Thursday 29 April 2021

Crying at the Coo Coo Nut Grove

Friz Freleng pans up in The Coo Coo Nut Grove (1936) and it turns out we’re seeing Helen Morgan crying while singing Warren/Dubin’s “The Little Things You Used To Do.”



The gag topper is the nightclub is so deep in tears, celebrities are on top of tables that float away. (Freleng liked post-scripts in gags. In this one, after the tables have floated out of the scene, a George Arliss turtle rows from left to right while on the back of his shell.



What’s a little odd in this cartoon is some of the celebrities are human, others are animalised versions. (Foreground: Laurel and Hardy, Wallace Beery. Background: Katharine Hepburn and W.C. Fields, Groucho in drag and Harpo).

Sandy Walker and Bob McKimson are the credited animators. The celebrities were designed by Thornton Hee just before he got a job with Walt Disney.

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