Just when I am about to give up on humanity...

Sonny Tufts said:
Interesting story about this cartoon, "The Cat Concerto". Shortly before its release Warner Brothers copyrighted and released a very similar cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny, "Rhapsody Rabbit". Both featured similar sight gags and plots and Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Each studio accused the other of plagiarism.

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cat_Concerto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_Rabbit
https://www.bcdb.com/cartoon-info/261-Rhapsody-Rabbit
Click to expand...

A big fan of both.

It was those classic cartoons of Warner and MGM that used to be shown in syndication on local TV like WPIX 11 WOR 5 that acquainted this child with a lifetime love of classical music.

One of the best gags in the Bugs Bunny episode is: a phone rings in the middle of the concert, Bugs answers, obviously annoyed and says in his best Mel Blanc, "Poith Amboy NJ" accent, "Who? Franz Lizt? Never hoid of him!" and slams the phone down.
 
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Anti Federalist said:
One of the best gags in the Bugs Bunny episode is: a phone rings in the middle of the concert, Bugs answers, obviously annoyed and says in his best Mel Blanc, "Poith Amboy NJ" accent, "Who? Franz Lizt? Never hoid of him!" and slams the phone down.
Click to expand...

That was the best part of the cartoon. I also like the part where Bugs shoots an audience member who is coughing too much right before he starts to play (something that could not possibly be included in a cartoon today). The sound effect of him blowing the smoke out of his pistol is classic.
 
Sonny Tufts said:
That was the best part of the cartoon. I also like the part where Bugs shoots an audience member who is coughing too much right before he starts to play (something that could not possibly be included in a cartoon today). The sound effect of him blowing the smoke out of his pistol is classic.
Click to expand...

:tears::tears::tears:

High- Lar- Ee - US

 
WNEW5, WOR9, WPIX11 - cartoons, old movies & local news/shows

Anti Federalist said:
It was those classic cartoons of Warner and MGM that used to be shown in syndication on local TV like WPIX 11 WOR 5 that acquainted this child with a lifetime love of classical music.

One of the best gags in the Bugs Bunny episode is: a phone rings in the middle of the concert, Bugs answers, obviously annoyed and says in his best Mel Blanc, "Poith Amboy NJ" accent, "Who? Franz Lizt? Never hoid of him!" and slams the phone down.
Click to expand...

Most kids introduction to classical music was through cartoons. Popeye conducts a symphony also. ('The Spinach Overture' is actually the last couple of minutes of the Poet and Peasant Overture - Franz Von Suppe)

Yes, WPIX was channel 11, but channel 5 was WNEW. WOR was channel 9.
These were also the best channels for watching old movies.

I believe Bug's accent was Bronxian - 'oid' is not a Perth Amboy sound.
 
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Valli6 said:
Most kids introduction to classical music was through cartoons. Popeye conducts a symphony also. ('The Spinach Overture' is actually the last couple of minutes of the Poet and Peasant Overture - Franz Von Suppe)

Yes, WPIX was channel 11, but channel 5 was WNEW. WOR was channel 9.
These were also the best channels for watching old movies.

I believe Bug's accent was Bronxian - 'oid' is not a Perth Amboy sound.
Click to expand...

You are so right...
 
Valli6 said:
I believe Bug's accent was Bronxian - 'oid' is not a Perth Amboy sound.
Click to expand...

Mel Blanc said he combined Bronx and Brooklyn accents to come up with Bugs' voice. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcedlOZkwVo

Not to pick a nit, but in Rabbit Rhapsody he clearly says "heard", not "hoid" See the clip at 1:19



All that aside, both Rhapsody Rabbit and Long Haired Hare (the one where he poses as Stokowski) are classics.
 
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Anti Federalist said:
Uncensored.

MGM's "Magical Maestro".

Click to expand...


One of Avery's best.

For what it's worth, my list of the greatest cartoons and their directors (in no particular order):

1. One Froggy Evening (Chuck Jones) Jones' masterpiece
2. Duck Amuck (Jones) Breaking the fourth wall
3. Northwest Hounded Police (Tex Avery) The wolf's exaggerated reactions
4. Porky in Wackyland (Bob Clampett) Clampett in his Salvador Dali mode
5. King Size Canary (Avery) Typical Avery exaggeration
6. Rabbit Seasoning (Jones) The first and best of the Bugs-Daffy trilogy ("pronoun trouble")
7. Bimbo's Initiation (Dave Fleischer and Grim Natwick) Weirdness from 1931
8. The Rabbit of Seville (Jones) Superb coordination of animation and music

I'd put the original Roadrunner-Coyote cartoons (directed by Jones and written by Michael Maltese) in a separate category. When they were released in the theaters audiences would applaud during the opening credits once they realized it was a Road Runner cartoon.
 
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Mel Blanc would know

Sonny Tufts said:
Mel Blanc said he combined Bronx and Brooklyn accents to come up with Bugs' voice. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcedlOZkwVo
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'd never heard it spelled out so definitely. Mel Blanc would be the ultimate authority on the topic.

For myself, the only person I'd ever met in my life who used "oid" in place of "er", was my Mom's uncle who was born and raised in the Bronx.

In the 80s, Joe Piscipo on SNL pushed the notion that people from NJ use the "oid" sound, but this is a myth. You won't find a soul in NJ who ever called it "Joisy". Never happened. I don't know why he did this. It's odd considering that he is supposedly from NJ. Maybe he grew up with Bronxian transplants? or I guess he just thought it would get laughs.
 
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