Music and the Animated Cartoon

Author(s): Chuck Jones

Source: Hollywood Quarterly , Jul., 1946, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Jul., 1946), pp. 364-370
Published by: University of California Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1209496

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 Music and the Animated Cartoon*
CHUCK JONES

CHUCK JONES has worked in animated cartoons

politically. It has made few profound
for fifteen years. He is now a director of cartoons
at Warner Brothers Studios, where he has partici-statements about anything. Like all
pated in some experimental and pioneering work. other motion pictures, it is dependent

on a wide and highly diversified audi-

THE ANIMATED CARTOON, in its matureence approval-the thing known in
form, can be the most facile and elastic some quarters as "box office," and "box
form of graphic art. Since the first Cro- office" in terms of animated cartoons is
Magnon Picasso hacked etchings on hisjudged almost wholly by the degree of
cave wall every artist has longinglyaudible audience reaction. The appre-
sought the ideal medium-one that ciative chuckle, the pleased cluck, does
would contain within its structure not add up-in animation circles-to
color, light, expanse, and movement.
good "box office." This has resulted in
The animated cartoon can supply these
a wave of reaction throughout the in-
needs. It knows no bounds in form ordustry against the type of cartoons
scope. It can approach an absolute in
known as "Rembrandts"; that is, any
technical realism and it can reach the type of cartoon except those based on
absolute in abstraction. It can bridge the "boff" or belly laugh. One producer
the two without taking a deep breath.asked his artists to use lots of purple in
The technical problems present in livethe backgrounds because, as he put it,
action, when it tends toward the unreal "purple is a funny color." Well, I think
or fantastic, are simply not present to
G-flat is a funny note. I mention these
the animator. The transition of Dr.
instances, not because I am unsympa-
Jekyll to Mr. Hyde is workaday routine
thetic with the producer's viewpoint or
to the animator. He can do it and add
wish to suggest that the imperative pres-
sures of the box office can be disre-
three pink elephants to the transition.
He can do it while stifling a yawn.garded,
In but because I believe that a
fact, he frequently does. A red ant deeper
can understanding of the aesthetic
grow to a golden elephant under his and cultural possibilities of the me-
hand, a flying horse recede to a black
dium can serve to broaden its usage and
pearl. He can create thunderstorms, increase its popularity. My purpose
tidal waves, flying carpets, talking hor-
here is the appraisal of one of these
nets, dancing orchids, all with credibil-
possibilities-the function of music in
ity, all with no technical obstructions.
relation to the cartoon.
Yet in spite of these potentialities the
All cartoons use music as an integral
animated cartoon has been severelyelement
re- in their format. Nearly all car-
stricted in its growth. Its use as an
* Author's Note: The title of this article may
educational device is a comparatively
be misleading, as it implies an easy skill and
familiarity with both the animated cartoon
recent development, stimulated by war-
and music. It is rather an animation cartoonist
time needs. Culturally, the animated
discussing some of the potentialities of his
cartoon is in the toddling stage, as itmedium
is with the musician.

E 364

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 MUSIC AND THE ANIMATED CARTOON 365
toons use it badly, confiningwas
it perfect.
as theyThe second of my two in-
stances represents,
do to the hackneyed, the time-worn, the I believe, the hap-
proverbial. The average cartoon musi-
piest, most perfect single sequence ever
cian was a theater organist during done in animated
the cartoons, perhaps in
silent era and so William Tell takesmotion pictures: the little mushroom
dance from the Nutcracker Suite. Here
quite a beating in the average cartoon.
For some reason, many cartoon musi- was an instance of almost pure delight;
cians are more concerned with exact again, an entrancing blend of the eye
synchronization or "mickey-mousing"and the ear in which I found the music

itself personified on the screen. There

than with the originality of their con-
tribution or the variety of their was
ar- a personal quality to these se-
rangement. To be sure, many of the quences, too, that was generally lacking
throughout the rest of the film. It may
cartoons as they reach the musician are
something less than inspirational, be
butthat if the makers of future Fan-

most of them, even the best, gain tasias

less will be less concerned with the
pageantry of their project and will
than they should from his contribution.
I have seen a good cartoon ruined bysearch
a harder for the humanness of the
music, we will have better films and
deadly score. If you can visualize Death
better box office; for I believe that the
and Transfiguration as a theme to Peter
mushroom
Rabbit, you get the idea. Nor is this a dance has universal appeal,
that it will go well in St. Jo and Walla
diatribe against the practicing musi-
Walla-as well as it will go in Holly-
cians in the cartoon field; many are ex-
wood or New York.
cellent and conscientious artists (among
them Carl Stalling, Warner Bros.; ScottI am not going to attempt a general
Bradley, MGM; Frank Churchill, Paul survey of the use, or misuse, of music in
Smith, Larry Morey, and others for the cartoon of today. It is rather my
purpose to suggest certain potentiali-
Disney features and shorts), but many
tend to underrate the medium and to ties.
disregard its musical potentialities. These potentialities may be classified
in six rough categories: (1) Musical
Here are two examples of what I be-
Education, (2) Television, (3) Program
lieve to be the nearly perfect wedding
or Narrative, (4) Regional and Folk-
of music and graphics which occurs
when the visual and auditory impacts
lore, (5) Satire, (6) Abstract or Absolute.
are simultaneous and almost equal.1) MUSICAL EDUCATION. This is a wide
Both examples are from the picture
and exciting field, one in which the
cartoonist and musician must band to-
Fantasia; both are bits. One consumed
about four seconds in the Toccata and
gether. Here the simple, strong dia-
Fugue sequence. It pictured simply
gramsa of the cartoonist in conjunction
with the sound track can do for a class-
ponderous, rocklike, coffinlike mass
room of embryo musicians what only
that waddled into a murky background
individual instruction could do before.
accompanied by a series of deep bass
I do not mean that we are going to have
notes. I should not say "accompanied,"
because this Thing was the music:platoons
to of Bachs underfoot, but we
my mind there was no separation;canthe
have a musically intelligent genera-
fusion of the auditory and the visual
tion, a thing that has not been particu-

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366 HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY

Peter
larly feasible heretofore. But we and the Wolf, Hdnsel and
must
be guarded in our use of this new
Gretel, Don Quixote, among many
others,
medium, because it will be quite are exciting possibilities.
pos-
sible to teach a thousand children the Richard Strauss' ballet, Schlagobers
(Whipped Cream), about the night-
simultaneous rudiments of the glocken-
spiel-a result hardly to be desired.
mare of a cream-puff addict, seems to
Therefore the musician must be there me to offer an enormous amount of fun.
to direct the artist in what to teach and And consider two titles of Erik Satie's
how to teach it; and he may be sure thatThe Dreamy Fish and Airs to Make
the artist will do an exciting and inter- One Run, parts of which, the composer
esting job of presentation. It is impor-noted, should be played "on yellow vel-
tant at this time to remember that
vet," "dry as a cuckoo," "like a night-
visual education has a head start on ingale with a toothache." He must have
other educational methods in that we seen us coming. Rip Van Winkle, The
have a sympathetic audience to start Fire Bird. The list is endless.
with. The motion picture is widelyThe animated cartoon medium is
known and widely appreciated. Itthe
is logical medium vehicle for these,
our responsibility to maintain this because,
at- among all media, it lends the
titude, and we have learned valuable greatest credence to fantasy. And in
lessons during the war in so doing. this field the greatest delight is meas-
Education can be fun, it can be attrac-
ured in the degree of credibility. The
tive, but only if we, as teachers, keep
magic of the great juggler, of the tra-
it so.
peze artist, of Charlie McCarthy, of the
2) TELEVISION. The signature musicstoryteller, lies in his ability to con-
of today's radio must be bolstered invince you that the impossible is quite
tomorrow's television by some sort ofpossible-nay, is logical; is, in fact, as
visual image, something in the naturethe children say, "Reely!" The ani-
of MGM's lion, Warners' shield, and mated cartoon can match, enhance,
so on. Many educational programs willmake credible the melodic fantasy of
also use the cartoon, as will children'sthe composer. Overlapping here a little
programs, comedy, and musical pro- bit, I believe that the educational sys-
grams. The opportunities here hardly tem will one day demand a library for
need elucidation; they are obvious. The its public schools of just such painless
points I shall stress in ensuing cate-introductions to classic and semiclassic
gories will of course apply to television music.
as well, because the broadcasting of mo- 4) REGIONAL AND FOLKLORE. I believe
tion pictures will represent an impor- that the animated cartoon has immense
tant feature of television. advantage in the exhibition of regional
3) PROGRAM OR NARRATIVE. Here is and national dances, songs, and cul-
another wide and tremendously provoc- tures, because here we can combine the
ative field for the animator and musi-
folk art with the folk dance. Straight
cian to explore together. Here we arecinematography covers this field to a
free from the prejudice resulting from
certain extent, but seeing strange peo-
the visual interpretation of more ab-ple in unusual costumes, dancing sar-
stract music. abands or tarantellas, gives us little

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 MUSIC AND THE ANIMATED CARTOON 367
insight into the thoughts oftily uplifted,
these peo- preparatory to a down-
ple, their dreams, or their ward strum.
desires. He apparently is a past
But
master at
folk art does. It gives us a rich insighthis instrument because his
head is
into the hopes and needs of a people. upturned toward a sort of
Stuka angel
The pottery, furniture, and fabrics of whose power dive has car-
ried him
any nationality suggest colorful fieldswithin about three feet of our
hero's face.
for the artist. The bright blues, This little monster is on the
yellows,
point of releasing
and reds used by the Scandinavian arti- a very lethal-looking
arrow. figures
sans in the creation of the jaunty For three hundred and forty
which decorate their dish yearscupboards,
this scene has remained in a state
ski shirts, and aprons would make
of suspended a
animation, and I, for one,
dancing, happy accompaniment would like totounsuspend it-if only to
Grieg's Norwegian Dances determine whether our friend succeeds
or Stravin-
sky's Norwegian Moods. Noinlive-actionfinishing his piece or gets spitted.
color camera could do for the West His girl friends may be unconcerned,
Indies what Covarrubias has done in but I am not.

painting. I have often thought that the5) SATIRE. Satire, as I use it here, is
best exemplified in such cartoons as
Habanera, or even a group of Calypsos,
The Band Concert and one we made at
against his silky greens, murky jungle
yellows, and luminescently coppery Warners called Rhapsody in Rivets. I
shall consider the latter because I am
islanders, would be a striking experi-
ment. Javanese, Egyptian carvingsmore can familiar with it. Friz Freleng,
be brought to life to the sounds of their made the picture, seemed to have
who
ancient rhythms and instruments. a complete disregard-perhaps con-
tempt-for the pomp, ceremony, and
Mosaics and tapestries have enchant-
sacred concept of music. Rhapsody in
ing stories to tell-in fact, will become
Rivets took the second Hungarian
understandable to most of us only
when they become more human. Rhapsody
The of Franz Liszt and performed
a nice job of first-degree premeditated
run-of-the-mill tapestry contains about
the same degree of credibility to memurder.
as The visual theme was the
construction of a building. The job
a petrified salamander. I can't believe
foreman served as orchestra conductor,
the salamander ever salamandered, and
the tapestry looks about as human using
as the blueprints as a score. The
riveting machines served as instru-
a geological fault. We can do something
about it if we will, and there are several
ments. As I describe it, this may sound
reasons why we should-among them likea the usual cornily gagged cartoon;
personal one of my own concerningI assure
a you that it was not. The
music was not used as a background,
seventeenth-century bucolic tapestry
called "Apollo and the Muses." but
The as the dictating factor in the ac-
thing is crowded with variously volup- of the characters. Thus, when the
tions
tuous and idiotically unconcernedmusical pace was allegro their actions
ladies in deshabille, surrounding a
became quick and lively; if the music
moved to prestissimo they became
handsome rube, dressed in a shirt, with
frantic in their endeavor to keep up
a twenty-five-pound lyre poised lightly
in his off hand. His other hand is dain-
with it. It moved from there to myste-

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 368 HOLLYWOOI ) QUARTERLY
terpretation
rioso, grave, or pianissimo; in any case, of abstract music is to go
the characters were dragged alonginexora-
with it; that is, to be abstract
graphically.
bly with it. It didn't take the audience Audiences may read into
long to appreciate what was your drawings the thing they've been
happening.
I can tell you they laughed.visualizing all the time. I don't mean
They split
their stitches. that you can throw a blob of ultra-
In this field of satire one factor con- marine on the screen and hope thereby
stitutes a limitation of sorts: the piece that the lady in the third row is going
selected should have a certain amount to find her dream prince, while the old
of familiarity, because this adds antici-gentleman in the right rear is mentally
gulping flagons of sparkling mead. But
patory enjoyment for the audience.
there are some generally accepted sym-
Other than this the field is limited only
by the imagination of the cartoonistbols in art as in music. Just as the low
note of a contrabassoon does not con-
and the satiric ability of the musician.
They should "hoke" the number to the jure in your mind "hummingbird," a
single scarlet line does not, in drawing,
nicest degree of subtlety, the cartoonist
going the composer one point better in say "elephant." These are definite
his degree of shading, particularly in things, yet it is possible to find abstract
pace and arrangement. (Friz Freleng,sounds and abstract images that are
who displays an unusual mastery of thissympathetic. Here are two abstract
shapes.
sort of thing, seems to have a preference
for Hungarians; because he later di-
rected a take-off on the immortal Three
Little Pigs, using as his theme the im-
mortal Brahms Hungarian Dances.)
6) ABSTRACT OR ABSOLUTE. Here is the
greatest field for controversy because
here the composer does not define his
intention; he does not tell us what he
means, or what ax he is grinding. So we
all form our own ideas, and when some
lout comes along and presumes to in-
terpret his way, we get all stuffy and
hot under the collar, and resentful, and
start muttering, "... where the devil
does he get off, the big stuffed shirt."
Rightfully, too. He has the right to
think or say what he wants to, and ours
is the right to disagree as vociferously
as we will. Dorothy Thompson found
Fantasia fascistic; she is entitled to that
opinion, even though it was a little
startling to the artists who made Fan-
tasia.
I believe that the best solution to in-

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 MUSIC AND THE ANIMATED CARTOON 369
And here are two abstract words: "tackety" and "goloomb." The words become
sounds when spoken, but they have no specific meanings. Yet it is simple to match
the abstract words and sounds to the abstract shapes. The angular shape is ob-
viously "tackety," and the curved one "goloomb."
Or, and now we are approaching music, take these two figures:

And take the two sounds: "ooooooooooomp" and "pooooooooooo-o-."

To go clear into music, which of these is the bassoon, and which is the harp?

CI \
C?r~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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370o HOLLYWOOD QUARTERLY
Andante thus becomes: short, with the qualities of music. The
field of graphic symbols is a great but
highly unexplored field. It will, I be-
Abandon: lieve, prove an important one to the
musician, and to any audience that is
interested in satisfying the visual appe-
Crescendo could be thus:
tite, side by side with the auditory
appetite.
An article of this kind can only be
sketchy. We are dealing with a rela-
tively new but immensely versatile and
horizonless medium. The ideas sug-
gested in this paper serve merely to sug-
gest, or outline, a few possibilities from
one viewpoint. Any imaginative person
can easily elaborate on it. My sincere
Diminuendo so: hope is that such people in the motion
picture industry will see fit to do so.
Only one serious danger confronts the
animator: an underevaluation of his
medium. If the motion picture pro-
ducer, writer, or musician believes the
end purpose of the animated cartoon to
be the cartoon short of today, then it
must follow that the end purpose of
I
easel painting is the comic strip. The
These are static examples of what are animated cartoon as an artistic, educa-
mostly static sounds. The art of anima- tional, and entertainment medium is
tion brings them to life, brings themin its infancy. Its maturity depends on
fluidity and power; endows them, inyou.

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