Classic Shorts Showcase: The Whale Who Wanted To Sing At The Met

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and back to Classic Shorts  Showcase and today, we are taking a look at what I think has to be one of the best shorts from  Disney canon. Today,  we are taking  a look  at one of  the most  well-known shorts from Make Mine Music as we take at  The Whale  Who Wanted To Sing At The Met.   With that out of the way, let's begin.



The  Plot


News  have  broken of a whale that can sing opera and  all of the papers  such as Variety are reporting it  and no one believes it.   Scientists are debating it.  And news  soon  gets  to  Opera Imperasio  Tetti-Tatti  and  he comes to the conclusion that the whale  must've swallowed  an opera singer and goes out there to save the opera singer.

So,  he hires  some  sailors  and  takes a  boat  out there to  harpoon the whale,  we soon  meet  the whale,  Willie  as  his friend,  Whitey   takes  the reports  of  his discovery  to  his friend.

Willie   goes  off to be discovered   and auditions  for Tetti-Tatti,  not knowing the real reason, why  he was here.   Willie  sang  his heart out  and impressed  the  sailors  that Tetti Tatti  had  hired and three  different  times,  they stop  him from harpooning the whale  and  Willie   gets  so wrapped  up  in singing that he soon  imagines  himself  singing on the stage of the Met and having  become a big star and singing  to  a sold out house almost every night.

Tetti-Tatti  had  thought  that  Willie  had swallowed three  singers as  Willie  could sing in three  different styles and this  only  made  things more dim for  poor Willie as  Tetti Tatti  became even more determined to save  non existent opera singers and harpooned Willie himself and thus killing the poor whale and sending him off to Heaven but  Willie  finally got his dream to sing for a sold out house as the closing shot was the gates of Heaven with  a Sold Out Sign.

But  never fear,  Willie  later  appeared in two Mickey Mouse shorts.

All in all, this was a very good short and  showed just how dark, Disney was willing to go back in the day as this short doesn't  really have a happy ending because our main character is killed off and not because if hate or malice but  because of a misunderstanding as Tetti-Tatti didn't think that a whale could actually sing like that.


Narration


Narrator - Nelson Eddy


Nelson Eddy  did a great  job of narrating this short  and bring the characters to life. Which helps as he voiced all of the characters along with providing the narration and that is no easy feat but Nelson Eddy  did a superb job.



Characters

Main Character

Willie The Whale voiced by Nelson Eddy

I really like Willie as he was talented and he just wanted to sing and share his talent with the world but alas it was not meant to be as  Willie  met an untimely demise at the hands of a human, who could not understand the talent, he saw before him.



Supporting Characters

Whitey  voiced by Nelson Eddy

Now,  while  I liked Whitey after helping his friend be discovered and find his audition,  he didn't do much but I do like how in Willie's dream sequences that Whitey was always there for him.



Sailors voiced by Nelson Eddy

The sailors were really funny and it was clear unlike Tetti-Tatti that knew the talent of  Willie and were trying to protect him as they wanted to hear the whale sing.

Antagonist

Tetti-Tatti  voiced by Nelson Eddy

Tetti-Tatti was a misguided soul as he thought that Willie  couldn't have been the talent, he saw before him and alas took his life.  If  he had just  realized that Willie could be that talented, the world would've had a new talent.

My Final Thoughts

All in all, this was a great short and one that I highly say is worth checking out.   You will not be disappointed, if  you decide to watch this short. Peace!