Nelly's Folly

This is a delightful story of discovery, loss and rediscovery of which I would recommend to anyone who enjoys music with soul. I focused on Nelly's singing, and found myself entranced. Gloria Wood did a fantastic job bring Nelly's voice to life!

Nelly starts out singing for the pure joy of it while in the jungle and later, she sings with an air of sophistication. You can really feel her emotions in her singing. Nelly eventually returns to the jungle, but her singing has become mournful. Her sad song near the end of the story is truely acute to the spirit, but it turns to pure joy when she finds she is no longer alone! This cartoon is special for me in several ways, but the singing alone makes it worthwhile. Chuck Jones and David Detiege took a classic story of Hollywood and added elements to it that make it stand out. I wish Nelly had been in more Looney Tunes!

Though the backgrounds make it look like something from TV, the Chuck Jones short "Nelly's Folly" elicits an almost mystical feeling. Portraying an African giraffe with an angelic singing voice getting signed as a star until personal problems ruin her career - a turtle identifies the events shown as "show business" - the cartoon gives one the sense that the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons were trying to take a new direction in the '60s (though the declining quality eventually led to the animation department's closure).

Did I like the cartoon? Well, maybe it wasn't the greatest, but I thought that it was worth seeing. I can understand why it got an Academy Award nomination. As it's not readily available on video or DVD, you can watch it on YouTube.

For those of us who are die-hard fans of this delightful and politically incorrect cartoon (Nelly desecrates an American home an then attempts to commit suicide) here's the DVD where you can find it at last: 'Warner Brothers Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection - 15 Winners, 26 Nominees', along with some other -almost- forgotten gems, such as 'The High Note', 'The Dot and the Line' and the chilling 'Peace on Earth'. Most of the transfers are OK, yet some suffer from technical problems like the use of non-anamorphic widescreen for a few cartoons filmed in Cinemascope, even if the box says they are anamorphic transfers (!). The collection covers the years from 1940 to 1965.

A nominee for an Oscar, this cartoon has excellent artwork, a great musical score and an entertaining premise to make it a most worthy effort indeed. A very cute cartoon that uses artwork to provide a counterpoint to the premise on occasion. The music alone would make it worth watching this one. Some of the jokes are rather dated, but it's still a very well done cartoon. Recommended.