'Toon Reviews 14: Animaniacs Vol 1 Part 17: Roll Over Beethoven/The Cat and the Fiddle

Episode 17

Roll Over Beethoven

In this cartoon, the Warners once again encounter another historical figure and end up helping him come up with one of his greatest accomplishments.  This time around it’s Beethoven who’s trying to come up with his 5^th symphony, and as a music lover, I would be very excited about this setup. 

However, it saddens me to say that unlike other historical figures the siblings have encountered, Beethoven doesn’t have much likability to want him to make his discovery, and that’s a problem when you consider how much of a popular classical composer he is.  His pieces are some of the most loved of all time, so it’s not a good fit to see such a condescending self-proclaiming jerky interpretation of him.  I suppose it’s believable for him to be written this way given the quality of his work, but he needs to be felt some sympathy if the Warners are going to end up helping him, and this portrayal of him just doesn’t provide any. 

All that said, when the Warners do show up as chimneysweeps intending to clean his chimney, they make the whole stay with Beethoven pleasurable with their great brand of cartoon humor as they mine his environment and everything he says for any joke or funny occurrence possible.  It’s also another good opportunity to get humorous moments out of the individual Warners.  Dot plays dumb about Beethoven’s music and ends up giving a perfect performance, and later pops out of nowhere in a sexy dress to seduce Beethoven with a moving lounge number.  Wakko’s big humorous moment involves a play on how Beethoven was deaf when he attempts to play music with Beethoven’s ear trumpet, finds out that it’s been in his ear, and then all the Warners give a witty remark on how putting things in your ear makes you go deaf.  Yakko stands out the most through countless level-headed comeback lines to Beethoven’s rants, even going so far as to mock him behind his back.  His most impressive and memorable moment is when he takes offense whenever Beethoven calls himself a “pianist” and goes to great lengths to wash his mouth out. 

There’s also a constant running gag where the Warners hum a certain tune that should be familiar to those who know Beethoven’s 5^th, which in the end turns out to be an effective play on getting a song stuck in your head.  Even if the Warners are technically annoying, they continue to not seem that way as everything they do produces genuine laughs made even better by an unlikable figure like Beethoven.  Their humorous ways are even put to great use when Beethoven goes way too far by trying to KILL them through trapping them in the chimney with a roaring fire at the bottom.  It’s a moment way too dark to be on a show like this, so it’s great that it’s capped off by them showing up behind Beethoven when he’s not expecting it thus lightening the disturbing tone. 

The payoff to the Warners’ encounter isn’t all that great though since they just leave him while shrugging off his mean-spirited ways after he kicks them out.  It’s not even easy to care for Beethoven when he ends up with his 5^th symphony based on what the Warners were humming.  At least we get an interesting look at how the Warners show up in different time periods as we end with them picking a sunflower as they head off to do Van Gough’s chimney in a whole other era. 

Despite being bogged down by an unsympathetic Beethoven and certain uncomfortable moments, this is a cartoon worth coming back to showing that even in their weakest material, the Warners are always in top form when it comes to comedy. 8/10

The Cat and the Fiddle

Cartoons starring Rita and Runt stand out from others in the series for their showy tone and play on emotions. 

We even get a great sense of this idea when they first appear in this cartoon with Rita singing perhaps her most beautiful song in the series with a moving tune and Bernadette Peters’ masterful singing talents investing you in Rita’s hopes for her and her canine companion to find a home.  However, even these characters can’t always escape comedic antic-driven cartoons which this cartoon quickly becomes. 

The strays’ search for a home leads them to the home of a famous violin-maker, Antonio Stradivarius.  Much like the last cartoon we discussed, this depiction of a historical music figure is unlikable which is disturbing given that he’s an accomplished artist known for all time, at least to those who are into violins.  In fact, instead of simply being a jerk, Stradivarius is a downright diabolical villain who delights in killing cats to use their guts to make violin strings.  It is somewhat acceptable in this cartoon’s context since we’re never intended to sympathize with Stradivarius, but he’s a one-dimensional and frankly creepy antagonist certainly not helped by even more weak Freelance animation.  He’s thinking completely seriously about murdering Rita and is happy with how villainous he is.  This portrayal would be better if there was a comedic edge to his character so that he’d be a more enjoyable one-dimensional villain, but he isn’t funny at all, leaving us nothing to enjoy about him and making it all the more frustrating to spend most of the runtime with him. 

At least Rita and Runt are utilized fairly well for the most part.  While Rita is easily sold on Stradivarius’ gestures to get her into his home, she does show a clear suspicion of his true intentions, though I don’t understand why she would push Runt to join her.  However, she does spend most of the cartoon seduced by a ball of yarn, making her forget her suspicions.  It makes sense for this to happen since she’s a cat and all, but this cartoon still ends up not being a good showing for Rita’s character. 

Runt, on the other hand, is portrayed much better.  It’s completely believable for him to not sense Stradivarius’ villainous intentions, right down to happily chasing after a ball used to get him away from Rita.  That’s where most of this cartoon’s enjoyment comes from.  There are so many different ways Stradivarius tries to get Runt out of his sight, some going as extreme as using a canon to fire the ball a long distance.  However, it’s always amusing to see Runt get it every time, thus prolonging Stradivarius’ heinous act.  It’s a fine example of how to use dumb characters properly instead of solely as joke characters who don’t do anything productive, even if Runt doesn’t realize what he’s doing. 

These antics stop when Runt ends up ruining Stradivarius’ violin supplies and he kicks him and Rita out, despite the fact that he can still use her for strings without the dog.  It’s only then where the cartoon goes back to being showy with a reprise of the opening song, and since it’s so great, I welcome it as a nice way to end the cartoon. 

In spite of the likability of the protagonists we follow with Rita’s moving ballad and the good use of Runt’s simple-mindedness, the boring, unentertaining, and all around creepy antagonist holds the cartoon back.  What we have is still good, but it makes it clear that Rita and Runt truly work better when playing on one’s emotions than starring in comedic adventures. 7/10

Cartoon Ranking

1. King Yakko
2. Hello Nice Warners
3. Slappy Goes Walnuts
4. H.M.S. Yakko
5. Hooked on a Ceiling
6. Temporary Insanity
7. Bumbie’s Mom
8. Les Miseranimals
9. Space Probed
10. West Side Pigeons
11. Battle for the Planet
12. When Rita Met Runt
13. De-zanitized
14. Win Big
15. Taming of the Screwy
16. Chalkboard Bungle
17. La La Law
18. Piano Rag
19. Cookies for Einstein
20. The Big Candy Store
21. Garage Sale of the Century
22. Wally Llama
23. Where Rodents Dare
24. Roll Over Beethoven
25. Hurray for Slappy
26. Cat on a Hot Steel Beam
27. Operation: Lollipop
28. No Pain No Painting
29. Goodfeathers: The Beginning
30. The Cat and the Fiddle
31. La Behemoth

Song Ranking

1. Yakko’s Universe
2. Yakko’s World
3. The Monkey Song
4. What Are We?
5. Little Old Slappy from Pasadena

Miscellaneous Ranking

1. The Great Wakkorotti: The Master and His Music
2. Gilligan’s Island Parody
3. Nighty-Night Toon
4. Flipper Parody

Be sure to stay tuned for the review of the next episode with three cartoons taking place in Russia with Pinky and the Brain's latest scheme thwarted by Pavlov's condition reflex experiments, the debut of Chicken Boo as a ballet star, and the Warners serving as dentists for Rasputin.

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