Rooty Toot Toot

John Hubley's Academy Award-nominated "Rooty Toot Toot" depicts the story of Frankie and Johnny (as heard in a traditional song) jazz-style, with Frankie - portrayed as a film noir femme fatale - getting put on trial for Johnny's murder. It's a clever story, even though the animation is nothing impressive. That whole sequence with the bullets must've been fun to animate.

Outside of this cartoon, I originally learned the song from Sam Cooke's version of it. I later heard a different version in the Jean Harlow movie "Red-Headed Woman". What a collection.

Anyway, it's a fun short.

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.

Just watched this UPA Jolly Frolics animated short on YouTube as linked from the Cartoon Brew site. It's the telling of the "Frankie and Johnny" tale as depicted in the courtroom with Frankie on trial for her murder of Johnny because of his adulterous ways especially with one Nelly Bly. Director John Hubley makes his unique line drawings quite fluid as the tale gets told entirety in song. This was nominated for an Oscar but lost to another Hanna-Barbera Tom and Jerry entry called The Two Mouseketers. Eventually, many UPA efforts would become Academy Award winners while those of other studios, exceptions being those of Warner Bros., would no longer dominate during the '50s. So on that note, Rooty Toot Toot is highly recommended.

Rooty Toot Toot (1951)

*** (out of 4)

Fun UPA short has Frankie catching her man Johnny with another woman so she shoots him dead. The film starts off inside the courtroom and then we flashback to the events of that evening. I understand that many people truly hate the UPA form of animation and while I'm not the biggest fan of it, this short here is something I am a fan of. I must admit that I thought the musical numbers were quite catchy and especially the way the Frankie and Johnny song were played out. What I also loved with the use of color in the film. Again, this here is something that a lot of people can't stand but I thought it was put to perfect use here and I especially liked the way colors express either emotion or tone. The flashback sequence gets this beautiful dark grey look to it just like you'd expect to find in a film noir. After the verdict is read we get a beautiful dark red which could mean several things but the femme fatale look is certainly there. I also liked the dresses constantly being worn by Frankie. The story itself isn't the greatest but I still think there's quite a bit to like here.

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.