Ask Mike: Charlie Brown voices
Hey Guys,
As a kid growing up, I spent many a sunny afternoon parked in front of the TV, watching cartoons. One of my favorites (aside from “Thundercats”) was “Peanuts.” Granted ol’ Charlie Brown wasn’t on the air on a regular basis, but when he was, it was very exciting, almost like getting a visit from the Great Pumpkin.
While browsing Yahoo! Answers, I came across a question from “The Real Superman.” He wants to know why the adults in Peanuts cartoons speak in such a goofy manner. I set out to find an answer. Well, sort of. Truth be told, I actually answered a very similar question a few years ago for “Ask Yahoo!” But I felt this was important enough to merit another go-round.
The way I see it, there are two parts to this question. First, how are the adult voices made? And second, why do the grownups speak that way? Let’s tackle the how before the why.
According to several sources across the Web, including the Peanuts Video and Animation Page, the adult voices are made with a trombone and a plunger. The composer would direct the trombonist to ‘enunciate’ the teacher’s dialogue “as though it were a trombone riff.” The results were that now familiar “mwa mwa mwa” sound.
That’s the how, but what about the why? Is the fact that the adults speak gibberish a subversive comment on parent-child relationships? Is it a way to keep the focus on the kids, who were the stars of the show? Or is it just a funny gimmick? A page from Wikipedia hypothesizes that Charles Schulz probably intended “the Peanuts universe to be child-centric and child-based, reflecting typical childhood concerns, misconceptions, logic, etc.” That makes sense to me.
One final note: I did a little research and found out that one trombonist provided all the adult voices in the Charlie Brown cartoons. His name is Dean Hubbard and you can read more about him on the aptly named “Trombone Page of the World.”
Mwa mwa mwa mwa,
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Mike a big THANK YOU for this! I always loved Peanuts and you described precisely what it was like when the “Peanuts Specials” would air…if kids had Blackberries back then they would have put all meetings on HOLD just watch them! I subscribe to the idea of Charles Shultz wanting to focus in on the kids’ perspective as well. Thank you for expanding my Peanut’s universe with the expo on the trombonist!
I agree with your conclusions on it’s maintaining a child focus and perspective. Another factor is that in the written “Peanuts” comic strip, when the children would talk to the grown-ups, we would only hear their side of the conversation, and the entire conversation would be clear from what they said. That doesn’t translate well to an animated cartoon with audio though, and they needed to find a way to achieve the same effect. Hence, the now famous and beloved “Mwa, mwa, mwa, mwa, mwah!
ThunderCats is awesome
My favorite was Tygra.
Peanuts never interested me – i thought it was boring. But I always thought the adults voices were funny.
Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and dont come back) did not use trombone for many of the “grown up” voices.
I always loved Peanuts, seeing them in the comics and all their tv specials all apart of my memories as a kid. I didnt think there was anyone that remembered the ThunderCats. Its cool that others watched the same things and still smile every time.
chuck brown was and always will be the greatest childrens cartoons. if you don’t like ol’chuck you must not be a very happy person. what’s not to love about the little bald headed kid and his pal’s!!
Hi umm I know on the peanuts website that they might say the names of the peoples voices! well good luck and best wishes!
~ Sammy
Actually Mike, this started out because Charles Schulz never showed an actual adult in any of the Peanuts strips.
But the animation producers knew that being in a different medium (TV), they would have to do something to represent adults within the cartoons without going against what was already established, so…
“Mwa, mwa, mwa, mwah.”
Mike your the best
You know everything!
I dont even recall ever seeing an adult figure in the Peanuts or Charlie Brown Specials so merely hearing the wa wa wa wa’s seemed funny and appropriate.
Cute blog.
It was about kids. I always liked the Snoopy’s little bird friend’s ‘talk’. no actual words, but bits of lines or whatever. You just had to guess what he/she was saying. Cute comics.
They made it that noise to symbolize the kids not “paying attention” and just “not caring” enough to listen.
I think it was done for comedic effect: the way the “Peanut” character would always be looking up to a adult character whose upper face and body was out of frame, the wah-wah adult voice which made as much sense to the Peanuts character as it did to us.
Yes, the technique kept everything focused on the world of the child. And that’s what it was all about!
Charlie Brown was the greatest, I still have all the old paperback cartoon books they put out in the 60’s. I think you’re right about keeping the cartoon “child-centric”
“Let’s have a party with Charlie Brown and Snoopy
We can go dancing with Linus and Lucy
Let’s not go home yet, if we stick around maybe
that redhead girl will come and dance
with Charlie Brown!”
Thanks for finding out! I was always curious for the emphasis of why they would do that for the adults.
who r u mike you remind me of my dad he looooooves charlie brown when ever its on he has me watch it
I’m a big fan of Charles Schulz’s work and I always wondered that myself. I presumed correctly though the reasoning that the cartoons focused on children and their perceptions. I just did a little research myself and discovered that the cartoon strip is actually 6 years 2 months and 18 days older than I. The perpetual child Charlie Brown will be 59 years old October 2nd this year. That’s something to think about. OMG a fourth grader is older than me!?!
There was a special about this on ShowTime I think it was like a year ago. It was for the fact to keep it on the child-like side AND that’s kind’ve what we hear as children, gibberish.
I use that same method whenever my boss speaks to me-I put it Charlie Brown adult voice-wa-wa-wa and no matter what criticism he gives it makes it easier to bear. I also have the Charlie Brown holiday specials on DVD but still watch them when they come on television, complete with commercials. There was something special when you had to wait a whole year to see Charlie Brown, or The Wizard of Oz or any of the numerous specials.
is mike real?
A neighbor of mine used to be one of the voices of Josey & The Pussy Cats. She also was a mouskateer when she was a kid, back in the black and white days.
The voices were probably just random nameless people, but I’m sure you can find them listed SOMEWHERE. Try looking at IMDB.com at one of the Charlie Brown movies and you’ll probably find them.
well im 16 and i stll cherich cartoons
my friends mock at me most of the time
what should i do????
I have to agree with the conclusion about wanting the cartoon to be from a child’s viewpoint. On more than one occasion I have joked that all our daughter hears when I speak is “mwah, mwah, mwah.” Actually I was only half-joking.
Do you know when the last Charlie Brown strip was published? I am drawing some new ones (trying to keep to Schulz’s style and humour).
¡¡Oh,i love never ending Peanuts stories and …music!
p.s. ¡would love to see Charlie Brown in more strong and optimistic…position,of course,but,anyway,i love him with all my …support_feeling!
love,
Ella
all very stimulating and accurate responses…. HOWEVER… in the original peanuts cartoon adults were represented in a VERY distinct manner…. the first adult that mattered was Charlie Brown’s father… he was a barber and the impact of the father character was defining in the manner in which c.b. related to the world… his father was a pragmatist with a very practical job (people will always need haircuts)… and quite often c.b. would reflect on advice that his father had given him and how he related that advice to his personal experience in the modern world…this allowed for a humanist approach to information vis a vis experience which was the opposite of the experience of Linus which was the secondary figure in early ‘little folks’ cartoons (the title before ‘peanuts’) … snoopy would not become the secondary figure of importance until much later, when the parallels between reality and fantasy became the major focus of the strip. In earlier strips it was the mechanism of c.b. versus linus in philosophical arguments/discussions that gave the cartoon it’s viable edge. The second most important adult character in the ‘peanuts’ pantheon was Miss Othmar, the revered educator of Linus that was featured significantly in MANY strips. Linus had a romantic infatuation with his educator that lead to a great deal of very practical (and painful) information being relayed to Linus. IN BOTH CASES these adults were never revealed to the reader… the responses of the children characters relayed to the reader all of the information necessary to evoke the response of the reader (responses in which the reader identified with the emotional reactions of the character) and thus producing an emotional response in the reader.
The character of Linus was an emotional response to injustice… founded SOLIDLY in the teachings of the Bible.. ( Linus quotes scripture quite often in the ‘peanut’s’ library).., and the experience of Linus was based on truths that reveal themselves in reality whereas c.b. was the opposite…. realities that reveal themselves to be true through experience (often quite painful experience)…. both characters suffered deep emotional reactions to these painful truths, and the perfect antidote was snoopy, a character that denied painful truths by adopting a fantastic relationship with reality. All of this points to the representation of adults as being providers of information that affected the main characters deeply… BUT ONLY INASMUCH AS THESE CHARACTERS WERE REACTING….thus the reaction of the character is PARAMOUNT… and the information of the adult becomes secondary…. quite frankly, when you only have three panels to convey complex character development, you have to show reaction moreso than the setup…. the adults as represented in animated cartoons of said characters is simply an extension of what was written… the children characters response was what informed the audience, and a clever means of representing this was to make the adults voices an unheard (as unseen in the strip) means of communication. A very longwinded response, but accurate i believe in assessing the overall device which defined the way in which Schultz intended the relationship between adults and children to be manifested.
There was ONE episode were they had a adult talk normal and in normal view.In”What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?” As far as I know it was the only time this was done.
oops I meant to say the adults were featured in “Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and Don’t Come Back!!” It’s been years since I’ve seen it but still remember the part of the movie when the adults were speaking.
On the You’re a Bully Charlie Brown episode, taylor lautner plays the bully.
I don’t think anyone has raised the point that when adults talk (especially authority figures in large buildings) the ” mwa” is all some kids hear, or remember. It was so true for me!
To Soussou:
There is nothing wrong with cherishing cartoons/animation.
If you have not noticed, there are a lot of adults here and within the Comics/Animation thread who feel the same way.
I’m sure there are other things you and your friends don’t totally agree on, so if they can’t accept your feelings about cartoons, that is something they will have to come to terms with, not you.
I always thought it was because when parents tell their kids to do something, all they here is “Ma ma ma ma ma” =)
I’ve always loved the Peanuts’ comic strips. My favorite special featuring the Peanuts’ gang is Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (and don’t come back). That’s a movie i can watch over and over again! I love the Snoopy and Woodstock combo! They always rock! Schroeder is another one of my favorites ’cause he’s always playing the piano and it sounds beautiful.
But here’s a fun fact…..
A friend of mine called me up and told me that on one of our favorite cartoons growing up (it was ThunderCats), she was surprised to find out that the person who played Cliff Huxtable’s dad was the voice of Panthro. His name is Earle Hyman. I thought that was awesome!
Hey Mike, I actually remember someone interviewing Charles Schultz many years ago about the subject. From what I remember, Charles was concerned at the first draft viewing of an animated scene in which the children had to interact with the parents. In the comic strip, Schultz explained that the speech of the adults was not written, the adults were never seen, and their words were simply implied based on the child characters questions in one box and answers in another. Schultz said this type of “scene chopping” didn’t work well for animation. Finally Schultz and his animating partner Lee Mendelson came up with the mwa, mwa, mwa, which they felt preserved the best of the comic strip, but played better for the animation. Schultz did draw adult and teenage characters for a book called “Young Pillars,” but they never appeared in a Peanuts comic strip.
In She’s a Good Skate, Charlie Brown, they don’t show adults but when they speak we can understand what they’re saying. Snoopy’s reunion is another episode where grownups or at least one grownup, a man who sells something to Charlie Brown, is seen and is understood when he speaks.
I love all these comments. The Charlie Brown cartoons are cherished memories of my childhood. I seriously wanted to name our first son Linus, but my husband wouldn’t allow it- I always thought Linus was such an upstanding little citizen!