Gather round, children, and let me tell you how a Disney cartoon, The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met, ruined my life. It’s a tale of childhood trauma, operatic cetaceans, and the day I learned that the world was unbearably cruel.
My Haunted Childhood
We all have childhood memories that stick with us. Here are some of mine:
- An episode of Doctor Who around 1970 that left me too scared to watch the show again until 1987.
- Ring of Bright Water, which freaked me out more than I care to admit.
- That time I went to the wrong cinema in Florence… never mind, let’s move on.
Nothing—and I mean nothing, not even the Daleks—traumatised me quite like the Disney cartoon The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met. To say it scarred me for life would be an understatement. It’s no wonder my parents never dared take me to see Bambi.
The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met: Title
This is a simple title. It’s literally a cartoon about a whale who wants to sing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. They lure you in, making you think it’ll be a heartwarming tale. The fiends.
(For more on titles, see How to Choose a Title For Your Novel)
The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met: Logline
When a talented whale tries to pursue his dream of singing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, his extraordinary ability attracts a prejudiced opera director who sets out to murder him.
(For how to write a logline, see The Killogator Logline Formula)
The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met: Synopsis
Willie, a whale blessed with an incredible operatic voice, dreams of singing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York.
When rumours of a singing whale reach the city, they catch the attention of Tetti-Tatti, an opera director with the open-mindedness of a clam. Instead of recognising Willie’s talent, Tetti-Tatti bizarrely concludes that the whale must have swallowed not one, not two, but three opera singers, because that’s obviously more likely than someone who doesn’t look like him having any talent. Tetti-Tatti goes on a rescue mission. With a harpoon. Because that’s what you take on a rescue mission, right?
Excited by the newspaper headlines about Tetti-Tatti’s seafaring expedition, Willie’s seagull friend Whitey encourages Willie to showcase his talent. Naively, Willie agrees and swims out to meet his supposed admirer. Willie launches into one of his favourite arias, hoping to impress the great man and be escorted to New York in triumph.
Well, that doesn’t work. The crew loves Willie’s voice, but Tetti-Tatti is blinded by his prejudice and breaks out the harpoon.
What follows is a heartbreaking chase, with Tetti-Tatti pursuing Willie while his more open-minded crew members try to restrain him, captivated by the whale’s beautiful singing.
The story then jumps to show Willie as a star of the Met. We see him performing in various operas, with even Tetti-Tatti finally recognising his talent. But just as hope blooms, reality brings everything crashing back down. Tetti-Tatti harpoons Willie, killing him and silencing his magnificent voice forever.
In a final, desperate attempt to console us, the narrator claims Willie’s voice lives on in heaven, more beautiful than ever. Because nothing soothes childhood trauma like the idea of being murdered and going to heaven, apparently.
(For more on summarising stories, see How to Write a Novel Synopsis)
The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met: Analysis
Plot
The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met has an On The Run plot (see Spy Novel Plots) specifically a Straight Run.
The ‘Straight Run’ Plot
The Protagonist:
- Is involved in an Inciting Incident with a group of Antagonists.
- Realises they are not safe from the Antagonists.
- Is also not safe from the authorities, as they are tricked or controlled by the Antagonists.
- Goes on the run, pursued by both the Antagonists and the authorities.
- Involves one or more Allies in their escape (Optionally, there is a romance sub-plot with one of the Allies).
- Narrowly avoids capture and death (or is captured and escapes) by both the Antagonists and the authorities.
- Persuades the authorities they should work together to stop the Antagonists.
- Confronts the Antagonists and stops (or fails to stop) them.
High Concept
I have to admit, The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met has a great high concept: Moby-Dick meets America’s Got Talent. How could it possibly go wrong?
Well, how about a sick lurch into the brutal murder of the protagonist? Yep, that should do it.
Themes
Looking back on The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met with adult eyes, it’s clear that this seemingly simple cartoon has layers of messaging:
- Don’t Follow Your Dreams: Willie’s journey represents the universal human desire to follow our passions, no matter how impossible they may seem. His determination to sing at the Met, despite being a whale, speaks to the audacity of dreaming big. His murder speaks of the impossibility of achieving your dreams. Aim lower, kids.
- Be Prejudiced: Tetti-Tatti’s character embodies the joys of narrow-mindedness and prejudice. Does his inability to accept that a talented would-be immigrant could be a blessing to his country remind you of anything?
- The World is a Brutal Hellhole: Willie, an innocent creature of the sea who wants only to achieve his dream, represents the clash between hope and reality. Tetti-Tatti embodies the fact that the world destroys everything it doesn’t understand, and the conflict resolves through violence, showing how a beautiful song is no match for a pointy stick.
- Don’t Be Yourself: Willie’s exceptional talent leads to his demise. He pays the ultimate price for his superiority over the entrenched mediocrity around him. Don’t stand out or you’ll get harpooned, in other words.
- We’re All Going to Die: The cartoon’s attempt to soften Willie’s death by having him “sing in heaven” introduces young viewers to the concept of an afterlife and gives them an early dose of existential dread, an important life lesson.
Psychological Impact on Children
The trauma I experienced from this cartoon raises important questions about the psychological impact of media on young children:
- Emotional Processing: Or lack thereof. My young brain tried to accept Willie’s fate and ended up with the emotional equivalent of a blue screen of death. To say the least, I did not have the emotional tools to process a narrative that abruptly shifted from triumphant success to sudden death.
- Introduction to Mortality: Nothing says “welcome to the concept of death” like a harpooned whale. This might serve as a welcome early introduction to the brutal realities of life in… oh, I don’t know… Nazi Germany? Putin’s Russia?
- Trust No-one: If an anthropomorphic whale can’t approach a boat full of humans without being brutally murdered, who can you trust? The world was suddenly a darker and more dangerous place than I realised.
- Cognitive Dissonance: Willie’s singing in heaven now! But he’s dead! But he’s happy! But he’s dead! But… brain explodes.
The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met: Cultural Context
It’s worth noting that The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met was created in 1946. The complex mixture of postwar optimism and the lingering trauma of a devastated generation may explain why someone, somewhere, thought making this cartoon was a good idea.
The Impact: A Lifelong Hatred of Injustice
This cinematic classic didn’t just upset me; it fundamentally altered me. I’m convinced it’s the root of my bitter, lifelong struggle against all forms of injustice. One moment, I was cheering for Willie as he swam towards his dream in New York. The next, the harsh reality of death at the hands of ignorance and prejudice confronted me. Disney promised me a trip to SeaWorld, but I ended up at a fish processing factory.
The emotional whiplash was intense, and the cartoon’s attempt at a happy ending with Willie singing in heaven did nothing, nothing I tell you, to soften the blow. Instead, it left me with a profound sense of unfairness that has stayed with me to this day. I also developed a fear of both opera and large bodies of water, and to this day, I have been unable to watch either Free Willy or Free Willy 2: The Adventure Home.
While Disney may have intended The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met as a bittersweet tale about following your dreams to the end, for a young viewer like me, it was simply devastating. The stark contrast between Willie’s joyful pursuit of his passion and his tragic end was too much to bear.
I cried for days.
I’m not joking—ask my mum.
This cartoon has haunted me my entire life. And while it undoubtedly made me the man I am, I can’t help but wonder if there weren’t better ways to teach children about disappointment, unfairness and the necessity of fighting injustice in all its forms.
My Verdict
Show this evil cartoon to your children at your peril. You have been warned.
Want to Watch it? Are you Crazy?
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