Rooty Toot Toot

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 (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.

This film is commonly misunderstood and disliked these days, but thats only because people don't know why it is the way it is. Rooty Toot Toot, and most of UPA's work, was created with the intent to break from traditional animation and create something more relatable as fine or modern art. Something I think was highly successful. A film only appreciated by those willing to disregard the standards of loony toons and Disney.

The animation is zany and bizarre, the designs are fantastically simplistic. Watch for how the backgrounds only depict the minimum of what is necessary to visually represent what's going on. There's no need for full blown cell coloring here. I think the style matches the jazz perfectly.

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.