Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom
1953 film directed by Ward Kimball and Charles August Nichols
Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom is an educational Adventures in Music animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions, and originally released to theaters by Buena Vista Distribution on November 10, 1953. A sequel to the first Adventures in Music cartoon, the 3-D short Melody, Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom is a stylized presentation of the evolution of the four orchestra sections over the ages with: the brass ("toot"), the woodwind ("whistle"), the strings ("plunk"), and the percussion ("boom").
- Directed by Ward Kimball and Charles August Nichols. Produced by Walt Disney. Story by Dick Huemer.
Dialogue edit
- Professor Owl: Today, we're going to study about...
- Student 1: Ancient history?
- Suzy Sparrow: Love and mystery?
- Penelope Pinfeather: Mathematics?
- Students: Acrobatics?
- Readin'? Spellin'?
- Bertie Birdbrain: Storytellin'?
- Professor Owl: No! No! No!
- The study of musical instruments is the subject for today.
- The Canary Sisters: [singing] The study of musical instruments
- Is the subject for today!
- Professor Owl: Did you ever stop to think
- When the band plays "rink-a-tink"
- where all the music comes from?
- From a Toot, and a Whistle, and a Plunk, and a Boom.
- Students: That's where the music comes from!
- Professor Owl: Did you ever understand
- That a symphony so grand
- So bright yet sentimental...
- The Canary Sisters: That a toot, and a whistle, and a plunk, and a boom...
- Students: Are very instrumental.
- For the horns go "toot"
- The woodwinds "whistle"
- The strings go "plunk-plunk", too.
- Then the drums "boom boom"
- With a "bing-zing-zoom"
- And it comes out fine and true.
- Professor Owl: So remember what I say
- When the band begins to play
- Just where the music comes from.
- Students: From a [toot] and a [whistle] and a [plunk] and a [boom].
- That's where the music comes from!
- Professor Owl: Now, students, fly with me to the dawn of history, where we'll start investigating the toot and the whistle and the plunk and the boom. It's very stimulating. [A picture of a monkey appears on his screen, and he realizes he went too far.] Whoops! [He rolls the screen back to the drawing of four cavemen.] Okay, boys. You're on!
- Professor Owl: When a caveman blew from an old cow's horn, right then and there, the first toot was born.
- Professor Owl: When this caveman blew on a tube of grass, the very first whistle came to pass. In order to make his cavegirl smile, he had to change his whistle's style. [The caveman adds four holes to his grass, playing four tones.] And when he saw he was doing fine, he added more holes... about eight or nine. [The caveman adds more holes and plays his flute with his hands and feet, but another caveman bonks the cavewoman on the head and drags her away.] By using his head instead of his feet, some genius found some way to beat this problem in a manner neat.
- Professor Owl: When our third caveman plucked on the string of his bow, it was the very first plunk, as far as we know.
- Students: [singing] First you take the bow
- And some time later
- Add a little jug
- To make a resonator.
- Add a few strings.
- Listen how it rings.
- Change the jug to a box of wood.
- Slide the box down...
- Ah, pretty good!
- Add a few pegs
- To tune it fine and sharp
- Change the shape a little,
- Now it looks like a harp!
- Professor Owl: And from here, there are two ways you can go. You can either plunk it... or play it with a bow.
- Professor Owl: From our last caveman, with his rhythmic slap, came all sorts of things that click or tap. Came rattles... bells... and, we presume, all instruments that go "boom".
Voice cast edit
- Bill Thompson as Professor Owl / Bertie Birdbrain (uncredited)
- Loulie Jean Norman as Penelope Pinfeather (uncredited)
- Charlie Parlato as Chorus Singer (uncredited)
- Gloria Wood as Suzy Sparrow (uncredited)
- The Mellomen as Singing Group (uncredited)
