Rooty Toot Toot

So we know that "Frankie" has done for "Johnny" and so she ends up in court dressed as if she were about to dance a Flamenco! Her lawyer calls the barkeep, a rather dour fella - who regales us with the tale of the deceased's infidelities with "Nelly Bligh". Next, the sultry "Nelly" takes the stand with her own version but claims that they only tickling going on was on the ivories! It looks a clear cut case. Can the debonaire lawyer save her bacon? He portrays a completely different summation of the events. Which version will the jury buy? The narration is delivered via a lively and witty lyric with a great jazzy soundtrack and the sharp, almost stark, nature of the animation works well delivering a story with more than an hint of menace, the odd Freudian slip and... It's good fun this and stay tuned for the twist at the end!

It's a long time since UPA's cartoons shocked regular movie goers - an unprecedented break with the Disney tradition, bringing the departures we'd seen in newspaper cartoons, advertising art and strip comics to film. Some of their work looks like thin effort, now that we've seen the limited animation technique they pioneered used and abused in TV.

The seventies London NFT audience already had a short memory and booed the Mr. McGoos an American programmer included.

However ROOTY ROOT TOOT is not just a nostalgia trip. With it's delicate Hubley figures and unreal use of colour and backgrounds this is one of the most stylish things done in cartooning. Throw in clever gags and a great track - who are the vocalists? The dancing lawyer, the "Sordid Bar" sign and the leafy line on white setting for Frankie's back story are still evidence of an imagination which would prove capable of bringing us on going delight.

That is a masterful work of animation. A mixture of film genders (noir, musical, comedy, judgment) and a narrative with different versions of the same crime (like Rashomon by Kurosawa). Finally i would like to call attention for the strong reference to sexuality almost banned from the mainstream cartoons. The traces of the cartoon are superb too! They are a trademark of UPA style. They are just essential and not full of empty virtuosity in the Disney style. Free from the repetition of the characters based series as Maggoo, the work of studio is much more interesting. The strategy of the lines being sung by the characters preview such works as Les Parapluies de Cherbourgh (1964) by Jacques Demy. Although the work of UPA would be associate mostly with social commentary about middle class American values it was far from be restricted just to it. I recommend it.

Rooty Toot Toot is one of the best of a very good run of cartoons from the UPA studios. A stylized take on Frankie and Johnny, it has a great jazz score and uses its limited animation to great effect. Excellent blend of music and visuals, it clearly had influence on at least one Disney short, Toot, Plunk, Whistle, Boom. The cartoon isn't the best UPA did (Unicorn In the Garden was) but it's real close. You can find it on one of the Columbia Classics series of tapes. Highly recommended.

This is the classic story of Frankie and Johnny and Nellie Blye. She catches him with Nellie and kills him. This takes a really cool jazz score and sets up a court case. Of course, the characters are quirky, but the judicial system we have today often reflects the one portrayed in this short. All testimony leads to what should be a guilty verdict. But don't turn your head for a second. There's much to come. Some reviewers give this ones and two because it's too loud and intense. A criticism was made that it isn't appropriate for children. Animation isn't always for children. Just watch the direction things have taken on television. There is biting satire and some pretty harsh stuff being presented these days. Why does the cartoonists craft have to be based on things done in the 1930's. This isn't a world beater, but it is creative and interprets the music well.