Translate phrases to Peanuts’ “teacher talk” with the Wah Wah Machine
Adults are (almost) never seen in Charles Schulz’s kid-dominated Peanuts universe, and when they are heard, it is only through the sounds of a muted trombone. Schulz was simply not interested in depicting grownups, so he denied them the luxury of intelligible speech in his strips. When it came time to animate the Peanuts gang, it was producer Lee Mendelson, operating on a suggestion from musician Vince Guaraldi, who came up with the trombone gimmick. This is a tradition dating back nearly half a century, to the 1967 television special You’re In Love, Charlie Brown, which featured some dialogue with a teacher named Miss Othmar. The tradition continues in 2015 with The Peanuts Movie, the full-length animated film coming out on November 6. Now, fans who have grown up with Charlie Brown and his seemingly indecipherable teachers can have some fun with the Wah Wah Machine, which takes phrases and translates them into that unmistakable Peanuts teacher talk. A press release explains: