San Francisco, Giddyap Style

It’s true. UPA didn’t make funny animal cartoons. The proof is “Giddyap,” which is an unfunny animal cartoon.

Well, maybe that’s being a bit harsh. The horse is just “meh,” as the kids say today. It took three people to come up with a story about how it’s 1950 but ice is still being delivered all over San Francisco, and how a man and a little girl want to get rid of a horse that’s willing to give them all his loot. If the horse had any. And he gets some in the end, as the animated former vaudeville star follows the path of many real-life former vaudeville stars and ends up on early television.

As usual, the stars of this UPA cartoon are the designs (by Bill Hurtz) and colour choices (by Herb Klynn and Jules Engle). Some of the buildings, cars and clouds are simply outlines. There are lots of shades of green and they mesh very well. There’s a bit of red to add variation. And the San Francisco topography allows the layouts to be drawn so the point of view is looking up or down at the action some of the time.










The flashback scene that takes place on New York City’s Broadway uses different colours than the rest of the cartoon—blacks and blues, with outlines in lighter colours. It change works very well. I may post scenes from it later.

The characters aren’t all outlines like you’ll find in other UPA cartoons. They’re coloured in. I suppose Engle and Klynn (or maybe director Art Babbitt) wanted to make it clear that the horse had an audience on the street for his act, and did that by making the people stand out.

The stylised design of the ice truck is pretty cool.

Unless I’m mistaken, Stan Freberg is the voice of the horse.