This is the classic story of Frankie and Johnny and Nellie Blye. She catches him with Nellie and kills him. This takes a really cool jazz score and sets up a court case. Of course, the characters are quirky, but the judicial system we have today often reflects the one portrayed in this short. All testimony leads to what should be a guilty verdict. But don't turn your head for a second. There's much to come. Some reviewers give this ones and two because it's too loud and intense. A criticism was made that it isn't appropriate for children. Animation isn't always for children. Just watch the direction things have taken on television. There is biting satire and some pretty harsh stuff being presented these days. Why does the cartoonists craft have to be based on things done in the 1930's. This isn't a world beater, but it is creative and interprets the music well.
11 Reviews
outside of this I only know the song from Sam Cooke and a Jean Harlow movie
lee_eisenberg25 March 2020
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.
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.
A classic UPA cartoon modern short about the trial of Frankie.
kateburck7 July 2009
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.
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.
UPA's Rooty Toot Toot is an entertaining animated short version of the "Frankie and Johnny" song
tavm2 March 2011
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.
Vintage UPA toon.
Mozjoukine30 September 2005
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.
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.
a masterful work of animation!
nickmovie-122 July 2009
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.
Yet another poorly animated film from UPA
planktonrules1 November 2008
The films of UPA are surprisingly well rated on IMDb despite the fact that the animation quality is light-years behind that of Looney Toons, Disney and MGM at their prime. Sadly, due to rising costs in making pretty cartoons with high frame-rates and lovely backgrounds, the UPA style (which debuted about 1950) began to dominate in the late 50s and 60s. After all, the films were dirt cheap to make and they'd received several Oscars to "prove" that the cartoons were now mainstream. So as a result, lousy animation was becoming the norm and this trend wasn't reversed until the 1980s.
This UPA film is one of the early ones. The characters are very simply drawn (any simpler and they would have used stick figures) and the backgrounds were ugly--simple line drawings with colors added in a very slap-dash manner (often with a sponge and rarely completely filling the items).
As for the story, it's a jive story with a strong jazz style attitude. Some will love this, others will just find it very, very loud. It's the traditional "Frankie and Johnny" story and because of the shootings and all, it's probably not a great film for the kids. Heck, because of the animation and jazz, it's not a particularly good film for me, either! Some will read my review and no doubt think I am a crank (which I am, to a degree). However, I love animated films and a little of this minimalistic UPA style goes a very, very long way and you can't seriously consider them great works of art--just very, very quickly made cartoons. Ignore the Oscars and try watching some classic cartoons or something--anything else!
This UPA film is one of the early ones. The characters are very simply drawn (any simpler and they would have used stick figures) and the backgrounds were ugly--simple line drawings with colors added in a very slap-dash manner (often with a sponge and rarely completely filling the items).
As for the story, it's a jive story with a strong jazz style attitude. Some will love this, others will just find it very, very loud. It's the traditional "Frankie and Johnny" story and because of the shootings and all, it's probably not a great film for the kids. Heck, because of the animation and jazz, it's not a particularly good film for me, either! Some will read my review and no doubt think I am a crank (which I am, to a degree). However, I love animated films and a little of this minimalistic UPA style goes a very, very long way and you can't seriously consider them great works of art--just very, very quickly made cartoons. Ignore the Oscars and try watching some classic cartoons or something--anything else!
One of the better of the UPA releases, it obviously influenced at least one later Disney short
llltdesq29 May 2001
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.
Early Hubley still different
Horst_In_Translation28 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"Rooty Toot Toot" is an American 7.5-minute cartoon from 1951, which means next year will be its 65th anniversary. This one was co-written and directed by American filmmaker John Hubley and it was nominated for an Academy Award. Hubley won several Oscars later on and scored many nominations, but here he was not yet credited as the nominee. The movie lost to Tom & Jerry back then. Music was always an important factor in Hubley's short films and the title already tells you that this is also a very music-centered movie. But other than that, it has only very few parallels with the Hubleys' most successful works from the following decades. The story here is about a murder for reasons of jealousy and the court proceedings that follow. But honestly, it's all about the music really. Pretty bizarre little film. I personally don't think it's worth watching or even good enough for an Oscar nod. Thumbs down and I don't recommend checking it out.
a little musical-noir-animated masterpiece
Quinoa198429 September 2022
John Hubley was an innovator and quite daring when it came to mixing and experimenting with forms and styles of animation. He worked for UPA for a long time, and here in this short film that is equal parts (Jazz) musical, raw film noir and courtroom saga, he manages to fit in with his team and whole mess of incredible background art; some of it very decidedly meant to be harsh in contrasts to the figures we are seeing, the world becoming distorted as it were as we are seeing varying perspectives on what happened to his man shot in his own home.
It's also kind of funny how a few of the characters look like templates for Mr Magoo, who would come out of UPA and that world of animators. But it doesn't detract from the staggering sense of playfulness and ambition here; like when you see something by the Brother's Quay, you know there are things that are so densely packed that you'll need another viewing or two to understand what everything means, or if not even that just how certain shapes and moments blend together.
This is sophisticated in hoe Hubley and his animators understand color and timing and how to have music drive the narrative without it overpowering what's on screen (a perfect marriage, which shouldn't be a thing but it is here), but it doesn't ever feel like it's above its audience like it should be in a museum. Rather this is precisely the kind of short that would get me in the mood to watch, oh I don't know, Sam Fuller's hardboiled pot-boilers, or the Asphalt Jungle.
A little masterpiece.
It's also kind of funny how a few of the characters look like templates for Mr Magoo, who would come out of UPA and that world of animators. But it doesn't detract from the staggering sense of playfulness and ambition here; like when you see something by the Brother's Quay, you know there are things that are so densely packed that you'll need another viewing or two to understand what everything means, or if not even that just how certain shapes and moments blend together.
This is sophisticated in hoe Hubley and his animators understand color and timing and how to have music drive the narrative without it overpowering what's on screen (a perfect marriage, which shouldn't be a thing but it is here), but it doesn't ever feel like it's above its audience like it should be in a museum. Rather this is precisely the kind of short that would get me in the mood to watch, oh I don't know, Sam Fuller's hardboiled pot-boilers, or the Asphalt Jungle.
A little masterpiece.
Fun Short with Some Beautiful Colors
Michael_Elliott6 November 2012
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.
*** (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.
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