Favorite classical music theme used in cartoon or film

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puzzleannie

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spin-off of the classical music thread.
“Kill da wabbit” is of course the finest example of what I mean, use of classical music as theme for cartoon or movie

Fantasia being the best known for using the cartoon to illustrate the music, most others use the music to illustrate the cartoon.
Can be either “straight” like Fantasia or “warped” like Looney tunes

love the use of the Hebrides Suite (Mendelshon?) in the cartoon with the bird being stalked by the native, being stalked by a lion
 
Music from The Barber of Seville used with Elmer Fudd & Bugs Bunny.

Do they use classical music any more on cartoons? I am not familiar with what’s out there now.
 
Help me out here puzzleannie. What’s the name of the music used on Tom & Jerry when they flood the kitchen and they ice skate? I used to know it, used to play it, but then again I used to be 13.

I just had a thought. Was it Lizt? Was it Hungarian Rapsody? Nevertheless, I am singing it right now.
 
Besides Kill the Wabbit, my favorite would be Bumble Boogie, a short Disney piece about the harrowing experiences of a bumble bee, set to a boogie-woogie rendition of The Flight of the Bumblebee by Rimsky-Korsakov.
 
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AServantofGod:
Help me out here puzzleannie. What’s the name of the music used on Tom & Jerry when they flood the kitchen and they ice skate? I used to know it, used to play it, but then again I used to be 13.

I just had a thought. Was it Lizt? Was it Hungarian Rapsody? Nevertheless, I am singing it right now.
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The Sleeping Beauty Waltz by Tchiakovsky

I heard it playing in my head when I read the above post and found it on my “Idiot’s Guide to Classical Music” CD.
 
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AServantofGod:
Music from The Barber of Seville used with Elmer Fudd & Bugs Bunny.

Do they use classical music any more on cartoons? I am not familiar with what’s out there now.
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Definitely the “Rabbit of Seville.” I watched a video of it last week with the kids.

I don’t know about modern cartoons.

Now that I think about it some, Kill the Wabbit is also pretty excellent. It doesn’t get a lot better than that.

I excluded Fantasia because it is like cheating. The music is great, of course, throughout, but I didn’t really consider it so much a “cartoon” as just a lot of images to the music. Dancing hippos? Not really funny, just fantastic.

Alan
 
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ThornGenX:
The Sleeping Beauty Waltz by Tchiakovsky

I heard it playing in my head when I read the above post and found it on my “Idiot’s Guide to Classical Music” CD.
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You are definately right about that. When I started humming the Sleeping Beauty Waltz I could picture Tom & Jerry ice skating.

The one I’m thinking of is where Tom is a concert pianist and Jerry is trying to mess him up. Is that Franz Lizt?
 
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AServantofGod:
You are definately right about that. When I started humming the Sleeping Beauty Waltz I could picture Tom & Jerry ice skating.

The one I’m thinking of is where Tom is a concert pianist and Jerry is trying to mess him up. Is that Franz Lizt?
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I’m not sure, but that could be Liszt Hungarian Rhapsody #2 you’re talking about.

I know there is a cartoon with it; I’m thinking it was Tom and Jerry.

(Once I had a recording of Rachmaninoff playing the rhapsody. Oh, that was great!)

Alan
 
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AServantofGod:
You are definately right about that. When I started humming the Sleeping Beauty Waltz I could picture Tom & Jerry ice skating.

The one I’m thinking of is where Tom is a concert pianist and Jerry is trying to mess him up. Is that Franz Lizt?
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Liszt : Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

This is another one of my favorites. To listen and confirm on this one, I had to find my “Piano Greatest Hits Volume II” CD. Though it was on the Idiot’s Guide to Classical Music, it only played a minute and a half of the piece, not enough to get into the parts I remember most.
 
Two weeks ago I was feeling mischievious and played Chopin’s prelude in C minor before Communion, as background music while Father gets the hosts all situated and handed out.

When I did that, I wondered if it was sinful. I knew very well what might have happened, and it did.:yup:

Somebody asked me after Mass if that was Mandy I was playing? :eek:

It was probably sinful. :crying: Next time I’ll play it before Mass. 😃

But it did make for a nice parking lot discussion with some very nice people who had a lot to talk about besides music! :tiphat:

Alan
 
Can I answer with a jazz tune? 🙂

My favorite music theme in a cartoon is the B section of the Raymond Scott Quintet’s “Powerhouse”, which was usually Looney Toons’ theme music for Rube Goldberg machines. The A section of that same song is good too… usually the background music for a big city scene, or a factory.

Pete
 
I love all the Looney Tunes opera stuff – Rabbit of Seville, What’s Opera, Doc? and so on (I have all the Looney Tunes “opera” on a CD)

Kill the wabbit, kill the wabbit!

(I killed the wabbit! Poor wittle bunny!)

Funny story – I was listening to the classical radio station in my office, and they were playing music from Die Walkure. Or so I thought, until I heard “Kill the waaabit!” I almost spit coke into my keyboard. 😃

There’s a great cartoon from 1941 called Rhapsody in Rivets – it uses Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody Number 2, and shows a construction crew building a skyscraper in time with the music. At the end, when it’s finished, it all comes tumbling down. I have this on a video, along with a whole bunch of other Friz Freleng gems!

Crazy Internet Junkie Society
****Carrier of the Angelic Sparkles Sprinkle Bag
 
I loved the Peer Gynt suite in the Disney movie, Fantasia. I think it was the walking brooms moving to the Hall of the Mountain King I remember most distinctly.

I also loved Pacelbel’s Canon in Ordinary People even though the movie stank.

Lisa N
 
the cartoon/movie “peter and the wolf”
i don’t know what the music is but it sure is classical.
if i remember correctly, i think i read also the book.
 
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jjwilkman:
the cartoon/movie “peter and the wolf”
i don’t know what the music is but it sure is classical.
if i remember correctly, i think i read also the book.
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This is a particularly interesting one. The music actually is Peter and the Wolf by Prokofiev, and the narration was also written by prokofiev.

Here’s an interesting blurb I got from some web site about it:
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Peter and the Wolf (1936)
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by Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)

In 1936 Prokofiev was commissioned by the Central Children�s Theatre to write a light-hearted piece for children, one that would introduce the instruments and sounds of the orchestra. Prokofiev was highly excited about this project, though it did not pay much. He was given a libretto, but he didn�t like it, so he came up with a whole new story himself. The music was completed in a week. Peter and the Wolf was the result, and it is a work still loved by children and adults alike.

The story tells of how young Peter ventures into a meadow (which his grandfather has made off-limits to him) and together with his animal friends (a bird, a cat and a duck) catches a wolf. He hands to captured wolf over to some hunters, and then all the characters of the story come together in the finale, where the wolf is taken to the zoo in a triumphant procession.**

This work is widely performed, and the Wichita Symphony routinely plays this for concerts for school kids. I even had a recording with David Bowie narrating it. I have a full piano score which I can’t play very well, but my kids and I have fun with it.

For an idea on some of the people who have recorded this, take a look here.

Alan
 
the narration is different from what i remember. i think hte cartoon/movie was by walt disney (not sure). book was also different. the duck’s name was “sasha”. the wolf ended up dead.

for a kid, it was very suspenseful.

the same way pinochio has been altered. i had the original book (translation), and it is different from now. when i was little i read it over and over. the original book has a very religious and catholic theme. the blue angel is the virgin Mary. pinochio is us. trying to grow up. (to become a real little boy).
 
Does the “William Tell Overture” count?

Someone once said you’re cultured if you can hear the “William Tell Overture” and not think of the Lone Ranger.

Blue"not that cultured"Rose
 
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