agreed on "the firebird" roger!
.. that finale can move me to tears.
make sure they play that at my funeral, huh?

have you heard the version from "fantasia II" ?
i love the russian conductors, but sonically
this version blows the old recordings away IMO.;)

No, as a matter of fact I haven't. I'd LOVE to, though.

And I'd like to have it played at mine, as well. It'll probably STILL make my hair stand on end.

Roger -Dot- Lee

Jim, cool that you remember the light show too. I caught the show outdoors up at SPAC (Saratoga NY). I believe they used the same technique for several tours. If I recall correctly during the Seconds Out tour they got hold of 2 banks of 43 Airplane lights to suspend over the stage (as seen in the cover). Later they purchased Pages(Zepplins) lighting company and named it Varilights.

As for FantasiaII it's worth seeing the movie if the mouse doesn't bug you. Pines of Rome is very impressive as well as Firebird. I saw it at an IMAX theater and they actually blew out a bank of speakers. Tough to blow out 12,000 watts of sonic power, but it was worth it.

I can live with the rat. One doesn't watch Fantasia (or II, for that matter) for the rat anyway.

I'll have Mrs.Lee see if she can get ahold of a copy. Thanks for the pointer!

Roger

As for FantasiaII it's worth seeing the movie if the mouse doesn't bug you. Pines of Rome is very impressive as well as Firebird. I saw it at an IMAX theater and they actually blew out a bank of speakers. Tough to blow out 12,000 watts of sonic power, but it was worth it. [/b][/quote]

i caught it on IMAX the first time also.

coming from the comics/art field, i
really appreciated seeing (the now late)
al hershfield's adaptation of gershwin's
"rhapsody in blue" (also worth picking the cd up for).

disney's moved this one "into the vault", if you see it
on the shelves , grab it.

k

fantasia continued
 

I believe they will be adding Salvador Dali's piece to the next Fantasia, which was designed to be a work in process. That should be a trip.

Fantasia and cartoons in general are interesting how much musical influence they have on children. Tom and Jerry uses Gershwin. And who can forget "Kill the Rabbit!" and Swan Lake. Who thought cartoons were educational?.

Re: fantasia continued
 

as a classical music conneisseur, I feel I must correct you. That was actually called "Kill The Wabbit":D

Going from favorite epic moments to cartoons is pure AM board activity.

They don't make cartoons like the used to. The interpolation of classical music and drawing cartoons to fit it is a lost art. The Merry Melodies, Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, and other from that era - never will be equaled.

Agreed on all parts. Now we've got such classics as "Spongebob Squarepants" (how ... creative a name), and all kinds of stuff from Japan where the women are all top heavy and they don't have hair color that occurs in nature...at least not on this planet.

Ah well....

the cost of animation production went
through the roof and killed cartoons.
by the late 60's, even chuck jones couldn't do
a decent feature (those tom and jerrys still
make me cringe).
popeye was in the hands of gene deitch..
bluto changed to brutus...
dark days indeed.

IMO- friz freleng did some decent 60's cartoons
given the limitations. the pink panther stuff
still holds up.

k

Very good points, Kirk.

The advent of computerized graphics (thanks in a large part to the work done at Silicon Graphics) has made cartoon production economically feasable -- much more so than even 30 years ago.

Now they just need to start putting out good stories instead of what's presented these days.

I think the biggest problem is that in the days of Bugs Bunny and company, the cartoon was geared much more toward an adult audience. During Tom and Jerry's day, including the later Road Runner dreck and on toward the later stuff of the 80s, it was all geared towards kids. They didn't bother putting in the high brow music or the complex humor since a significant portion of it would be lost on its main audience.

There is where the largest problem is. With the exception of the Simpsons, South Park, and some of the other more recent cartoons (Futurama, etc), the bulk of new cartoons are directed at the under 12 crowd.

Just my $.02, natch. Remember what you paid for it.

Roger -Dot- Lee, hell even Joe Camel's aimed at kids.

I like Road Runner!

Seriously, don't forget Family Guy and Space Ghost. Another intelligent bright-spot of cartoons was Animaniacs. Smart stuff there.

I obviously forgot to put in my standard disclaimer: not ALL cartoons since [x] date have been dreck.

Simply the vast majority.

I personally don't like Family Guy and I've never seen, nor have I ever heard of, Space Ghost.

The Animaniacs, however, I find myself in agreement 100%. Pinky and the Brain were also VERY well done cartoons. In fact, I preferred P/B over Animaniacs, and that was a VERY tough call.

Roger -Dot- Lee "I think so, Brain, but isn't Regis Philbin already married?"

Now I agree wholeheartedly that the older cartoons were the best (save for Bugs' offensive wartime cartoons), especially "Good Morning Sam, good morning Ralph". However, there are a few recent ones to mention.

I like Spongebob. He's fairly queer, but it's clever as hell. And Rocket Power is awesome! Just trying to keep up with the kiddies.

My favorite post-looney tunes was "The Cowboys of Moo Mesa". This ran for three years about 7 or so yrs ago. It was awesome....cows on horses. Very clever writing. Love it! When I mention it I get blank stares. Has anyone seen this? (Don't say I am hallucinating I have some on tape haha). It's like the old show "Run Joe Run" with the Vietnam vet dog that had flashbacks (I'm not kidding). Same blank stares. Anyone?

:D

I think that was probably one of the best non-bugs set of characters they had. Between those two and the love-struck witch with the hairpins and the monster with the dynamite hair curlers, they were in their prime.



Maybe I just caught them on an off day. I can't recall being able to sit through more than 10 minutes of a SBSP episode. Too formulaic, I suppose.

Can't say I've ever heard of either one of those, but they sound like something that I'd be in histerics over. I'll see if I can find them on the Cartoon Network or something.

Roger -Dot- Lee

Run Joe Run.....
 

was real people (and a dog of course). Joe kept running away and his master kept looking for him. You know how in Kung Fu they had flashbacks? Same thing. The dog would flash back before he saved the day. A dark show, though.

Don't think he had to snatch any pebbles though:D

The C.O.W. Boys were on ABC. Ya like puns it's great...my favorite was hey calfpint!

http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet...s_of_Moo_Mesa/



Here's Run Joe Run:

http://www.70slivekidvid.com/rjr.htm

Enjoy!

My favorite Animaniacs characters were the Goodfeathers.

"Hey Pesto, you're a real optimist."

"I'm an optimist?"

"Yeah, you're an optimist."

"What are you saying? That I'm some sort of doctor here to check your vision for you?"

"No that's not what I'm saying. You're an optimist, you know."

"Are you saying that I'm here to write you a prescription for glasses? That I'm making a "spectacle" of myself? THAT'S IT!"



Also, from that classic Bugs era, let us not forget Foghorn Leghorn.

o.k., get the young guy outta here :D

rick, i swear i've never heard of those characters-
and i was a partner in downtown comics (indianapolis)
7 years ago!

sam and ralph are cool....
...and the 3 bears w/ the gigantic baby bear.

k

Animaniacs was an awesome show. I'm also a big fan of Batman: The Animated Series, which never dumbed itself down to appeal to kids. If you've got a chance, watch Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, which I consider one of the greatest movies of all time (animated or otherwise). It certainly blows the live-action Batman movies away.

Does anyone have any rubber walrus protectors?

R&S (first 2 seasons)