Best movies like Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom

A crash course on the history of Western musical instruments.

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom Starring Bill Thompson, Loulie Jean Norman, Gloria Wood, Thurl Ravenscroft, and more. If you liked Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom then you may also like: You're Darn Tootin', Young Man with a Horn, Whiplash, Mobile Étoile, The Opry House and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

In this short subject (which mostly represents a departure from Disney's traditional approach to animation), a stuffy owl teacher lectures his feathered flock on the origins of Western musical instruments. Starting with cavepeople, whose crude implements could only "toot, whistle, plunk and boom," the owl explains how these beginnings led to the development of the four basic types of Western musical instruments: brass, woodwinds, strings, and percussion.

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You're Darn Tootin'

Members of a municipal band, Stanley and Oliver seem to be always following someone else's lead, rather than that of the temperamental conductor.

Young Man with a Horn

Legendary trumpeter Art Hazzard teaches young Rick Martin everything he knows about playing, so Rick becomes a star musician, but a troubled marriage and the desire to play pure jazz instead of commercial swing songs cause him problems.

Whiplash

Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.

The Opry House

Mickey runs a small theatre. The orchestra plays, rather badly, excerpts from Carmen. Mickey appears as a snake charmer, but the snake is revealed to be a cat with a snake's head painted on its tail. Mickey does a belly dance, to the audience's delight. Mickey then plays the piano, but the piano and stool, apparently annoyed at the violence and complexity of the piece, kick him off stage.

Jammin' the Blues

In this short film, prominent jazz musicians of the 1940s gather for a rare filming of a jam session. This highly stylized chronicle features tenor sax legend Lester Young.

Jungle Rhythm

Mickey's on African safari, riding on an elephant, but his shotgun disintegrates the first time he tries to use it. To sooth the vicious beasts, he plays tunes, sings, and dances, using the various animals and objects around him as instruments.

Baton Bunny

Bugs conducts the Warner Brothers Symphony in Franz von Suppé's "Morning, Noon, and Night in Vienna" while reacting to a bothersome fly.

The Cactus Kid

Mickey walks into the tavern where Minnie is dancing, and begins to dance and play piano himself. Pegleg Pete comes in and treats Minnie badly. Mickey tries to defend her, but Pete steals her away. Mickey, riding Horace Horsecollar, gives chase. He manages to throw Pete off a cliff.

Carnegie Hall

A young Irishwoman comes to the United States to live and work with her mother as a cleaning lady at Carnegie Hall. She becomes attached to the place as the people she meets there gradually shape her life. The film also includes a variety of performances from some of the foremost musical artists of the times: conductors Bruno Walter & Leopold Stokowski, solists Arthur Rubinstein & Jascha Haifetz, singers Lily Pons & Jan Peerce and bandleader Vaughn Monroe among many others.

The Cat Concerto

Tom enters from stage left in white tie and tails, sits at the piano, gets his focus as the orchestra in the pit beneath him warms up, and begins to play Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody". Unbeknownst to Tom and the audience, Jerry is asleep across several of the high-note keys inside the instrument, so Tom's playing eventually wakes him. Jerry is pummeled by hammers, bounced by wires, and squeezed by Tom as the cat tries to play the concerto while dispensing with Jerry. Jerry's defensive antics add to the brio of the program and answer Tom with Jerry's own skillful musical attack. By the concerto's end, the duet leaves only one animal standing for the audience's applause.

Fantasia 2000

Blending lively music and brilliant animation, this sequel to the original 'Fantasia' restores 'The Sorcerer's Apprentice' and adds seven new shorts.

High School Musical 2

The East High Wildcats are gearing up for big fun as they land the coolest summer jobs imaginable. Troy, Gabriella, Chad, and Taylor have scored sweet gigs at the Lava Springs Country Club owned by Sharpay and Ryan's family. Sharpay's first rule of business: Get Troy. As Troy experiences a life of privilege he's never known, will he give up the Wildcats and Gabriella to rise to the top?

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Tensions rise when the trailblazing Mother of the Blues and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Adapted from August Wilson's play.

High Society

Childhood friends Tracy Lord and C.K. Dexter Haven got married and quickly divorced. Now Tracy is about to marry again, this time to a shrewd social-climbing businessman. C.K. still loves her. Spy magazine blackmails Tracy's family by threatening to reveal her playboy father's exploits if not allowed to cover the wedding. A remake of the 1940 rom com The Philadelphia Story.

A Day at the Races

Doctor Hugo Hackenbush, Tony, and Stuffy try and save Judy's farm by winning a big race with her horse. There are a few problems. Hackenbush runs a high priced clinic for the wealthy who don't know he has his degree in Veterinary Medicine.

Der Fuehrer's Face

A marching band of Germans, Italians, and Japanese march through the streets of swastika-motif Nutziland, serenading "Der Fuehrer's Face." Donald Duck, not living in the region by choice, struggles to make do with disgusting Nazi food rations and then with his day of toil at a Nazi artillery factory. After a nervous breakdown, Donald awakens to find that his experience was in fact a nightmare.

Here Comes the Boom

A high school biology teacher moonlights as a mixed-martial arts fighter in an effort to raise money to save the school's music program.

Donald's Nephews

Donald's sister Dumbella sends her three sons Huey, Dewey, and Louie to visit their uncle Donald. They prove to be quite a handful for Donald, even with help from his book on child rearing.

Little Secrets

Emily is a plucky preteen who is entrusted with her young neighbors' most private and cherished secrets. Every Wednesday, Emily sets up a booth in her backyard that regularly attracts the guilty young souls of the neighborhood. These include Philip, whose clumsiness and his interest in Emily make him a challenging client. But complications ensue when she suddenly finds it difficult to keep all of her neighbors' secrets to herself.

Imagine the Sound

An examination, shown through both interviews and performances, of the avant-garde free jazz movement which reigned during the 1960s.

Melody

An owl teaches his class full of birds about melody. It's all around in nature. Only birds and man can sing; man "sings" even when he speaks. We see a quick survey of the stages of life, as captured by songs: the alphabet song for primary school, Here Comes the Bride, The Old Gray Mare, etc. Some inspirations for song are outlined in song: love, sailing, trains, the West, motherhood, etc., but "we never sing about brains." Finally, an example of how a simple melody can be expanded into a symphony: an elaborate version of the simple tune that opened the lesson

Score: A Film Music Documentary

Music is an integral part of most films, adding emotion and nuance while often remaining invisible to audiences. Matt Schrader shines a spotlight on the overlooked craft of film composing, gathering many of the art form’s most influential practitioners, from Hans Zimmer and Danny Elfman to Quincy Jones and Randy Newman, to uncover their creative process. Tracing key developments in the evolution of music in film, and exploring some of cinema’s most iconic soundtracks, 'Score' is an aural valentine for film lovers.

Stormy Weather

Dancing great Bill Williamson sees his face on the cover of Theatre World magazine and reminisces: Just back from World War I, he meets lovely singer Selina Rogers at a soldiers' ball and promises to come back to her when he "gets to be somebody." Years go by, and Bill and Selina's rising careers intersect only briefly, since Selina is unwilling to settle down. Will she ever change her mind? Concludes with a big all-star show hosted by Cab Calloway.

Sinkin' in the Bathtub

The film opens with Bosko taking a bath while whistling "Singin' in the Bathtub". A series of gags allows him to play the shower spray like a harp, pull up his pants by tugging his hair, and give the limelight to the bathtub itself which stands on its hind feet to perform a dance.

The Skeleton Dance

The clock strikes midnight, the bats fly from the belfry, a dog howls at the full moon, and two black cats fight in the cemetery: a perfect time for four skeletons to come out and dance a bit.

A Song Is Born

The story of seven scholars in search of an expert to teach them about swing music. They seem to have found the perfect candidate in winsome nightclub singer Honey Swanson. But Honey's gangster boyfriend doesn't want to give her up.

Steamboat Willie

Mickey Mouse, piloting a steamboat, delights his passenger, Minnie, by making musical instruments out of the menagerie on deck.

Tin Pan Alley Cats

A jazz cartoon involving a "Fats Waller"-like cat who leaves the "Uncle Tomcat Mission" for the local jazz club.

Tubby the Tuba

In this Puppetoon animated short film (an Academy Award Best Short Subject, Cartoons nominee), Tubby the Tuba is disappointed that his sound limits what he's permitted to do in an orchestra of self-playing instruments that, unlike him, get to play pretty melodies. A chance meeting with a bullfrog changes everything.

Tubby the Tuba

When Tubby the Tuba sets out to find a melody all of his own, his journey results in this enchanting and exciting musical tale. Tubby joins the circus and striving to be part of an orchestra, he travels to the Singing City where along the way he encounters many wonderful characters.

Ding Dong Williams

Ding Dong Williams, a clarinet player who can neither read nor write music is employed at a motion picture studio. The studio plans to use him and his six-piece band but his musical deficiencies are discovered and the plan scrapped. But the secretary of the head of the music department intercedes on his behalf and he is given a chance in the film.

Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day

On 10th December 2007, Led Zeppelin took the stage at London's O2 Arena to headline a tribute concert for dear friend and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. Founding members John Paul Jones, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant were joined by Jason Bonham, the son of their late drummer John Bonham, to perform 16 songs from their celebrated catalog.

The Strip

Drummer Stanley Maxton moves to Los Angeles with dreams of opening his own club, but falls in with a gangster and a nightclub dancer and ends up accused of murder.

Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way

A chronological look at the life and career of jazz musician, composer, and performer Dave Brubeck (1920-2012 ), presented through contemporary interviews, archival footage of interviews and performances, and commentary by family, fellow musicians, and aficionados. Emphases include his mother's influence, his wife's invention of college tours, his skill as an accompanist, the great quartet (with Desmond, Morello, and Wright), his ability to find musical ideas everywhere, his orchestral compositions, his religious conversion, and his unflagging sweet nature.

Konrad

Konrad is a factory-made child, perfect in every way. When he is mistakenly delivered to the eccentric Mrs. Bartelotti, the factory demands his return. Konrad must go against everything he has been taught to stand up to his creators.

Rock School

It is about a music school in Philadelphia, The Paul Green School of Rock Music, run by Paul Green that teaches kids ages 9 to 17 how to play rock music and be rock stars. Paul Green teaches his students how to play music such as Black Sabbath and Frank Zappa better than anyone expects them to by using a unique style of teaching that includes getting very angry and acting childish.

Strike Up the Band

Jimmy and Mary get a group of kids together to play in a school orchestra. A huge contest between schools is coming up and they have a hard time raising money to go to Chicago for the contest.

Do You Love Me

Katharine Hilliard, mousy dean of a stuffy music school, meets and is insulted by swing band leader Barry Clayton on a train. To "show" him she takes a friend's advice, removes her glasses, and puts on a designer gown. Naturally, she becomes gorgeous. Soon, both Barry and crooner Jimmy Hale are after her, and she finds herself in the midst of triangles and misunderstandings.

I Used to Be Famous

A former boy band star unexpectedly gets a second shot at success when he forms a bond with a gifted young drummer.

Learn to Swim

Toronto jazz saxophonist Dezi Williams is withdrawn from his band and tries to spend his days in solitude as an instrument repair technician, but is haunted by his memories, a mounting pain in his jaw, and an intrusive new neighbour.

Picture

In early 2010 the Alloy Orchestra was commissioned an original score, based on a musical setting drawn on a 3-foot long sheet of squared notebook paper. Its operating principle was a fixed tempo - 60 beats per minute - to be strictly followed by the musicians throughout the piece. Within this grid, the performers were given complete freedom to determine the timbre, the volume and the sequence of themes to be chosen for their work. Two artists - a drummer and a draughtsman - listened to the recording of the music without any knowledge of the instructions provided for its creation. Unbeknownst to each other, both were given the task of playing along with their respective instruments: one with a drum in front of a camera, the other with pen, brushes, ink and colored pigments on 35mm film strips. The footage was assembled and edited in strict adherence to the criteria adopted for the music. The Alloy Orchestra was then asked to accompany the film with their own score

Sweet and Low-Down

After their annual free concert at Chicago's Dearborn Settlement, Benny Goodman and his band are packing up to go to their next engagement when a kid steals Goodman's clarinet. Goodman and Popsie pursue him to a tenement flat where he has led them to hear his brother play the trombone. Shenanigans ensue following Goodman's offering the brother a job with the band.

The Last Repair Shop

In a warehouse in the heart of Los Angeles, a dwindling handful of devoted craftspeople maintain more than 80,000 student musical instruments, the largest remaining workshop in America of its kind. Meet four unforgettable characters whose broken-and-repaired lives have been dedicated to bringing so much more than music to the schoolchildren of this city.

Mickey and the Beanstalk

A mysterious thief has stolen the prosperous Happy Valley's most prized possession: the musical Singing Harp. Can Mickey, Donald, and Goofy find the answer in the irritable Willie the Giant's magnificent castle up in the blue sky?

Rush: Beyond The Lighted Stage

An in-depth look at the Canadian rock band Rush, chronicling the band's musical evolution from their progressive rock sound of the '70s to their current heavy rock style.

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