the episode goes out looking for a turkey, the turkey clucks "Turkey in the straw". Similar idea, but with a slight difference in execution.

People often mention the use of classical music in these cartoons but something as memorable for me was the use of old popular music like jazz, tin pan alley, etc. I fell down a rabbit hole of hyperfocus on old music because of looney tunes, and these music genres that I, as a gen z, probably wouldn't even know their existence otherwise, became some of my favorite music genres today, and now idk how my life could be different

It's true. Everything I love about classical music I learned from cartoons. I don't think I would ever have dived into Felix Mendelssohn's library if I had never seen Inki and the Minah Bird and realized that the Minah bird's theme was one of his creations. Disney also used classical music early on. I saw Fantasia, and Fantasia 2 in their original reclasses and it gave me a deep love of those pieces and composers. Other early cartoons, Max Fleischer, Leon Schlesinger, Tex Avery, and others all used classical music extensively for mood and storytelling shorthand. We still use classical music for story telling today. Remember how much the themes from Star Wars resemble Gustav Holst's work? There are composers I'm surprised don't get more love and I think should show up in cartoons with how thematic they are, Antonín Dvořák, for example.

And not just WB Looney Tunes, but the old Walter Lantz cartoons also had some of the most iconic classical pieces.

Most people today do not realize that those Looney Tune cartoons were made for ADULT audiences. When people went to see movies in the old days they saw one or two cartoons and a newsreel before the main movie. This was even happening in the 1950s and 60s. I was a kid then and remember this. Saturday morning cartoons on TV in the 50s and 60s used these adult cartoons because that was all they had.

Like most of my peers this was our first time being introduced to classical music and I still remember it

Other studios, such as MGM, used classic, popular, and jazz music in their cartoons. "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" by Franz Liszt was quite popular so was used in alot of classic cartoons: Disney's "The Opry House" (1929) starring Mickey Mouse. The Fleischer/Paramount cartoon "A Cartoon-Portrait" (1937). The Merrie Melodies cartoon "Rhapsody in Rivets" (1941) -Academy Award nominated cartoon. Looney Tunes "Rhapsody Rabbit" (1946) starring Bugs Bunny. MGM's "The Cat Concerto" (1947) starring Tom and Jerry. Directed by William Hanna and Joe Barbara -Academy Award winner. Shown at the same ceremony as "Rhapsody Rabbit" Bugs lost to Tom & Jerry, Walter Lantz/Universal's "Convict Concerto" (1954) starring Woody Woodpecker.

I remember i found it hilarious that Elmer Fudd naturally assumed the role of the blushing bride in a wedding dress when he married groom Bugs Bunny.

Here's another reason, Walt Disney, a patron saint of cartoon, loved classical music and used it. It makes sense that this would translate in a culture he contributed heavily to shape.

I'm 68. I remember having to learn the "Peer Gynt Suite" in music class in junior high. Also, my mom loved classical music and would play her records of it. I am familiar with a lot of classical tunes without knowing their titles or composers.

Lack of Copyright as well as recognition most definitely played a large part in their inclusion. Most of these cartoons were made before TV and well before the beginning of rock music, so classical was something people would have heard on their radios.

FANTASIA: I can't believe the 1940 Disney film Fantasia was not mentioned once in this video. Most of those old Looney Tunes were directly referencing or outright spoofing Fantasia, and were released only a few years after the Disney masterpiece. Also, “the Rabbit of Seville” was released in 1950 not 1930. Otherwise a great video, thank you!

Soome of us can't hear the music without also visualizing the cartoon scene where we first met it! Thanks for this post.

Combining music and imagery is almost always been a good idea. I wonder who first did it. As a 'Wonderama' viewer back when I was a kid in NY, I'm forever grateful to the idea. Thanks for the post!

I have often wonder if Edvard Grieg "Morning Mood" makes me think of morning time so strongly because the music itself makes me thing of the start of the day, or is because that piece of music always accompanied morning scenes in cartoons.

I always thought that it was half copyright, many of the composers were long gone. So not to cause a problem there. Also, the fact that so much of classical music is full of expression to convey an emotion. And when a cartoon is using images, you want music that is going to be full of expression and emotion.

Not just Warner Bros. but other cartoon studios, in many of their most classic films like Disney (Fantasia) and MGM's Tex Avory cartoons ("Johan Mouse", "Cat's Concerto", etc.) used classical music.

My first exposure to classical music was from watching Looney Tunes. Now I have a hard time for listen to classical music without thinking of the cartoon.😝

I can trace my appreciation of classical music directly to Looney Toons.

Classical music embodies a wide range of human emotions, which most popular music doesn't do. So if you need a piece of music to illustrate anger, or jealousy, or curiosity, or speed, or any number of other situations, you're more likely to find an appropriate classical piece that fits.

This is what made me start loving classical music .never knew the names to a lot of them when I was young ,but as I got older I learned them and listen to them to this day

There is probably not an American over the age of, say, 30, who, as the final quote says, does not associate classical music with cartoons or, perhaps, may not even think of much of it as classical music at all but merely as the distinctive music that “accompanied the cartoons.” I have a feeling that classical music might be becoming a bit _more_ popular in recent years-witness of the popularity of, say, TwoSetViolin-if only because RU-vid has made it somewhat more accessible. (Or maybe that’s just me watching more classical music performances online.) If that early exposure to classical music in Warner Bros. cartoons “primed” people to have at least _some_ greater affinity for classical music, that, in itself, is quite a legacy, even without the immeasurable legacy of those cartoons as classics of animation.

A lot like the Marx Brothers who would include a classical performance or two to highlight the brothers skills. I always thought there was a bugs bunny cartoon where he was trying to have a shower and was happily singing away April showers but the water kept getting cut off. I can never find this one and maybe that was a different character

It was simply to save money, as others have said, no copyrights to pay He also had access to the musicians for free, they were already contracted to Warner Bros, they were on the lot, the animation department was told to use them since they were already being paid

I love classical music it started with looney tunes and today all the classic music 🎶 out there.

The Smurfs used dozens of classical music throughout their run. I loved hearing it and often wanted to find what the music was. Classical music lifts the soul!

Read an article and a college professor asked his class if any of them knew any opera... Many began to sing... "Kill the rabbit, kill the rabbit"

*Animator crashes into Leopold* Animator:"Hey, you got music sheets on my drawings!" Leopold:"hey, you got drawings on my music's sheets!" Both:"idea!"

That is where our first listen to.When go to a concert that what makes you think.

Love the video man💪❗️

On top of what this video has explained (good video btw), in my opinion cartoon characters doing all kinds of wacky things in perfect sync with music that is considered high-end and super sophisticated adds an element of hilarious irony to old animation. What you see and what you hear give off different vibes yet still work in harmony with each other. I wouldn't mind if they did the same thing now even 😂

Do not forget the influence of James Petrillo, who instituted a ban on recorded music for many years. The Lone Ranger's theme song (recorded by a Mexican symphony orchestra) came from this ban, as did the totally choral music used in "I married Joan," an early 1950's TV sitcom I liked.

We must also remember, the classical pieces were in public domain.

I really have Looney Toons to thank for getting me into classical music, which in turn led to me learning music theory. In fact, the first classical(or more accurately, Romantic) composer I fell in love with was Johann Strauss II, who wrote the Blue Danube Waltz(the final piece we all know and love), because I wanted to find out the name of that darned “da da-da-da dun, dun dun, dun dun.”

The rabbit of Seville was released in 1950. Bugs Bunny was created in the late 30's.

BRILLIANT!! THANKS SO MUCH FOR SHARING!!! LOVE!!!!!!!

Something not mentioned is that in order to use music currently under copyright, you have to pay. You also have to pay to license the specific performance, or pay for the performance specifically done for you. So additionally, it's cheaper!

I say without embarrassment that I fell in love with classical music from watching Looney Tunes. On the way to and from work, I listen to WRR/Dallas-Ft. Worth. What a great way to start the day with the March of the Day! We just finished the March March of the Day countdown of marches, voted on by WRR listeners. And the Going-Home Show is a great way to decompress after the day's work. Thank you, Lord, for such beautiful music! I've exposed our daughter to tons of these cartoons, explaining the music and its origins, and she now recognizes them when the music plays on the radio.

Many of the old cartoons are pre Rock'n Roll. Classics provide a wide repertuire fitting every emotional impulse.

The use of classical music also helped to preserve the timelessness of many of these cartoons, whereas cartoons that used popular music tended to be outdated quickly, an artifact specifically of the time it was created in.

Well, yes, I did recognize "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles" -- because the title was sung in another cartoon. Because I knew only the title notes, I was very surprised when I listened to a RU-vid video of the entire song last year. The opening sounds so cheerful, but the song itself is sad.

Disney did it, too, though. Plenty of classical music sampled in Disney cartoons.

A little surprised that neither Fantasia nor Disney’s Silly Symphonies were brought up in the discussion. I’d thought Warner brothers response to both of those was reflected in their shorts.

A lot of us became fans of classical music thanks to the Looney Tunes. And, of course, the Lone Ranger. It is a well-known saying that a true connoisseur of classical music is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and NOT think of the Lone Ranger. That can't happen. Not any more.

one of my favourite cartoons of all time is tom and jerry’s the cat concerto. almost every note that tom played was entirely accurate to the piano score of hungarian rhapsody 2 and the comedy is incredibly hilarious. i love it so much.

i loved these songs before I knew how great and important they were because of these cartoons. who knew i was becoming cultured lol

My two cents is this: Cartoons, not entirely, but for the most part, really took off because media companies wanted to sell their music catalogs and needed a vehicle by which to advertise them. Prior to the establishment of the warner bros and disney classics, you had koko and a few other characters, but by and large a lot of cartoons were excuses to include popular music in, basically, a music video. Rotoscoping was created early in the game for the same purposes: early rotoscoping was essentially copying the movements of legitimate dancers like Cab Calloway, converting them into fun characters and shapes in strange and fun settings like ghosts in a grave yard and then including a popular song at the time. Merry Melodies and Looney Tunes were both initially created to sell the WB catalog, especially as they had just spent tens of millions purchasing a record company and all of their library and artists. From there, certain characters grew in popularity and the cartoons as we know it emerged in the Golden Era, ie, 40s-late 50s. As far as classical, well, most classical had no copyright, so they were free to use. They also owned the rights to certain classical performance recordings, so the use of classical also helped to sell records. This video has a great list of performers who were used, and he is totally correct that watching cartoons gives one a very limited understanding of classical in general, but that's not entirely true. All of the composers typically used in cartoons all came from the early/mid 19th century, and into the early 20th. That era was otherwise known as the Romantic Era, which was known for music that "was often ostensibly inspired by (or else sought to evoke) non-musical stimuli, such as nature, literature, poetry, super-natural elements or the fine arts. It included features such as increased chromaticism and moved away from traditional forms.[2]" The Romantic Era was itself punctuated by what was known as the Tone Poem, a form of music popularized by the likes of Liszt and Grieg. The tone poem was a product of these ideals. Basically, composers moved away from 4 part symphonies, that while technical and pleasant to the ears, didn't always work to evoke particular emotional ranges or actual events. Tone poems, however, were about creating music to punctuate events, or a whole range of emotional ranges, from light and airy to overly dramatic. Smetana's the Moldau, for example, tells the story of an adventure down a mighty river, where travelers encounter celebrations, large storms and a host of other events that are "transcribed" into music. The music illustrates this. Other major songs typically used, like Barber of Seville or Wagner, were all part of great and expansive operas that were very different from traditional symphonies as well, as they told a story and were often set with lyrics. Eliminate the lyrics and you're still left with the emotional core, and a comedic opera is going to work perfectly in a comedic cartoon. The other aspect to cover would have been the composer Raymond Scott and production music. Scott was a creative genius and was famous for composing short, three act songs in an A-B-A formula. First and third act sound alike, middle is different. You've all heard Scott's work before, "There's a room in france where the naked ladies dance" melody is well known, but his most recognizable is the Powerhouse track, which is a wonderful factory like song that was used whenever WB cartoons wanted to emphasize large mechanical rooms or conveyer belts. Scott was also a pioneer of electronic music, creating and composing a handful of electronic advertisements in his Manhattan Institute in the 1950s.

I always thought that classical music was in the public domain. So not only was it fantastic music but it was copyright free. It was cheap to use.

I like how the narrator is young enough to have grown up with "bro's" as a common word in his lexicon, and thus, logically interprets / pronounces the company name "Warner Bros" as Warner Bro's instead of Warner Brothers. 🙂

Every time I hear "The Barber of Seville", I see Bugs Bunny working on Elmer Fudd, doing a Carmen Miranda fruit salad on his head....

very interesting :)

I think Warner Brothers liked to take the piss out of all sacred cows and classical music has plenty. Take the sets in the "what’s opera doc." They’re a very arch satire of the then-new re-imagining of Wagner operas emanating out of Bayreuth at the time. It’s all satire.

That there was little to no royalties to pay for using old music was perhaps also a reason.

Classical music is still relevant. It's cavalier to assume otherwise. Immortal Beloved, Amadeus, Impromptu (to name a few) are amazing movies about classical composers and their music. Opera is a national pastime in Italy. Disney's Fantasia 1 & 2 are outstanding. Even rock/pop stars borrow from it, e.g. Sting from Prokofiev , Eric Carmen from Rachmaninoff, Jethro Tull from Bach and Janis Joplin from Gershwin. Broaden your musical horizons. You may be pleasantly surprised.

So some gags were meant to be musical references to songs, might be why some jokes dont land for me.

I was scrubbing some pots and pans while listening/watching. I found myself scrubbing to the rhythm of the songs.

I loved it... when I hear a classical song it's either Elmer chasin' Bugs or The Fairies in Fantasia. It's not a 'Pastoral'... I see the ponies dancin' with the satyr, or it's a Hippo dancin' with an ostrich! Can I stretch it and talk about the dance of the mushrooms? Oh, I forgot that great classical piece with Mickey and the brooms, 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice'. LOL

Popeye cartoons also had a lot of classical bits. I remember hearing parts of the William Tell Overture by Rossini and of course many parts by Souza.

Just chance? Well I still listen to Classical Music to this day 45 years on.

I appreciate polyglot commentators who can correctly pronounce proper nouns of Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian Polish, Russian, and Spanish origin. No doubt they can pronounce other words in those languages, too

Gods, what a depressing conclusion. I can't imagine a world without Tchaikovsky or Beethoven or Chopin. It would be such a surface world, with so little depth.

I was a young guy of 24 in 1980 and while sitting in our company breakroom, I noticed one of my elderly lady coworkers walking by wearing a red dress. I sang out a few bars of "The lady in red".She stopped and said in surprise, how do you know that old song? I replied, I watched bugs bunny as a kid but he sang it as the rabbit in red! She got a laugh out of that!

chahpin- oh, come on!

Lots of Jazz as well.

Ah, Frederic Choppin’… the infamous lumberjack!

A guess before watching the video as to the reason: Classical music was in the public domain, and therefore free to use.

RCA CLASSICS released a CD of Cartoon Classicals. I still have it and it's great to listen to at any time.

i wake up to things like that Mozart serenade... but I'm also a classical music nerd.

Classical music is a mainstay in many European countries and is just as much a major subject as math, science and language. Did you know that some famous rock stars are classically trained musicians? I'll leave that for you to discover. Many of the heavy metal bands too have drawn inspiration from classical music. Anyway, classical music has always been a big part of movies and T.V. shows. I find it adds more feeling to the movies. One show that got blasted for using a pop song for it's theme instead of an orchestral scored theme was, of course, Star Trek Enterprise . Up until that time, the other series as well as other sci-fi shows were all using classical scores. You're not really a true music fan until you've embraced classical music.

Chopin. Pronounced "show-PAHN." I pronounced it "choppin" when I was 5.

Wow.

One of the many uses of the modern internet is that many online dictionaries/encyclopedias provide audio pronunciations. If not, there are often RU-vid videos dedicated to providing audio pronunciations for words that are are hard to pronounce or frequently mispronounced.

A lot of people are commenting that they were introduced to classical music through cartoons. I suspect that's not actually true. Rather, they first heard the tunes in cartoons, so, later, when they _were_ introduced to classical music, these melodies were already familiar and recognized. Let me give an example: In high school, we were taken to a concert by the local symphony orchestra, in which they played Mendelssohn's _Fingal's Cave Overture._ I immediately shot bolt upright in my seat, recognizing the tune as one that played every time that mynah bird walked by in the Inki cartoons. It was very familiar, but I had no idea what it was from, or that it was classical music. Similarly, decades later, I first encountered Schubert's song _Der Erlkonig,_ which Stalling frequently used (at about twice its proper speed) to accompany characters sneaking around with bad intent. Again, it was very familiar, but I had no idea it was classical music. I _do_ believe that being introduced to these themes in the cartoons probably makes people more receptive to listening to classical music when they _are_ introduced to it, though.

I've always had The Barber of Seville in my head as I frantically try to find the bathroom.