Cartoon Music: Straight, or Silly?

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Hi everybody. I'm making a cartoon, and I'm not sure how to score it, so I I want your opinions on cartoon music. The humour in my cartoon is frequently deadpan, and I'm on the fence about whether to keep it always straight 'dramatic' music, or to use more silly music for the punchlines, like Richard Stone's music for the silver age Warner Bros cartoons.

Personally I think the constant 'hitting you over the head', "this is the joke! laugh!" mickey-mousing can be a little irritating, but sometimes it can be helpful to make it clear that something is intentionally funny. Some viewers actually do seem to find it funnier with the xylophone hits for eyeblinks, trumpet "wahs" at the punchlines, etc.
I'm leaning towards keeping the music 'straight', because I agree with Alf Clausen (the Simpsons composer)'s perspective that it makes the joke funnier. It also seems a little more sophisticated, to me. If I do that, I will probably stop the music for some of the jokes, anyway -- as in, it won't be wall-to-wall music under the whole cartoon.

What are your opinions?
 
Hmm, depends what your latest cartoon is like - is it gonna be adventerous and/or comical with a bit o' "squash and stretch" here and there? Be interesting to hear a bit more about your latest work. :)

I personally like it when the music is suited to the character's movements onscreen; something between Milt Franklyn and Scott Bradley of the Golden Age, for crashes and walks, mostly. Eye blinks and other minory body actions seem a bit useless. Perhaps take a few other familar tunes if you wish to suit the setting on-screen (For instance, "I'm a Cowboy" for a Western Scene, "Whistle While You Work" for a cheerful mood, etc).

"Straight" music, IMO, is suited for dramatic works. I've seen your work, mate, and I say go for the cartoony stuff. The bouncier the better :D
 
Wow, you're actually scoring it yourself? That's pretty impressive. I just grab iMovie music and slap appropriate-sounding tunes over the action. If you don't mind my asking, how are you going to score it? Garage Band or something?

Anyway, it really depends on the cartoon. If it's dialog heavy, it may actually be beneficial not to have any music except at a few points. I mean, I doubt The Simpsons would be as funny if it had music accentuating every joke. But for gag-heavy outings, some Carl Stalling-esque music would be best, I think.

(BTW, I didn't realize you made cartoons. I saw your thread in the Drawing Board just now and I'll watch it after work. Good to have more animators here. :) )
 
Thanks! Yeah, I'm hoping to pursue animation as a career. My dream job would pretty much be to work on a TV show (not necessarily my own, although that would certainly be fun). I'm doing a co-op education internship thing starting in a couple of weeks with a local animation studio, as well as doing various personal animation projects.

To score my cartoons, I use Audacity, the DeeSampler for the percussion parts and a fairly cheap keyboard for everything else. I might rent a better one soon. I enjoy the music part just as much as the animation part, and I'd probably enjoy doing that as a career too if the animation thing doesn't work out. Ideally I could do a little bit of both.:D I don't think I'm good enough to do either professionally, yet though.
 
Depends on the mood and setting-if you want to be serious-use straight. Something frenetic and random or comedic use silly.
If you want to heighten drama use straight.
 
Well that's the thing-- I find that a lot of the time, 'silly' cartoony music cam sort of ruin the comedy in a scene, by making it TOO over-the-top and goofy. I think the funny joke or whatever is often better served by everything around it being played serious.

I'm trying to figure out whether most people would agree with that or not.
 
Personally, I'm not really a fan of typical "cartoon music". e.g., the wacky, 'squash-'n'-stretch' music with the corny musical stings and the like, unless the cartoon itself is in the old-school theatrical cartoon style where that type of music would be appropriate. My feeling is if the humor is strong, then it doesn't need to punctuated by over-the-top wacky music.
 
As long as the music is in the right place at the right time.Yeah,it's fine.People don't ever really notice the b/g music,but it helps with the storytelling.
 
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