Rooty Toot Toot (1951)

Rooty Toot Toot Review

Rooty Toot Toot is a 1951 animated short film produced by UPA. This is a highly stylized and unique short.

Frankie walks into a bar where she catches her boyfriend Johnny with the sensuous Nellie Bly and kills him in a fit of jealousy. The film depicts her trial for murder. Her crooked lawyer manages to have her declared not guilty, and expresses an interest in marrying his client. When she sees the lawyer walking away with another woman, the defendant kills him in front of witnesses. That ending was so funny and just perfect. The rest of the story is also a lot of fun with a sly sense of humor and mature themes, making it fitting only for adults.

The highlight is obviously the animation. It was done in that very fifties drawing style that emphasizes shapes and movements through sketches. The result is this immensely stylistic and gorgeous-looking film that also features oddly shaped characters that are definitely ugly, but in a very authentic and charming way. There is a lack of character development here that hurt the film, but otherwise the story is so much fun, the crime angle is cool and the conclusion was so good. The score is composed of jazz and blues numbers and it’s the type of film where characters are speaking in rhyme. It’s a hilarious courtroom comedy that was very much ahead of its time.

Rooty Toot Toot is an immensely unique, highly stylized and just cool animated short that features impressive animation, a strong score, and a fun story that ended perfectly. It’s an arthouse classic.

My Rating – 4.4