Little Toot

Memorable (for me) simply because it was the first time my parents had taken me to a major London Theater - the Odeon, Leicester Square, if I remember correctly.

Little Toot was a baby tugboat, a strong-willed if not pesky little guy who just plain refused to listen to his dad and ended up causing all sorts of maritime mayhem before being grounded. The thrill of that day, looking up seeing Little Toot battling the waves in pursuit of glory, circumstances causing him to be the last hope of rescue for an adrift liner in "the perfect storm," was seared on my mind for all time. I remember less about THE MATRIX!

I fell in love with movies that day. Grab a child and start the cycle again!

One of the shorter segments from the film "Melody Time" "Little Toot" is a nice simple little cartoon. While a tad too slow and thin in paces, it is more than compensated by the lovely animation and the cute little songs. And of course Little Toot the tiny tugboat is adorable and endearing, definitely one of the more likable characters in "Melody Time" along with Johnny Appleseed and the little bumblebee. The Andrews Sisters, I must say did a terrific job, what amazing voices.

Overall, I really liked this cute little cartoon. While not perfect, it is a really pleasant watch, and reminds me why I love Disney so much. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This is a short that was used to make up the full-length film from Disney, "Melody Time". Following WWII, Disney Studio was a mess--a terrible strike and the war (where many of the workers were drafted and many more were assigned to wartime animation work) decimated the studio and many of the old animators were gone. As a result, Disney did not get back to making traditional animated feature films for several years. In the meantime, their 'full-length' films were really odd compilations of shorts--and of a rather lackluster quality compared to earlier and later work.

Little Toot is a rather rambunctious and annoying little anthropomorphic tugboat. His goofy ways get him in trouble with other ships, such as his Dad, Big Toot. As a result of his bad ways, he's banished far off-shore and is frightened. Can he somehow redeem himself?! While this short is like the others in "Melody Time" because of all the singing (this time by the Andrews Sisters), it is quite different when it comes to the animation. The backgrounds and characters are much more detailed and richly animated--making this an exceptionally fine looking short film. In fact, it's almost too good for the otherwise lackluster film! I did not love the singing, but otherwise it was a lovely film.

I've loved reading the other comments because it was my dad (Hardie Gramatky) who wrote and illustrated the book from which Walt Disney made the animated feature that was part of "Melody Time" (I believe it was in 1948, by the way).

Walt Disney was like a father to my dad (who had lost his father in Dallas from tuberculosis when Dad was only 10, and then he and his mom and two brothers moved out to South San Gabriel, CA), and when Dad and Mom moved to NYC after six years working as an animator for Disney, Dad was one of only one or two former employees with whom Walt maintained a good relationship. In fact, after Little Toot was published in 1939, Walt really wanted to take a ride on a tugboat, and Dad arranged that with Eugene Moran (of Moran Towing) in 1945.

Walt Disney was a genius and he really understood why this mischievous little tugboat would continue to please generations of children 69 years later (2008). People still write me about how much the original book (a beautiful restored edition was published by Penguin Putnam last September, restoring the colors and art to what Dad created in the first edition) meant to them and how they can still remember the "Little Toot" song from "Melody Time".

One thing that the Gramatky family didn't learn until after Dad died (1979) is that Capitol Records wanted to bring out a record with the song from "Melody Time", but the Andrew Sisters weren't interested. A children's record??? Well, Alan Livingston, president of Capitol Records at the time, told us that he got other singers instead ... and the record was the FIRST children's record to go platinum ever, and every time Alan saw the Andrews Sisters at a party, they would say how they were kicking themselves that they passed on this opportunity!

Wonderful memories. Linda Gramatky Smith (Connecticut)

A Walt Disney Cartoon.

The tiny tugboat, LITTLE TOOT, just can't seem to get serious about the important work to be done with the big ships in the harbor. In fact, he's become quite a pest...

Hardie Gramatky's classic children's book comes beautifully to life in this little cartoon. The humorous animation is excellent and completely appropriate to the original illustrations. The Andrews Sisters were the perfect choice to be the singing narrators. LITTLE TOOT was originally one segment in the musical compilation film MELODY TIME (1948).

Walt Disney (1901-1966) was always intrigued by drawings. As a lad in Marceline, Missouri, he sketched farm animals on scraps of paper; later, as an ambulance driver in France during the First World War, he drew figures on the sides of his vehicle. Back in Kansas City, along with artist Ub Iwerks, Walt developed a primitive animation studio that provided animated commercials and tiny cartoons for the local movie theaters. Always the innovator, his ALICE IN CARTOONLAND series broke ground in placing a live figure in a cartoon universe. Business reversals sent Disney & Iwerks to Hollywood in 1923, where Walt's older brother Roy became his lifelong business manager & counselor. When a mildly successful series with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit was snatched away by the distributor, the character of Mickey Mouse sprung into Walt's imagination, ensuring Disney's immortality. The happy arrival of sound technology made Mickey's screen debut, STEAMBOAT WILLIE (1928), a tremendous audience success with its use of synchronized music. The SILLY SYMPHONIES soon appeared, and Walt's growing crew of marvelously talented animators were quickly conquering new territory with full color, illusions of depth and radical advancements in personality development, an arena in which Walt's genius was unbeatable. Mickey's feisty, naughty behavior had captured millions of fans, but he was soon to be joined by other animated companions: temperamental Donald Duck, intellectually-challenged Goofy and energetic Pluto. All this was in preparation for Walt's grandest dream - feature length animated films. Against a blizzard of doomsayers, Walt persevered and over the next decades delighted children of all ages with the adventures of Snow White, Pinocchio, Dumbo, Bambi & Peter Pan. Walt never forgot that his fortunes were all started by a mouse, or that simplicity of message and lots of hard work always pay off.