The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met

I saw WILLIE THE OPERATIC WHALE as a child on a Disney matinée with BAMBI...can you believe this? What were they trying to do to us? WILLIE is a superb Disney short about an opera singing whale who wants to be at the NY Met singing PAGLIACCI ...but really belongs at the bottom of the sea. Seeing him dressed in his clown outfit, pom poms and cone shaped hat and teardrop and all is just shattering for any child let alone the adult with him. I just cried and cried and then......what happens at the end is emotional scarring for life. I have never forgotten WILLIE also because we copped BAMBI 30 minutes later. I think the whole audience was washed from the Marina Theatre in 1962, in tears. WILLIE is part of a series of cartoons that just have to be on DVD soon. I will snap it up immediately! I did not know it was part of the "Jive version of Fantasia" pic called MAKE MINE MUSIC as that film was never seen after 1946, only the components of which WILLIE was the finale (Jeez!) and deserves a place all to itself maybe on a DVD with other sensational short Disney animations like DONALD IN MATHMAGICLAND and FERDINAND THE BULL. (Ferdinand is a bull who prefers to pick flowers instead of fighting.....believe it or not, as gay as all get out)!

This movie was interesting. When I first started watching it, i had no idea what was going to happen. Then it started getting good. It was ridiculous but thats half the fun of animation. The ending comes a big shock to all so get the tissues ready. The whale just couldn't fit in with the human world. No matter how wonderful his voice was. I think he would of been happier in the ocean with his seagull friend. Over all a pretty good cartoon.

As a tiny child, I liked this, but found it incredibly sad. Now, I still enjoy it, for many reasons. It is a fifteen minute cartoon to love and treasure. It has a fun, quite exciting storyline, cute Disney animation, good opera and the emotion and the warmness this creates in your heart are incredibly good as well.

The cartoon starts with newspaper headings - and continues with quite a few of these every now and again. Someone has heard someone singing way out to sea and eventually someone finds the singing is coming from a whale. The professors and ordinary people are baffled, until one scientist makes his last decision, an opera singer is stuck inside the whale. He goes out to try and find the whale, with interesting consequences...

Before you watch it, you should make sure you can cope with opera, if you closed your eyes and just listened to this cartoon, most of what you would hear is opera. That is one of the beautiful things about this cartoon. I also recommend this to people who like Disney things and to people who are passionate about cartoons. Enjoy "Willie the Operatic Whale"! :-)

P.S Another extraordinary thing about this is that all of the voices are done by one man, he does the narrating, the three kinds of opera and even some woman voices.

Originally part of the movie Make Mine Music, this cartoon was released later on its own as a theatrical short. This is a showcase for Nelson Eddy, who does the narration, voices of the characters, and all the singing. The story is about a whale named Willie that is heard singing by the crew of a ship at sea. As reports spread about Willie, opera impresario Tetti-Tatti is convinced the singing is actually coming from an opera singer the whale must have swallowed. He sets out to hunt and kill Willie to prove this. What follows is a bittersweet and somewhat allegorical story with a surprisingly dark end. It's a good cartoon with nice animation and impressive vocals from Eddy. Not sure how the ending will play for little ones, though.

When I was 8 or so, I used to watch Willie the Operatic Whale a lot and loved it. I am 17 now, and watching it again, brings back all those good memories. The cartoon is very short, but is so sweet and charming you can't help but like it. I absolutely love anything to do with classical music, and would love to train to be a singer in a few years time, and this cartoon was the one where I drew my inspiration from. The animation is really lovely considering it was made in 1946, especially Willie in heaven, and Nelson Eddy, from films such as the Chocolate Soldier, narrates with feeling and passion, and sang the soundtrack wonderfully. The story, is simple, about a whale who sings opera with three voices tenor, baritone and bass, and there are attempts to kill Willie, as people think he swallowed an opera singer, and in the end he does get killed and that was sad. The ending was really sad, seeing that seagull like that, made me want to reach into the television and hug him. I think the real star was the music, wonderful choices, from the hilarious Largo Al Factotum from Barber of Seville, Mephistopheles' terrifying aria from Mephistophele, the sextet from Lucia Di Lamemoor(a beautiful piece too) and a duet from Wagner's masterpiece Tristan and Isolde. Overall, a beautiful cartoon, that has made me appreciate classical music more over the years. 10/10 Bethany Cox.