i recently finished reading the cartoon music book. the book for the most part is a great read for those of us interested in the music used in cartoons. especially nice are the interviews with carl stalling and hoyt curtain. the only drawback being they are way too brief, but when you are dealing with people who have passed on, i'll take what i can get. the details behind the early disney cartoons was pretty fascinating as well as the story on how fantasia came about and some of the techniques used.

when they got into more recent cartoons i'm not sure what i think. they interview the people responsible for the music in animaniacs. but when animaniacs came out i wasn't very impressed. any show where they feel the need to make characters talk like stupid little kids is a big turn off for me. so not liking the show(maybe i'd feel different seeing it today, but i'm not so sure), i have no real memory of the music. after reading this i'm curious to hear the music, it could very well be something i'd end up loving.

they interview mark mothersbaugh, who i've always sort of respected from his work with devo. but some of the projects he's been involved with makes me wonder what he was thinking. of course when i don't like something, i usually don't pay attention to the music unless it's exceptional. unfortunately most current film and cartoon soundtracks are not very interesting.

the book is mainly about american cartoons. but they do have one chapter on japanese anime. this is good as they mention akira, cowboy bebop and even name drop some of my favourite artists from the 90s(pizzicato five, fantastic plastic machine, & united future organization). they don't really touch older anime which is a real shame as the music is often better than most of the soundtracks put out today. but the major omission is that there isn't a single mention of lupin the third or yuji ohno. for me this is like talking about american cartoon music and failing to even mention carl stalling.