Dance of the Alligators

Monkey Melodies from the Walt Disney studios is another one of the pointless musical cartoons of the early ‘30s with characters dancing around with no real gags.

It includes animation of monkeys swinging through trees with cel overlays in the foreground. I don’t know when cartoons first featured that effect, but it must have been novel for 1930.

Here are some alligators. They stare like something you’d find on The Simpsons. The characters aren’t particularly well drawn in spots.



All these alligators are missing are bashed-in top hats for the perfect Ted Lewis look. The high-stepping vaudeville dance is a far cry from the alligator dance in Fantasia a little over a decade later. Anyone know if this was a Dick Lundy scene?



Not exactly very menacing-looking, is he?



The underwater effect is pretty good and, again, must have been something new for 1930 audiences.



The monkeys get away.



Since the cartoon features two monkeys in love, it’s appropriate the soundtrack features “Abba Dabba Dabba,” a 1914 song about a monkey and a chimp on a honeymoon.