The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos

Throughout much of my life, I have seen/heard parodies of movies/songs before seeing/hearing the originals; sometimes I only learn about the originals because I see/hear the parodies. I'll see something on "The Simpsons" and a few years later see which movie it came from, or I'll hear a "Weird Al" Yankovic song and then later hear the spoofed song.

But it's not just through "The Simpsons" and "Weird Al" Yankovic that this happens. I often see classic Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons and later learn about what they parodied. While "The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos" is certainly a funny cartoon, I have to admit that until I read the IMDb description, I'd never heard of Ernie Hare (represented as Ernie Bear).

Truth be told, I wouldn't be surprised if many members of my generation know the spoofs before knowing the originals, partly because the parodied movies, songs, etc., are often so old school or hokey that generation Y would take no stock in them. Or I might be wrong.

But I digress. I recommend this cartoon.

This is another cartoon that is full of caricatured Hollywood celebrities. I guess really liked doing this in the mid to late 1930s.

The story is simple: it's a musical concert being held in the woods and broadcast over radio station KUKU. Featured is the "Woodland Community Swing,"

Most of the "stars" aren't performing but seated in the reserved seats. The gags with them are the puns concerning their names, converting them to animals, such as Eddie Gander, Sophie Turkey, W.C. Fieldmouse, Dick Fowl, Fats Swallow, Irvin S. Frog, Fred McFurry, Bing Crowsby, Al Goatson, Ruby Squealer, Deanna Terrapin, etc. You get the picture.

The talent show was lame except for two loudmouths: "Moutha Bray" and "Andy Bovine." The jokes were either way too dated or corny.

If I was familiar with announcer Alexander Woollcott and emcee Ben Bernie, who apparently were well-known during this period, I couldn't appreciated the caricatures more. That included a few other people whom I had no idea about. That's the problem with doing cartoons making fun of the culture. Seventy years later, few people know what you're talking about! Then again, who would have thought back then that there would be VHS and DVDs showing their work over a half-century later to whole new generations!

This is one of the earliest full color cartoons turned out by the Termite Terrace crew and I wouldn't expect you to be interested unless you are fairly familiar with popular culture seventy years ago and able to figure out, for example, that Lilly Swans is supposed to be Lily Pons -- there were three or four that escaped me (I have no idea who Tizzie Fish is supposed to be -- a radio cooking show host, apparently).

The cartoon is a just a series of "can you identify this one?" gags. You might be interested in looking at the Art Deco style of cartooning that Tash used in this one -- it showed up in a couple of other early color Loony Tunes like PAGE MISS GLORY and then vanished into the standard house style.

"Woods are Full of Cuckoos" was amusing, using animals (mostly birds) to parody celebrities, like Walther Finchell (Walter Winchell),the Master of Ceremonies for the Woodland Community Swing, Bing Crrowsby (Bing Crosby), Dick Fowl (Dick Powell), Sophie Turkey(Sophie Tucker), Eddie Gander (Eddie Cantor), and many others, whom I readily identified. There was the dispute over which page in the song books they should turn to(22, no, 44, no, 36, no, 18, etc.). The fox sang "Swanee River" instead. which was embarrassing. Then came the song, "The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos", the title song, which I believe HAS a message about Christian faith and living. The message is acceptance of the fact that there are all kinds of people in the world. Many act, look, speak, and think in ways that do not make sense. But the song ends "but my heart is full of love". THAT is Christian, as it shows that one can take people as they come, even if they ARE cuckoo! It shows lack of judgementality about others, basic to being a real Christian

Cartoons with lots of caricatures can be lots of fun, but there are examples where some of the material can get lost on the viewer. 'The Woods are Full of Cuckoos' fits both extremes, it is an interesting curio but it is a case of some of the material working and other parts that do not.

The animation is great, with gorgeously vibrant colours, backgrounds that are rich in detail and the characters are smoothly drawn. The music consists of a lot of character, lush orchestration, clever instrumentation, bucket loads of energy and an ability to not just be dynamic to the material but elevate it. The voice work from Mel Blanc and Tedd Pierce is peerless as ever.

A good deal of the animal caricatures, based on celebrities of the day, are very funny and they clearly had a ball thinking of the animal names which are quite inventive.

However, there is always the danger of being unfamiliar with some of the people caricature cartoons caricature. There was unfamiliarity with quite a lot of the stars mentioned (had no idea for example who Tizzie Fish was meant to be), so some of the cartoon did go over my head as a result and are likely to be lost on present-day viewers (even fans of classic-era celebrities at that time).

Not working all the time also are the jokes, some are amusing but never hilarious but others feel very out of date, corny and forced in placement. The talent show is particularly true to this, excepting the loudmouths. The references can be obscure and the concept of can you guess who the star is does wear thin when you are constantly switching between who you recognise and where you draw a blank.

So all in all, a curio and both an interesting and inconsistent one. Worth seeing once or twice, but not a must-see or with watching over and over replay value. 6/10 Bethany Cox