# Wonder Pets : "The phone! the phone is ringing!" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 30, 2012, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840 "2012-06-30T19:32:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Death\_of\_Rats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a6a055/32.png) [@Death\_of\_Rats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Death_of_Rats)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840/21 "2012-07-05T14:44:27Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > None of those are designed for little kids learning to talk as a type of edutainment program. A better example would be someone like Elmo, who can’t handle pronouns. Even more, all but one of those were created for ADULTS. Thewy were not created as children’s characters. They became so with the second gerneration of viewers started seeing them on tv rather then as a leadin to a movie. Why do you think most of them were trying to sell you War Bonds at some point. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840/22 "2012-07-05T15:08:00Z")
Oh, man, Wonder Pets as one of the few that didn’t grate on me. I liked the music, and it was great that she was getting such a wide variety of it. I never thought of any of them having specific genders though. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840/23 "2012-07-05T15:15:39Z")
> [@Emtar\_KronJonDerSohn](#): > > I couldn’t agree more about the lisp. I speak like a semi-educated adult with a proper mouth full of teeth and (gasp) wouldn’t you know it? I have a two year old who speaks in full sentences and doesn’t require constant translation to communicate with guests. One wonders then how kids with lisps came about in the years before Wonder Pets. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840/24 "2012-07-05T15:33:37Z")
When the Little Dose was small, I didn’t mind Wonder Pets - it was better than Boobah, Little Bear, Caillou or Berenstein Bears. But my favorites were the Backyardigans and Toopie and Binou although I didn’t mind Franklin. ---
**Author:** ![Anonymous\_Coward](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/94ad74/32.png) [@Anonymous\_Coward](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anonymous_Coward)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840/25 "2012-07-05T16:01:38Z")
I hate hate hate Caillou. Whiny little shit. I didn’t mind Little Bear. The art was nice and the zen Frog was good for a laugh. Backyardigans and Wonder Pets have decent music and the occasional funny one-liner. Toopie and Binou are one of the little dude’s favorites so they get a lot of play around here. However Octonauts and Bubble Guppies are gaining ground. I think the days of T&B are just about done in our house. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840/26 "2012-07-05T16:03:03Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Piper Cub has discovered WonderPets, the most sacahrine child’s program known. > > In addition to the unbearable cuteness, it relies heavily on ear worms. Someone doesn’t like the Wonder Pets? This. Is. Sewious! ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2012, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840/27 "2012-07-07T18:08:30Z")
Hoo, boy. Here’s the music in question - [Wonderpets Theme Song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxlWvE2U0nw). The tough part is that it’s nothing obvious. Unlike, say, Carl Stalling in Looney Tunes, where you can hear right away ‘Oh, that’s the Overture to Act III of Die Walküre by Richard Wagner’, this is either taken from something less well known, or very cleverly crafted to sound like something 19th century without actually being 19th century. The first thing that jumps out at me is the triplets in the woodwinds and horns in the Major section, around 1:35 or so in that YouTube clip. Sounds to me like the opening of Mendelssohn’s 4th Symphony, ‘The Italian’. [Here’s Bernstein](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYfBgBTn61k) taking it a quite a quick tempo. Or, [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOQlG8YRxEQ), from the Overture to Act III of Lohengrin - listen around :55 for the fast triplets with the brass. (And I’m smiling to myself at how totally pissed off Wagner would be to have a similarity between his music and Mendelssohn’s pointed out!) So that’s the first question - is this based around some commonalities of 19th century compositional practice, or is it taken directly from an as yet undetermined, lesser known piece? I’m still grinding away on that question… A simpler path would be to write an e-mail to Flying Airplane productions, but it would have to be carefully worded to ensure that one is asking for their influences without implying that one thinks the music is [del]stolen[/del] derivative. (And I have no idea why the YouTube ads on that Wagner except are all about +45 year old singles, but something about it ticks me right off…) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2012, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840/28 "2012-09-29T12:56:51Z")
For some reason, I missed this reply when you posted it, **Le Minstre** - thanks! very informative, as always! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wonder-pets-the-phone-the-phone-is-ringing/626840.md?page=1)