{"id":87390,"date":"2024-10-15T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T07:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=87390"},"modified":"2024-10-12T21:15:50","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T04:15:50","slug":"a-musical-up-roar-1945-47","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/a-musical-up-roar-1945-47\/","title":{"rendered":"A Musical Up-Roar: 1945-47"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the period covered by these cartoons, the Second World War came to an end. This did not stop the writers from finding new situations for Tom, Jerry, Droopy, et al. Barney Bear was on hiatus, but would return in the near future. The Oscar nominations and victories were coming to the studio thick and fast, including wins for \u201cQuiet Please\u201d and \u201cThe Cat Concerto\u201d (neither of which contribute new melodies for this post). The award that had been exclusively Disney\u2019s was for a short time becoming exclusively MGM\u2019s. <\/p>\n

\"\"Backtracking slightly from last week, we first take a detour from the short subjects, to supply much deserved recognition for Hanna and Barbera\u2019s contribution to the first MGM musical to integrate live action and in-house animation – Anchors Aweigh<\/strong> (7\/19\/45). (The first MGM picture to incorporate animation was \u201cHollywood Party\u201d, but the animation was not a produced by the studio, but licensed, prominently displayed on the credits, from Walt Disney. \u201cThe Wizard of Oz\u201d was planned to be first, but its \u201cJitterbug\u201d number was cut before animation was filmed, so far as we know. One can only wonder who would have drawn this assignment – Hugh Harman? Rudolf Ising? Friz Freleng? Or would they again have farmed out the work to Disney, as some studio execs are rumored to have considered doing in the case of Gene Kelly\u2019s number here?) The film features Gene narrating to school children a fantastic tale as to how he received a medal on his uniform. He attributes it to his days serving in the Pomeranian navy, where, during a shore leave, he wanders into a painted kingdom, singing and playing a flute. Animated woodland creatures all repeatedly shush him, and Gene learns from a wise owl that this kingdom has a law forbidding singing and dancing. Gene finds this to be a terrible law, and demands to see the king. He is directed to a castle on the horizon, where the king resides in seclusion. <\/p>\n

\"\"In sped-up action, Gene races to the palace up a winding road in a matter of a few seconds. Peering in a tower window, he discovers of all people, monarch Jerry Mouse, sitting on a real-life plush royal throne, and wearing a small crown. Jerry sits despondent ad sulking, while royal servant Tom the cat provides a walk-on cameo, offering Jerry a regal dinner o n a tray, which Jerry dismisses without appetite, shooing the not-surprised Tom away. Gene surprises Jerry, and brings up the subject of the terrible law. \u201cI hadda\u201d, explains Jerry, noting that a king has to be able to do anything his subjects do, only better – posing a problem, as he can neither sing nor dance. Gene insists that anyone can perform these talents, provided they\u2019re not cranky, grumpy and gloomy. He offers to teach Jerry if the mouse promises to try being happy. The result is a now-legendary duet dance between the unlikely toe-tapping partners, with remarkable choreography, effects, and eye-catching, laugh-getting tricks, set to the original tune \u201cThe Worry Song.\u201d The song received only one commercial recording, on a release by Gene in the children\u2019s catalog of Columbia records entitled \u201cThe King Who Couldn\u2019t Dance\u201d. A soundtrack version would eventually surface in the CD days. Needless to say, Gene receives his medal, pinned on his chest by Jerry himself. It is notable that the release date of this feature suggests its appearance right on the heels of the release of \u201cMouse in Manhattan\u201d, suggesting not only that it may have played with such short in some houses, providing audiences with a double-dose of Jerry dancing in the same program, but suggesting that the short was produced in the wake of the longer-planned feature project, and probably directly inspired by the feature\u2019s effort to present Jerry as a self-standing musical star.<\/p>\n