Tom & Jerry Hungarian Rhapsody (1946)



Was this the golden era of animation or what.

Do kids these days get a chance to listen to Liszt while having a laugh - I doubt it. Or was this made for adults? I know a lot of people who love classical music, maybe because it used to be so much more accessible. In the days of radio, there would be at least one channel which always could be relied on to play the great masters.

Here in Japan, you have NHK N Kyoku Hour on Sunday evenings, I love it, very reliable, a good little program that is a standard feature... But... B u t . . .

Wikipedia's entry on Hungarian Rhapsody in Popular Culture is fun to read:

It became a permanent part of cartoon history with its use in Friz Freleng's Rhapsody in Rivets, where the construction of a skyscraper is synchronized to the rhapsody. Freleng used the piece in several other Warner Brothers cartoons, most notably Rhapsody Rabbit, which featured Bugs Bunny as a concert pianist playing the solo piano version. This film was clearly inspired by its first use in 1929 because many of the gags are similar. However, controversy followed this short's release. Within weeks, MGM released Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera's Tom and Jerry short, The Cat Concerto, which won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons. The short featured an almost identical plot, and the same Hungarian Rhapsody, being played by Tom the cat this time. Freleng was convinced that MGM stole the idea from him, and Hanna and Barbera were just as convinced that they were the victims of plagiarism.


But, then again, these days we've got Youtube ;) And the kids are using it! Wish I had had that when I was a KID!

Comments

Pandabonium said…
Wonderful post.

Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd did some great cartoons to classics as well - "Rabbit Of Seville", "Long-Haired Hare" which features "Lohengrin", and "What's Opera, Doc?" based on "Die Walkure". Great stuff. Many Bugs cartoons have classical background music too.

Earlier, Betty Boop cartoons featured some excellent jazz. Minnie the Moocher is famous, and features live footage of Cab Calloway at the Cotton Club at the beginning.

In the pre-television days, cartoons were shown between features in movie theaters,(as were news reels), so had an broader age audience.
5:19 pm, September 07, 2008
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