Willie the Operatic Whale - Dark Toons
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2022
- What's Disney going to do with this lovable singing animal? The same thing it does to a lot of lovable singing animals. Doug looks over the bleak ending of this musical creature in Willie the Operatic Whale.
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Willie is an opera-singing sperm whale and the main protagonist of Disney's 1946 short, The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At the Met, a segment of the 1946 animated feature, Make Mine Music.
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Disney really doesn't like lovable singing animals
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Here’s an Idea for a Nostalgia Critic review. Please review this series spinoff of those animated Titanic movies from second to third called “Fantasy Island”. Be sure to bring your Vodka drinks with this one!
Ed, Edd n Eddy Season 3, Episode 11, The Day the Ed Stood Still please Doug.
We're gonna get Pleasure Island one of these days, I can just feel it coming...eventually.
6:08 What is that song? Never heard it before.
Yes, he does. Make Mine Music should be on Disney+ with a disclaimer about racism and negative depiction.
Can you review Hambuster? ua-cam.com/video/V4ZzKnhWJSw/v-deo.html
My requests:
Leap Frogs (Rocko’s Modern Life; Rocko being seduced/raped. Mrs. Bighead is a very hot milf) this has been chosen based on how disturbing they are to the dirty adult mind
My Peeps (Billy and Mandy; Billy has predicted eyes)
Boating Buddies (Spongebob; Squidward being stalked)
Haunted (Teen Titans)
Samurai Jack vs the zombies
Knock it Off (Powerpuff Girls; bootleg PPG)
Life with Feathers (Looney Tunes)
Braceface controversial episodes
Tournament of Power (Dragonball Super)
Sleepless in Retroville (Jimmy Neutron)
Mother’s Day (Rugrats)
The Death of the Nation (Earth Madden Arjuna)
The Tragic Final Battle (Sailor Moon)
Rick Potion no 9 (Rick and Morty)
Saffron City 3-Partner (Pokémon)
Minnie Takes Care of Pluto
Nightmare Monster (Winx Club)
Skeletons in the Closet (Bratz)
Painter’s Block (Tangled tv series)
Lesson Zero (My Little Pony)
Operation: Archive (Codename: Kids Next Door)
Jeeper Creepers, where is Peepers? (Dexter's Laboratory)
Candibalism (Viva Pinata)
That's Life (The Fairly OddParents)
Fool's Paradise (The Loud House
Mind Pollution (Captain Planet)
K'nuckles and his Hilarious Problem (Flapjack)
Pingu's Dream
And She Was Gone (As Told By Ginger)
Deadly Force (Gargoyles)
Northwest Manor Mystery (Gravity Falls)
Balloon Land
Phineas and Ferb Get Busted
Raggedy Android episodes (My Life as a Teenage Robot)
Cat Fingers (Steven Universe)
Bimbo's Initiation (Betty Boop)
Interview with the Campfire (All Grown Up)
Sven Hoek (Ren and Stimpy)
The Job (Gumball)
Meatman (Camp Lazlo)
The Ultimate Enemy (Danny Phantom)
The Eds are Coming (Ed Edd n Eddy)
"Well what did you expect from an Opera? A happy ending?"
“No, but I expect it from a fucking cartoon!”
Kiww dhe whawe! Kiww dhe whawe!
Classic Bugs Bunny line. What's Opera Doc is a pure masterpiece.
SPHERE AND MAGIC HELMET!
Yes! I expect it from a freaking cartoon!! I mean come on! Why are some cartoons are so dark and creepy?
"People aren't used to miracles"
Man that's a really good line
"What happened here was a miracle, and I want you to f**king acknowledge it."
And, sadly, what humans aren't use to something, they destroy it.
*cough* Jesus Christ *cough* *cough*
Politicians don't like people who do good for the sake of being good. It makes them nervous.
@@nathank2289 Funny, yet true.
This short actually made me cry a bit when poor Willie was killed. Seeing this gentle giant with the voice of an angel have his life snuffed out and his dreams crushed all because of a misunderstanding was genuinely heartbreaking to watch. But I take solace in the fact that Willie continues to sing in Heaven at the end, and that the 3 sailors beat the shit out of the idiot who shot him.
"Well, what did you expect from an opera? A happy ending?"
I remember the end to this even though I haven't seen it since I was a kid.
He’s the darn fool that shot him…
Well, as the narrator put it in the end, "Don't be too harsh on Tetti- Tatti: He just didn't understand."
@@CMW1995 You can't help but think of that line in this, can you? I can think of only one opera with a happy ending.
The three sailors have such an underrated arc.
I like how it's never really clear of they were just enjoying the song or if they actually realized that the Whale was the one singing. The latter makes it more tragic, since either they never told him or they did and he just didn't listen.
Wow. Doug really went back with this one. I forgot all about this story until today . I remember it like a piece of my childhood submerged from the depths of my memory
I got emotional flashbacks of how I felt as a kid. Seeing the animation I would have said this was a fever dream otherwise. (Like Jungle to Jungle)
This one really opened the floodgates of my memories.
Submerged... Depths... I see what you did there.
Same here. Also, this is one of those Disney animated shorts I rarely re-watched,
because of the sad ending.
There are uploads of these old cartoons and they're great nostalgia. Some greatly animated and some nightmarish character designs that I forgot that scared me.
Honestly if Willie had a human friend in this short who would stop by every single day just to listen to Willie's beautiful voice while he was singing opera and they were around when he was sadly killed I can definitely imagine that human friend just breaking down and crying because they will never see their dear sweet friend or hear their beautiful voice ever again I mean just oof that would be just even more heartbreaking than it already was
You're describing an audience insert. Honestly I think that would cheapen the moment, we know it's sad, they don't have to show a character crying to tell you that.
Or maybe someone that could...free Willie???
That's what the seagull was for.
The reverse of this scenario is basically the poem “Puff tge Magic Dragon”☹️
Fun Fact: 'Over The Garden Wall' has a bunch of opera singers as a few characters, and hearing them and Nelson Eddy, I really love the idea of opera singers getting into voiceover, since they can do so much with their voice, & with some training for the acting if they need it, they could really do some incredible work.
"Chop the wood to light the fire!"
"Come, wayward souls, who wander through the forest, there is a light for the lost and the meek..."
Over the Garden Wall is incredible! I watch it every Halloween.
Speaking of which, has Doug covered Over the Garden Wall in this series? It's got some wonderfully creepy moments.
@@fugithegreat it was a while back, but yes he has
I love that when you pause it JUST right, the sailor looks like the devil himself. Fitting, seeing as he's about to just murder an innocent whale when his own crew are like "BRO WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
except it was the man who runs the opera house, not an actual sailor. However, I never actually caught that, so, cool.
@@chrisrj9871 ooh gotcha
I remember seeing this cartoon on a VHS tape that also included "Ferdinand the Bull" and "Lambert the Sheepish Lion", two more great Disney cartoons.
I had that same VHS!
Same. Good times.
I had this one as a kid, its why those 3 have always been so special
Lambert The Sheepish Lion was my favorite when I was a kid! Then I didn’t see it for probably at least 25 years. When my son was a baby I randomly found it on UA-cam and played it for him. He was obsessed with it for awhile, starting really young. Like, maybe 8 months old. He would sit and stare and laugh. It was adorable. ❤️
Same for me.
What did you expect from an opera, a happy ending?
Bingo! That's my take away too!
wow, fantastic reference!!! not sure many will get where you got that from!
This one always made me cry growing up. It still does now. I’m glad you don’t think Tetti-Tatti is a villain, because they make it SUPER clear he doesn’t get what’s going on and thinks Willie ate multiple singers and wants to save them. Which makes it even more sad. I legitimately wonder how much it would mess him up if he found out he murdered a singer instead. 😰
And what is more, many is not most people on dry land may think this was a rescue mission, and a failed one at that, given the body is not found. Even worse, the fact he swims away reveals his death was far from immediate.
@@TheNotverysocial Here's a sad fact about whaling and how it went back in the forties when this was filmed.
- What they would do back then was to Harpoon a whale and tire it out.
- Then, much like an angler, they would reel it in, there were steam powered pulleys, and the main mast of the ship would act as the rod itself.
- Then if the whale was close enough, they would actually fire a second harpoon, which was loaded with an explosive charge to kill the whale.
But, much as was the case in this cartoon, often it took hours and hours for a harpooned whale to get tired enough to be actually reeled in, which meant that the whale's death was a long and agonizing affair.
Poor Willie.
@@RastaSaiyaman Plus, given the weapon broke off of the boat, it seems probable his body was not found, thus no one on dry land learned the truth. That is the worst bit. And that they think the singers were doomed, and in a roundabout way are correct.
@@TheNotverysocialNo. He's a whale-killing hero.
@@kirstendonovan4092 What in the world are you talking about? They people on dry land never found out the truth, never found the body, let alone "Bodies" Even if they don't know the whale was the singer, they know the rescue was a failure, a tragedy to all parties concerned.
Sad Willie was killed, sad the humans never knew the truth, and sad they had to go back thinking they failed to rescue what were non existent bands of opera singers, not to mention the gull mourning his friend.
Oh gawd, this is my all-time favourite. As a really small kid, this short made me cry because a cute, friendly, singing whale died at the end. As an adult, it still made me cry learning that Willie kept on singing because he thought the captain was there to audition him and made his dream come true, when in fact he was about to be killed by a harpoon.
I remember this one fondly. When I was little my mother told me that the actual message behind it was that often times people look for something far too complex and don't take things at face value the way they actually are. People overthink things instead of accepting reality because it makes them uncomfortable or challenges their expectations and world view. So challenged, many people will lash out violently against what they refuse to accept.
I find it ironic that good ole Mom might have been overthinking the message here.
Is your mom an introvert by any chance
Your mother has a functional brain compared to MatPat, because what she said about the message, it’s why I don’t think MatPat is as smart as he thinks.
Saw this as a kid at the movies, it haunted me for years! Willie's agony...fuck.. Watching it as an adult you get the subtleties that go over your head as a kid. That seagull is so relatable, his bewilderment at this grossly unfair thing that happened to his friend, he was trying to help him achieve his dream..been there, mate!
One of my favorite shorts as a kid. I was always so upset over Willie being killed. My mom would tell me not to feel too bad as now my relatives who passed on, would get to enjoy beautiful concerts every day. Growing up, I lost alot of my family and as an adult, watching this short again while remembering what my mom said? Instant fountain of tears.
Loved "Make Mine Music" since I was a kid. Love the "Peter and the Wolf" sequence. This sequence is pretty cool considering Nelson Eddy did EVERY voice in it. Major respect for that.
It's weird, when I was a kid, Willie the Whale never affected me, but for whatever reason, the music leading up to the appearance of the wolf at the start of Peter and the Wolf always made me nervous when you see that wolf in silhouette walking through the woods.
I liked the Peter and the Wolf segment when I was younger, but now I can't look away from how Sterling Holloway never shuts up. He was a great actor, but he killed that whole thing. At least I can make comparisons to A Christmas Story with the wolf's theme.
@@Tadicuslegion78 When it comes to the Wolf, I was the same when it appeared and snarled at us.
@@coolnerdlll6053 Personally, I loved Sterling Holloway's narration in it. But I understand your opinion.
This is one Disney Short I wish Disney would do a special "behind the scenes" on to explain how did Nelson Eddy do all 3 voices for Willie. And why Walt Disney or whomever chose it to begin with to make into a cartoon.
I remember as a kid, the fact that they humanized the Impresario to this extent affected me very much. He wasn't the devil, the force of nature, something to be warded off with a cross. He was a short-sited, close-minded human.
Watching war films, I was never afraid of becoming a Hitler or a Nazi, or whatever else - how could I, when they were so obviously evil and so crearly wrong.
But I could become Tetti-Tatti, just by wanting to do good, yet being unwilling to consider possibilities outside of my life experiences. The thought legit sucked the cheeriness out of me back in the day.
And it kind of stayed with me. Do not be a Tetti-Tatti.
Good advice actually. Listen and believe in miracles.
well what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending?
You had to quote What's Opera Doc didn't you?
@@stephenholloway6893 if i didn't i'd be doing something wrong
It's amazing how much talent Disney put in every single idea they had in this era of cartoons - normally is really hard to imagine that one guy is capable of doing so many different voices, but I think that's what makes the classic cartoons such memorable and interesting to watch today.
Although we miss Willie, his soul found another way to come back to us - Willie makes an amazing cameo in the 2013 Mickey Mouse short "O Sole Minnie".
Hope to see, in a future Dark Toons, the Looney Tunes cartoon "Chow Hound" (1951) - remember, vengeance is a dish best served with gravy
Oh, yes. The one that takes place in Venice with Mickey as a gondola pilot. I've always thought that singing 🐋 was just a silly bit for the sake of unexpected hindrances.
Thank you, Doug, for helping people see the beauty of opera. It can emotionally overwhelm oneself in the best way
The marvelous misadventures of flapjack was a great dark toon!
The opening credit for this segment lets us know we're in for a "tragic story," yet despite that, it builds such momentum and sympathy for Willie that you root for him anyway and can't help hoping things will somehow turn out well for him. Beautifully done.
I watched this, and I remember being so invested in Willie's imagination of singing at the met, and hopeful that his dream was about to come true, that as soon as the harpoon shot at him, it felt as though Disney backstabbed me again. Dang it for making me sad, Disney, you're suppose to make us happy lol!
Even more dark is that Willie's final lyric as the devil is "Je veux ta vie", which translates to "I want your life". Ouch.
I know! Still so alluring and swoonworthy!
Ben 10 “last laugh” and “ghostfreaked out” were some of my favourite darktoons
Oh yeah, those had some pretty intense horror elements. Those would be good.
Anyone remember the alien mummy it freaked me out
@@MrRoofer22 Oh yeah, also goes to show how creative they got, because hey, there's that theory of the Pryamids being built by aliens, if that were true, maybe there could be alien mummies. And later, alien Frankenstiens.
Bruh y’all 16 or what lmao
I've known this existed for so long, but I never watched it, so I didn't know it was a tragedy. But, yeah. Nelson Eddy's voice is amazing.
Doug should totally review Samson and Sally. It has a heavy environmental message, but has some dark scenes like that one whale who dies from suffocating in an oil spill.
I use to watch this a lot when I was kid let’s not forgot this movie might apocalypse setting like when u see Statue of Liberty under water
Yes! That's such a fever dream of a movie. Definitely stood out to me after all these years. Not to mention quite a bit of blood for a kid's movie.
@@roachmorphine8018 No it's not
Truly one of Disney’s best shorts & if you think about it, you could introduce your kids to opera with this just like “What’s Opera, Doc?” or “Rabbit of Seville”. I wonder if Doug has seen Nelson Eddy & Jeanette McDonald’s collaborations; they did lots of early musicals together & were close friends for their entire lives
"Maytime" -- whoo boy. That one's as tragic as "The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met," and almost (though not quite) as brilliant.
@@kelleyceccato7025 Great movie. Paul's tavern song was so much fun.
This is the best short ever.. I grew up and felt with Willie.. and I still cry for and with Willie 30 yrs later. This is my go to cry cartoon in my lifetime..
Upon closer inspection, it looks like the harpoon hit Willie in the throat, which (if that's the case) makes this all the more painful, tragic, sad, heartbreaking, and little ironic for an operatic whale. This was one of Disney's ballsiest moves. In a way it feels a lot like a Charlie Chaplin movie when its dramatic and bittersweet when we see Willie's dream of singing onstage. Many of Chaplin's movies had iconic scenes that sadly turned out to be dreams like the Tramp defeating the Kaiser in Shoulder Arms (1918), the Tramp's dinner party in The Gold Rush (1925), domestic life with the Gamin in Modern Times (1936). In fact, in terms of feeling and tone, this short ends kinda like Chaplin's film City Lights (1931) on a very mixed feeling. In both cases, you do feel sad, but also see a silver lining that's left to you the viewer.
Honestly one of the most beautiful and underrated of the package films and this short truly and purely shows it, the camera angles, the colours, the music, the singing, just perfection.
I remember seeing this at just five years old, loving every moment of this film and was aware the whale died but it never stopped me from watching over and over again. Beautiful work. I still get chills now watching this segment at 33.
One of my favorite shorts is actually from Make Mine Music. Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet. I was elated when I found a limited edition pin at the parks celebrating the 75th anniversary of the film.
I always thought it was Momma's little baby, just with a southern twang.
I actually have a hard time hearing the tunes of opera but I cannot deny the absolute talent that opera singers have!
if you like opera, look up bel canto. it's the way I remember opera and the way it truly should be sung in my opinion. today's opera is all about being loud and overly dramatic, and I think you lose a lot of the interpretation and emotion because of it.
As a kid, I never understood why the opera conductor wanted to hunt the whale. I remember seeing this every so often, but never caught on to the story of it. I just saw a singing whale that got shot for no reason. Now it makes sense.
I've never heard of this short. But man, that ending.
I know
This is one of the reasons why the Wartime/Package Film Era of Walt Disney's career is an overlooked treasure-trove. People often don't realize/acknowledge how many great elements of classic Disney there was and the fact that he and his artists often went dark in a way you never really saw in the Renaissance era of the company.
unsurprising when you think about it. It was a real dark time in modern history at the time
To be honest I wouldn’t mind if Disney does full length live action remakes based off some of segments in the package film era.
I remember watching this as part of the Wind in the Willows VHS. I really liked it as a child despite the sad ending and I still appreciate it now. Funny thing is: when I first saw it as a kid, I thought the story was Willie actually became a successful singer but the Devil performance was a disaster that the Conductor killed him for ruining his success. But a few years later, I understood it more that it was all in Willie's head, which made it more sad.
Which year version of Winds in the Willows?
Actually, now that you mention Wind in the Willows that rings a bell for me too in relation to this cartoon short.
It was not. It was still real
Oh wow. It's been a minute since a Dark Toons video was published! Man was this one depressing...damnit Disney?!?
I know!
This was one of my favorite shorts, had it on VHS back in the day. Man, I love how dark old Disney would go.
The ending ia heartbreaking, but so very beautiful!
My only problem is, after rewatching this again recently, right when the harpoon gun breaks off of the boat the music turns into the Ride of the Valkyries score. As a child, even to this day, it always is really confusing tone wise. I thought/think this supposed to be a triumphant thing or something. I kind of wish they didn't use that bit of score for that moment but otherwise yeah it's an excellent short and it still gives me chills every time I see it.
Interesting fact: Eddy's best know movie role was playing a Mountie in the movie "Rose Marie" (1936). That character was the inspiration for Jay Ward and Bill Scott's parody DUDLEY DO-RIGHT OF THE MOUNTIES.
This show begins back so many repressed traumas 😂 I'd genuinely forgot all about this, but this video brought it all back.
I remember watching the make mine music on dvd sooooo much growing up, nice feel of nostalgia from this one. Plus the nice things doug says about it makes this the most wholesome dark toons so far
"Well what did you expect in an opera? A happy ending?" - Bugs Bunny
Make Mine Music is one of my favorite Disney movies. Willie the Operatic Whale was a short that I watched a lot on VHS when I was a kid and I still enjoy it as an adult. This was a nice review you did. Nelson Eddy really did have a beautiful voice.
Actually, from what I've read, the reason 'Make Mine Music' is not on Disney+ is because of the first short "The Martins and the Coys" which features a musical loosely based on the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Apparently when they released it on VHS in the US, management objected the use of guns in a comedic setting.
It may also be due to the sexualized imagery used in the short 'All the Cats Join in' which had been edited out too. We may never know
But it needs to be
I loved this short! As a music lover, I loved that the songs Willie sings were actual opera arias. At least I know now as an adult that really understands opera. As a vocalist myself, the fact that Willie somehow has the right breath and muscle control or having to cue himself on his own so that his different voices can either sing in sync together or able to come in at just the right time separately is amazing. A neat little detail I noticed after the devil sequence is that when it dissolves back to the boat, Tetti Tatti's face is red and his hair is pointed up like horns. That was a nice transition from the opera scenes!
what's more his face is drawn in a far more menacing, elss friendly and cartoony way, highlighting what a terrible thing he is about to do
@@sarafontanini7051 That too. 🙂👍
I feel like you should talk about the original Lorax cartoon from the 70s. It’s not very dark but it’s definitely a bleak cartoon.
YES!!
I'm not sure why this showed up on my UA-cam feed, but I'm glad it did. I have had vague memories of a cartoon whale singing the shortbread song that had upset me a lot as a kid. It was on tv in the early 70s..I must have been 5 or 6..and the tragedy of his shattered dreams and death was not lost on me.
I remember the singing well when I was a kid and I remember watching the cartoon and I liked it but the ending made me cry so hard
This cartoon always made me cry like a baby.
This cartoon. My gosh. It haunted me so much as a kid. The animation, the way he sang it, heck, even the newspapers getting printed, it all haunted me, and it’s all coming back to me through watching this. The way that Willie is animated and drawn strikes me as so strange and uncanny.
And still have a crush on him 🥰
I used to watch this short on the show Donald Duck Presents, where I saw many of the various Disney animated shorts of the past. I loved it and still do.
I love how like What's Opera Doc they play actual opera arias like Figaro,,Pagliacci, Tristan and Isolde, and Mephistopheles.
Fun Fact: Eddy and his frequent film costar Jeannette McDonald did not get along and often took swipes at each other in newspapers.
They may have made beautiful music on screen but not so much in real life.
I know that
I was just talking about it a few days ago! I had it on DVD with the movie of Mr. Toad. In my country, the dubbing on the DVD was different from the original, maybe because it was a different compilation and they didn't have the rights to use the original voices, and no one that I know has seen that version. Is like it never existed! So watching this makes me happy.
Fun fact about Nelson Eddy: he actually died while singing on stage (in my home town no less). Just as he was hitting some high notes he suffered a cerebrovascular accident & keeled over. So this cartoon was a bit prophetic in more ways than one.
It's only a "fun" fact in the comment section of a Dark Toons video.
I had no idea this is where this whale came from, I just remember seeing him for a brief second in one of the Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse shorts (O Sole Minnie) where Mickey was in Italy and thinking "wow, a opera singing whale....random"🤣🤣
As a kid I once saw footage of Whaling on TV, I still recall the water turning red after the whale was hit and how it thrashing about and how when it breached, to rid itself from the harpoon, it was actually shot for a second time.
It gave me years of nightmares. That was also why I never could enjoy this cartoon, they depicted that death struggle of a Harpooned whale a little TOO well.
I don't know if you could consider this as a dark cartoon but there's an episode of CHOWDER called "The Spookiest House in Marzipan" and I believe it's worth checking out. The jokes hit and the design of the spooky house is pretty cool.
Actually there's an episode called "Poultry Giest"
I always know that Make Mine Music exists, but I never saw a reason to watch it. NOW I HAVE TO WATCH IT!
I'd love for you to do Disney's 1943 Chicken Little short. Nothing like having the entire cast eaten by a fox at the end--and the idea of "fake news" luring gullible people into trouble is as relevant as ever.
A new find! “Tig N‘ Seek: The Tig-Tale Heart”. LOVED IT!!! As close as possible to the original story while keeping it kid-friendly. And while Tig learns a valuable lesson and is ultimately forgiven--he doesn’t get a happy ending! Loved that sadistic twist at the end!
I forgot about this. I’m 43yo, and I had Disney on cable in the late 80s, and I remember this and all these little shorts just playing off and on during the day.
That cartoon was actually my request for "Dark Toons". I remember seeing the film as part of the Disney Mini Classics VHS tapes. As a quick review of "Make Mine Music", even thought most of the film is a bit of a downer, both "Peter and the Wolf" and "Willie the Whale" are freaking perfect. Thanks Doug!!!
That's right
They're the most memorable
I remember this cartoon. I had no idea it was all done by one person! Amazing!
Nelson Eddy was a phenomenal opera singer. I loved his movies with Jeanette MacDonald. Most were tragic love stories but still they had great chemistry and their voices harmonized so well. They were so amazing together and as individuals. Nice to hear him in this short film.
this is one of my most favorite shorts from Make Mine Music the ending is sad but I just love the music
Ohh my gosh, you reviewed this one! Yes, absolutely worthy of this kind of review!
I actually remember seeing this on its own VHS tape, released as its own thing, when I was really little. Then when I was 12, I saw it again in Make Mine Music.
I was absolutely heartbroken by the ending, and all the music Willie sings is heartbreakingly beautiful. But for some reason I don't think I ever cried over this...until now. Literally, ever since Willie began singing in this review, I've been sobbing, right up until you see him in Heaven. 😭 Maybe my inner child is processing the grief now. 😅
But I started crying happy tears when seeing him in Heaven, because as the narrator said, "Miracles never really die," and "Willie is still singing, in a hundred voices, each more golden than before." Though I never noticed the people on the clouds before, that's a beautiful detail, very ethereal and hopeful. This is also what I imagine Heaven to be like, and where I know we will see all of our departed animal loved ones again. This is what started me on my love of whales, albeit somewhat of a traumatizing start. 😅
Beautiful, just beautiful. And yes, very challenging for audiences of all ages. Thank you for reviewing this one. 🥹🥲
I remember watching as part of the Disney Anthology film, Make Mine Music, in school in 2003.
Thanks! Seems he’s reviewing my film already and I was happy that my film gets more popular by fans who watched it in their childhood. I’m crying so loud like I was lucky. Thank you Doug.
It is kinda funny how Willy shows up as a regular background character in House of Mouse now that I know the original story. 😂
That's right.
"Well what did you think was gonna happen in an opera, a HAPPY ending?"
-Bugs Bunny
Love love LOVE this short!! Nelson Eddy has got to be one of the greatest singers of all time, and his portrayal of all the characters as much as Willie is wonderfully done. Still enjoy every minute of it all even with a darker tone of Willie’s death but then the uplifting literal heavenly ending is just so satisfying and very well executed; definitely needs more attention given to it🙌🏻
Me too.
I love how this series is all about how dark the shows are but Doug's giddy explanations of scenery, animation, background information and joy over reviewing this just really warms my heart.
I only saw this for the first time a few years ago, after my mom told me about a cartoon she saw as a little kid that traumatized her. She didn't even remember what company made it, only that it had a singing whale that died at the end. I was able to find it pretty easily online, since, as you said, there aren't a lot of singing whale cartoons out there.
Despite it’s bad origins, “Shortenin’ Bread” has been stuck in my brain ever since I first watched this as a kid. It’s often the song that plays in my head when I go for runs that helps me keep pace.
"Bad origins"?
Is that what we're calling American songs that happened to have originated with black Southerners either during or after the Civil War and are often sung in a South Black Accent *because it originated with that ethnic group* ? Is Slavery really so poisonous an institution that even black culture (culture of the people enslaved) that originated in enslaved times is morally tainted by it?
It's pretty bigoted, specifically a guilt by association fallacy, to think that something is wrong because it is associated with something considered wrong. By the logic, every vegetarian and dog-lover is tainted by Hit!er (he famously was vegan and loved dogs).
As if somehow slavery in the US was uniquely evil and not something seen around the world before the Enlightenment era saw the slow spread of the idea that slavery was morally wrong.
I wonder how many people are aware that up until the late-1880s (only with the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869 and the ability of the British West African squadron to get quick, short access to the Indian Ocean were they able to effectively end the East African Seaborne Slave Trade), black slaves were still being kidnapped and smuggled up the East Coast of Africa (with many of the men deliberately castrated before being taken into Islamic lands) to be sold as slaves in Arabia. By this logic, given Arabic cultures were literally practicing enslavement of blacks since the first Arabs arrived in the land that now makes up Tanzania in the 9th century AD, 500 years before the first Portuguese/Spanish ship arrived on the West Coast of African and started buying slaves from local kings, shouldn't everything Arabic be doubly/triply condemned and considered "Bad" given how much longer they were doing it with the greater absolute numbers of slaves involved?
@@GreyWolfLeaderTW don’t forget the warm up before you make such a large stretch next time. Btw how many straws did you get from that large stretch of yours?
@@GreyWolfLeaderTW The problem is that gringos appropriated this for comedy. I'm pretty sure the whole Jim Crow series of jokes from Dumbo was jacked by idiots too racist to understand the humor.
'Shortenin' Bread' was probably here because it was a trademark song of Nelson Eddy's, which I figured out from cartoons.
WB's "Swooner Crooner" has farmer Porky auditioning singing roosters to get his hens back from a Frank Sinatra rooster - the first one sings this song, seems to be patterened after Eddy (the others being Al Jolson, Jimmy Durante, Cab Calloway, and finally Bing Crosby).
Many years later Dudley Do-Right was seen to love singing the song, in a yammering toneless manner, and Nelson Eddy had famously played a mountie in more than one movie.
Bad origins. The original lyrics included the N-word. 😡
16:18 Can I just say a gate in heaven having the "Sold Out" sign in front of it has some dark implications.
I love how much Doug just gushes over this one. He’s right though, it really is a beautiful work of art. As animation, as a tragedy, and as music.
I like the idea that separate uvulas would cause you to sing in multiple voices.
Wow....I have not seen this in years, nice to know there are others who have seen this
I always loved the singing in this short! When I was a kid in the 80s, I saw this on the Disney Channel both as part of Make Mine Music and as a stand-alone. I think it works fine either way same for other compilation shorts like Johnny Appleseed and Pecos Bill and Paul Bunyan.
As a kid, I didn't realize that the parts of him singing on stage were just him fantasizing; I thought that he actually had a career singing and that the guy with the harpoon plotted in the background for a very long time to make his move when the whale went back to the ocean to visit with his friends.
I thought that too because during the dream sequence Tetti Tatti is in the audience with the harpoon and the sailors are holding him down listening to Willy sing.
I thought it too, thinking that he was killed because he was starting to scare people dressing as satan and breathing fire. How… how would he have done that?
@@ProfCoolio But he did.
I really enjoy all of this content and each new upload feels like an exciting event.
God, this short scared me SO BAD as a kid!
Not just the part where Willie get's offed, but the parts where they just shoved the viewer's head into the back of this whale's throat as he sang! Like I legit had nightmares about shit like that!
Wow! It didn't even cross my mind to recommend this one to you, Doug. And this happens to be part of my childhood!
Back then my english was very poor, thus I've been watching it with a so-so translation. Still, I got most of the concept. Although, back then silly younger me remembered that in the end sailors dropped Tetti-Tatti just the way they did previously when he attempted to harpoon Willie prior. Only when I rewatched it years later as an adult I saw the raised fists and realized that they were to end him for what he had done. And as for not understanding things, I am sadly still salty at him and say "Ignorantia juris non excusat", despite you making a fair point regarding misunderstandings. I would also like to thank you for clarifying the whole opera/spear gun transition: even years later I couldn't understand how does it happen time/place-wise.
Back as child I liked it enough until it got stale on me after watching it countless amount of times (I had it on a VHS tape along with other random old Disney shorts). Liked it more as an adult. Appreciate it even more after seeing this video of yours.
Like I said, it didn't even cross my mind to recommend this one, but I am glad and grateful that you took a deep look at it. You have my sincere thanks, Doug!
Dropping same suggestions for a potential future video:
- “Haunted” from Teen Titans
- The Old Mill (1937)
- “Insane in the Membrane” from TMNT 2003
- The Pioneer’s Violin (soviet animated short about WW2 made in 1971. There is no dialogue in it so language shouldn't be an issue. VERY DARK!)
- Hedgehog in the Fog (another soviet cartoon. Dunno if it qualifies perfectly, but it does have uneasy moments. Also it got some solid recognition)
- Film, Film, Film (1968) (This short contains one pretty dark scene, but is also about making movies. Might interest you 😉)
I remember as a kid I was very confused as to why Willie was singing in Heaven (I was a pretty naïve kid. Back then I didn't get traumatized by Bambi because I just didn't understand "death".) So yeah, I was really, really little when I first watched this.
So, not too long ago, I found the short online and decided to watch it and started to understand better. As a kid, I only saw it as "the cartoon about the singing whale", but now I understand the dialogue and all the little charming and funny details like the narrator being every character's voice, and the fact that Tetti Tatti thought Willie ate three opera singers. (I was wondering why he was yelling into Willie's mouth like that, lol.)
Then in the ending, I'm like "Did he actually harpoon him?! This is messed up!" Honestly, I did not remember how harsh the ending was! But, like I said, I guess I was too young to understand stuff.
One thing that both little me and adult me can agree on: That last part where Willie is singing Mephisto literally BREATHING FIRE and in the deepest bass tone I've ever heard, scared and still scares the crap out of me!! Brr...
Perhaps not your musical taste, but Corpse Husband on here sometimes does gaming and sometimes music, and his voice causes immediate and intense reactions. And he seems like a funny dorky guy
Me too when I was a child of age four
And that's still swoonworthy!
MORE PLEASE!!!!! You hit gold. This is EXACTLY WHAT WE BEEN MISSING
“Well what did you expect from an opera a happy ending?”-Bugs Bunny
I saw this in my VHS copy of Make Mine Music when I was little. This was my favorite of the shorts, it always managed to make me cry.
This cartoon really must have traumatized a lot of people O.O
Oh yeah I remember this!
Flapjack has some amazing dark toons. I'll add titles once I find them
Over The Garden Wall is a new one my daughter showed me that’s dark dark dark but so entertaining & enjoyable to watch. Love all the nostalgia with these old toons.
Hooray! The Dark Toons have returned!!!
I grow up watching these so long ago. When I was a kid too. I always felt sorry for Willy, but I think that there was a good reason why they made these cartoon and that reason is that life isn't far and that bad things happen to good people. But at least Willy went to heaven and get to sing in heaven with lots of angles watching him to sing. So, in a way he did have a happy ending for real. And the guy didn't know that there was no singer inside of Willy at all. It was a very bad mis under standing
Me too
i remember watching make my music, fun and fancy free and melody time all as a kid and loved watching them, willies short was among my favorites to watch then and as an adult watching the short, i can more understand the tradgedy of it but also the beautiful music an naration, kid me was always sad that he died and adult me is too but im happy that he still got to preform in the heaven opera place, also love the little touches with the people figure and the tiny wings he has
Ethel Mertz sings "Shortenin' Bread" in the episode of "I Love Lucy" where they visit her hometown. She says she's gotten "many requests for your favorite and mine, 'Shortenin' Bread,'" so I guess it was popular then.
You should review the Powerpuff Girl’s episode Abracadaver. It stuck with me for years, not because of the zombie aspect but the story behind his death.