I was watching “The Little Mermaid” while babysitting tonight, lost in nostalgia, when all of a sudden Eric, the hunky cartoon prince, whips out a tinwhistle! He played the plain what-looked-like aluminum whistle a total of three times before throwing it into the sea in apparent rebellion against the WhOA that has been affecting his love life.
Funny how as a kid I never thought twice about that little instrument, but now it was the first thing I noticed.
Sad how a life can degenerate over the years… 
Any bets on what kind of whistle it was? I don’t doubt that this discussion could get heated with you folks. 
It wasn’t a whistle. It was a fricking r****der.
:roll:
gasp
Destroy countless childhood dreams, why don’tcha Bloo?! You oughta be ashamed of yourself!
9 out of 10 experts agree: a Prince as handsome as Eric would never be caught dead playing a rec*rder.
Of COURSE it was a whistle! He was a seafaring lad, after all!
Robin
Here’s something a bit saddo and related - I’ve watched 2 films in the last week (Glory and Young Guns) which had whistle appearances. Add FotR, Harry Potter 1 and The Little Mermaid, and I’m starting to build up a mental database of “Films containing Whistles”. Before you know it there’ll be a new thread…
Just as long as I don’t start cataloguing my DVD & video collection by length of whistle scene & quality of miming/playing, I should make a complete recovery.
lol, Martin… there’s hope yet for you!
I don’t remember “Glory” having a whistle in it.. was there an actual whistle or just whistle music? I probably didn’t notice that or Harry Potter either because I hadn’t started playing it.
Hi Sara,
In Glory it’s an actual whistle being played in camp before one of the battles, though the player is miming (badly enough for me to spot).
In HP Hagrid is sitting outside his cabin playing a whistle one day when Harry & Co go to visit.
Check the films again and you’ll see all the whistling. This is due to an phenomena I’ve often observed - I call it Observational Bias. For example, if you start driving a green car, suddeny the world seems full of green cars. They were always there, but you never noticed them before.
In the case of whistles of course, they spring into view to all chiffers, but someone from outside our ranks would just register “music” or “band”.
Another film with a whistle is Waking Ned. There’s at least one person who came to this board asking about the whistle and the tune.
Hmmm… I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.. renting the above mentioned movies!
The Observational Bias thing is very true! Now every commercial, movie, or show I watch, I look and listen for whistle music. Sad, really…
You know, it’s really quite amazing how, in the time I’ve been playing the whistle, I’ve noticed the whistle in many commercials. Like, there’s this one commercial for Chevrolet and it has a beautiful tin whistle in it. . . the whistle has probably been in loads of commercials before, but it’s just odd how I’ve only started noticing them in the short time I’ve played.
I know I’m sure to point them out everywhere I go. Even my daughter, while we sat in at a Chinese All-You-Can-Eat buffet, exclaimed, “Daddy!! I hear a whistle!!” Sure enough, very softly through the speakers in the ceiling tiles eminated a haunting Chinese-type song with something that sounded very much like a whistle. Almost brought a tear to my eye.
Bob
Yes! The whistle player in waking Ned leads the tiny funeral procession up the hill. I liked how they used a little mini delivery van instead of a hearse! Still, the movie was unrealistic. At the session toward the very end of the movie, they depict a bodhran player having excellent rhythm and taste.
Sorry, Sara, I never saw the Little Mermaid. It must have been a Chieftan, though. No one would throw an Overton into the ocean.
By the way, is it just me or is Sara S. the cutiest pie of them all?