Title - High Note
Director - Chuck Jones
Released - 1960
Interesting Fact -- Nominated for Academy Award for Best Short Subject, Cartoons
Reason for Placement --
This goes down as one of the most creative ideas ever put to pen and paper. A group of music notes come to life and create sheet music for the classic waltz, "The Blue Danube". However, one of the notes has stumbled into Joseph Winner's song "Little Brown Jug", has become intoxicated, and proceeds to run amok throughout the waltz, causing the conducting note to chase after him and get him back where he belongs in the song.
I've got to confess that, as an artist, this was probably the most inspirational cartoon I've ever seen; the idea of giving life to music notes and the way Jones and his team were able to create every-day objects out of musical symbols really helped jump-start my creativity and open my eyes to what could be done with art and animation.
I should also point out that when I got to junior high and joined the school band, I couldn't look at my sheet music without thinking of this cartoon. Some people might have just seen music notes, but for me, whole notes will always be eggs, sharps will always be tic-tac-toe boards, and quarter rests will always be dogs.
High Note, a classic cartoon that is, quite literally, music to everyone's eyes.
In 1985, the National Film Board of Canada released a similar seven-minute film called "Concerto Grosso Modo" -- often creative in its own right, but clearly inspired by Chuck's classic.
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