Release Date:

December 3, 1960

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

The characters are all music notes. A conductor note attempts to conduct a sheet of music playing “The Blue Danube”, but must recover a missing note who has gotten drunk from drinking from the sheet music of “Little Brown Jug”.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1480 and was released as a Looney Tune.

This is a very unusual cartoon in that musical notes are personified. Jones would attempt something similar in his 1965 Oscar-winning MGM cartoon “The Dot and the Line” (one of two non-Tom and Jerry cartoons he made there along with the 1967 cartoon “The Bear That Wasn’t”).

The title refers to “ending on a high note” or a high note being played. The drunk note in this cartoon is also referred to as High Note (or “High” for short, so that’s what I’m referring to him as), as in someone getting a high from drinking, due to it releasing dopamine (though again, it’s actually been cartoons that taught me getting drunk is not fun at all, which is a major reason why I avoid alcohol).

The cartoon was nominated for an Academy Award.

The notes’ heads are the bottom part while their feet are the upper part.

The cartoon is in the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons book.

There is no dialogue in this cartoon, not counting Mel Blanc’s “hiccup” effect being used for High’s drunkenness.

William Butler did the backgrounds for this one alongside Philip DeGuard.

Ken Harris and Richard Thompson are the only animators on this cartoon.

Favorite Scene:

The ending scene where High is not only missing again, but also all of the notes supposed to be played after him. They’ve all gotten drunk themselves at “Little Brown Jug”.

What Happens in This One:

One music note stands up and pulls the words “The Blue Adnube” across the screen. Seeing that the latter word doesn’t look right, this note switches the first two letters in it so it now properly says “The Blue Danube”. The bars for the sheet music are set up like wire fences, one of which falls down at one point, so the note gets it into place by bobbing itself up and down on the far right end of its bar (animated by Richard Thompson).

After all the bars are set up, another note on a scaffolding paints “Tempo di Valse” and goes back up before a smaller note puts a translation sign under it “Waltz Tempo”. Two more notes carry a springy pole with a hook on the end, which they form into the treble clef and put it in its place. Yet another note carries a bucket of symbols on its head, which it forms into two sharps, a 3 and a 4. The 4 falls down as this note walks away so it has to place the 4 back properly. One note is hammering in a bar line like a stake and accidentally hits the hand of the note holding it down. The second note jumps around in pain and angrily pounds the first note into the bar, giving the first note a lump. Another note drives a tractor forklift to put the brace in its position. After a last note throws in some more symbols, the conductor note taps its podium with its baton, to which the notes all run to get into their proper spaces (animated by Thompson).

The piece starts to play as normal but one is discovered to be missing as all of the notes look at the empty spot in confusion. The conductor hears a hiccup and turns around to see High emerging from the sheet music of “Little Brown Jug” drunk. With a red “head” to signify his drunkenness, High staggers away from “Little Brown Jug” and over to the “Blue Danube” sheet music. High then passes a sharp and uses it as a tic-tac-toe board before the conductor starts to go down after him (animated by Ken Harris).

High sits on a semibreve like it’s an egg and it hatches numerous baby notes which chirp like newborn birds. He then trips after beginning to stagger away from the hatched semibreve. Tapping its foot in annoyance, the conductor walks down the notes as High uses a brace as stairs. He whistles to a quarter rest, which turns into a dog. High pats it on the head and has it fetch an inanimate music note like a stick. It ends up hitting the conductor right in the face and causing it to fall down on its back. The quarter rest “dog” runs over the conductor’s “stomach”, before the conductor gets up and runs across the bar. High staggers on the bar below with the brace he steps on bending down as he descends (animated by Harris).

The conductor hears the noise of High having gotten tangled up in the brace and runs towards him. High gets himself out of it by moving around in a certain way, which ends up turning the brace into a coat hanger. He then snaps his “finger” and continues staggering off. The conductor slides down the far left of the bar while High uses another inanimate note to balance atop the bar he’s walking across. By the time, the conductor arrives, he only ends up catching the note as the bar flings High into the air, to which the conductor throws down the note in annoyance (animated by Harris).

High ends up laying in the “U” in “Danube” and then hanging from it by his “feet”. He then climbs across the “B” and “E” in the word and jumps off a crescendo like a diving board. High lands on two tie notes which he uses to ski down a ramp-like tremolo and then across a longer tie note. High goes flying off and lands on a beamed note, which acts like a horse with High riding it. The conductor gets on a beamed note “horse” of its own to pursue High and uses a treble clef like a lasso. After a chase across the bar, High falls off of it, but the conductor manages to catch High by his “foot” (animated by Harris).

High is put back into his proper place and held by his “feet” via a clothespin. The conductor starts the piece again, but not only is High missing once more, but so are all of the other notes following him. Startled by multiple hiccups coming from behind him, the conductor turns around and sees that all of these other notes have also gotten hammered from “Little Brown Jug”. The camera pans over to the left where High is seen slightly emerging out of the sheet music for “How Dry I Am”. He puts the word “We” over “I” and gives out a final hiccup before the cartoon fades out (animated by Thompson).

Where Can I Watch It?

At toontales.net!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕