Grampy finally invents some musical instruments which get the natives dancing, diverting their attention so our heroes can make their escape in a monkey-propelled helicopter.
My favourite animation is of the mouth movements of the natives when Betty and Grampy arrive and of one dance scene where the shaking bodies turn into wavy lines. But there’s also a funny little scene where a frightened turtle is turned into a drum with a wrench beating on him thanks to a jury-rigged conveyor belt.
This cartoon is a great example of dialogue not matching mouth movements.
One theatre in Alabama debuted this cartoon along with the feature Ali Baba Goes to Town on December 13, 1937, eleven days before its “official” release date. Zula Hula was submitted for Oscar consideration but was not one of the final selections.
I’ve only been able to find one reference to the term “zula hula” that doesn’t involve this cartoon. A 1935 story in the Pittsburgh Courier reports on a basketball game involving the New York Rens, and calls them the “Zula-hula-skirted wonders of the court” (they had beaten the Celtics 7 out of 11 games). I haven’t seen any pictures indicating the players dressed in hula skirts as they took on white teams, but I’ll stand corrected.
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