Much Ado About Nutting (1953)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Chuck Jones

Writer:

Michael Maltese (story)

Release Date:

23 May 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Animation | Short | Comedy

Plot:

A squirrel in a downtown park lugs a giant coconut back home, but nothing he does can seem to crack it open.

Plot Keywords:

Coconut | Squirrel | Peanut | Brazil Nut | Walnut

Runtime:

7 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)

Soundtrack:

Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush

Slow-paced, calculated and sometimes wonderful

Chuck Jones's 'Much Ado About Nutting' is a calculated, slow-paced cartoon which ultimately suffers from a weak and overly bizarre punch line. Nevertheless, Jones's genius is amply displayed in the lead-up to this disappointing finale. 'Much Ado About Nutting' follows an urban squirrel's attempts to open a seemingly impenetrable coconut with ever grander schemes, culminating in him tossing it off the Empire State Building. The squirrel is rendered in a more realistic style than the anthropomorphised creatures that populate most cartoons and the story is played out sans dialogue. Jones uses this to his advantage, highlighting the squirrel's growing frustration and obsession for laughs. Indeed, 'Much Ado About Nutting' is at its funniest and most impressive between the punchlines. For instance, the gag at the end of the Empire State sequence is amusing enough but the lead up to it, in which we watch the squirrel agonisingly push the coconut up the thousands of stairs is extraordinarily attractive and tinged with both a sense of suspense and not a little inevitability. 'Much Ado About Nutting' does not quite scale the heights of the truly classic Warner one-shots but it is constantly engaging and occasionally wonderful.