Journal Entry – Week 9

“Rooty Toot Toot” is a short animated film directed by John Hubley. It was released in 1952 and is known for its unique animation style. The film tells the story of Frankie and Johnny, a couple caught in a love triangle that leads to a tragic end. Similar to other works from the UPA (United Productions of America) studio, “Rooty Toot Toot” uses limited animation. This style involves animating fewer frames per second than traditional animation, resulting in a more stylized and abstract look. The characters and backgrounds in Hubley’s animation are often characterized by simple, bold lines and shapes. The characters’ designs are more abstract and less concerned with realistic proportions, contributing to the film’s unique visual identity. UPA animations, including “Rooty Toot Toot,” often featured bold and modern color choices. The use of color is not necessarily realistic but is employed to convey emotions and set the tone for the narrative. The film incorporates abstract patterns in both the characters and the backgrounds. These patterns may be used to convey emotions, emphasize movement, or enhance the overall visual experience. The limited animation style is often used to emphasize specific movements or actions. By focusing on key frames, animators can draw attention to crucial elements of the narrative, enhancing the impact of those moments. As for whether these elements are effective in telling the story, it largely depends on individual interpretation and the viewer’s appreciation for abstract and stylized animation. The unique visual style of “Rooty Toot Toot” has been praised for its innovation and departure from conventional animation techniques. The simplified and expressive visuals contribute to the film’s emotional impact, making it a notable example of UPA’s artistic contributions to animation.

Prompt 1

Work from the UPA studio was noted for its use of color, abstract patterns, stylized drawing and limited movement. Watch “Rooty Tooty Toot” in it’s entirety. Describe how it uses color, patterns, drawing and movement. Do you think it is effective and tells the story using these means? Why?

Through the use of colors, patterns, lines and the movement of the characters, UPA studio was able to effectively tell the story of Rooty Tooty Toot in a unique way. The story follows a young woman, Frankie, being put on trial for the alleged murder of her love interest; Johnny because of her jealousy when she found out that he was with Nellie Bly in a bar. The studio had only used two primary colors which were red and blue, Frankie was portrayed in red to not only display her angry yet jealous demeanor but to make her stand out from the other characters seen in the short film. Similarly, Nelly Bly was portrayed in blue to make her the complete opposite of Frankie as she was calm and collected, being the witness of the crime Frankie committed. Despite the minimalistic style that the animation in the short film had, the background had plenty of detail to present the environment that the characters were in, an example being the scene where Johnny runs away from Frankie and goes through a detailed cityscape to avoid the ricochet bullets and the interior of the bar where we see tables, bottles, a counter, and chairs to display that the setting is different from the prior scene.

With each movement that the characters do throughout the film, the studio was able to portray their emotions with their facial expressions and the way they interact with each other. Like how Frankie entered the bar to find Johnny, the bartender informing her that he’s with a singer in the back which causes Frankie to be in shock with her hair flowing from side to side and proceeding to jump out of her seat in an angered manner. The animators were also able to show Johnny’s fear of Frankie coming to where he is, completely terrified for his life as his legs were shown to be trembling and scrambling to close the door to prevent Frankie from coming inside.

Work from the UPA studio was noted for its use of color, abstract patterns, stylized drawing and limited movement. Watch “Rooty Tooty Toot” in it’s entirety. Describe how it uses color, patterns, drawing and movement. Do you think it is effective and tells the story using these means? Why?

In the film Rooty toot toot, the use of colors is used to create an atmosphere in the film, throughout the film the use of colors depends on the scene and the emotions expressed by the characters, I liked it because when Frankie was “sad” The background changed to a gray color that represented the melancholy that she felt at the moment. In moments of suspense, the background turned a bit blueish, the color background was white to imply that it was something “fictional” or a lie, however, the colors used in the characters’ clothing connoted another meaning. the red dress could be understood to mean “lies, and grudges, and death”, the blue on the dress of the deceased’s lover could be understood as “lust”. All of this gave meaning to the film and a good use of colors. On the other hand, the drawings representing each character gave the same feeling as the color, the women were drawn exaggeratedly thin and always in dresses, just as their feet were very pointed, while the men were drawn in suits and ties, this hinted at the stereotypes and fashion of that time, they were very well reflected in the animation with a bit of exaggeration to entertain the audience.

The little movement shown in the film was also an important factor, however, it did not help much towards its effectiveness throughout the film. The movements shown in the film were in the form of a dance and coordinated with the sound, but in my opinion that did not help much in the retelling since the fact that they were dancing only made it look more childish and gave the impression that perhaps it was a film that children could watch, I also couldn’t understand what the purpose of making them dance in a “court” was.

Prompt 1

Work from the UPA studio was noted for its use of color, abstract patterns, stylized drawing and limited movement. Watch “Rooty Tooty Toot” in it’s entirety. Describe how it uses color, patterns, drawing and movement. Do you think it is effective and tells the story using these means? Why?

Yes, “Rooty Tooty Toot’s” use of color, abstract patterns, stylized drawing, and –somewhat– limited movement is effective in being able to tell the story. As for the reason for this… first, I want to talk about the usage of color. The background color — should I say background color? since when the main “color” is changed, it seems to flood the entirety of the space — changes drastically and intensely to match the emotion and meaning of the current scene and even “foreshadow”/tell of approaching outcomes without this hinting ever becoming obnoxious and instead easily being acceptable as an understandable fact of the story. Such is, as an example, the redness of the scene when Frankie is announced as “not guilty”. The sudden shift to red; red everywhere, in the background, the lights of the characters — since the “shadows” of this style of “rendering” seem to be only represented as blacks whereas the actual colors of everything are depicted as the current background color –, all of the “abstract” spaces that appear, etc., are incredibly startling and in no way feel quite exactly joyful. Even though it is apparent that — taking additionally into account the exuberant and even overwhelming music — everyone (save for the prosecutor and the witnesses) is blatantly overjoyed at the ruling, the deeper meaning of this scene shows that this is not quite the case. In fact, it’s quite obvious that something is wrong. The choice of red, which — in an American society, at least — is a color that symbolizes [extreme] madness & anger, as a background color for this scene is already a red flag (pun intended). This and the sudden explosion of deafening big-band music is enough to make the viewer feel like they had just accidentally opened the wrong door in a building and walked straight into a huge and overwhelming rave with hundreds of people dancing, complete with a DJ, ear-splitting bass that penetrates through your bones, and bright flashing lights that make you shut your eyes and fill you with a sense of dread and panic, giving you a migraine instantly. (Well, that’s what that experience would feel like for me. I’m an introvert and have extreme social anxiety, so… I hear people actually enjoy whatever kind of sweaty, crushing, steaming, heart-pounding, explosive nightmare that is a “party”, so maybe the situation I’m describing is only absolutely horrifying from my perspective.) But anyways, it gives that vibe, most definitely. And so it seems to be no surprise when Frankie gets angry — again, we can see she’s ANGRY due to the COLOR association — and shoots her gun at the very man who defended her after seeing him dancing and acting close with the witness. All of the din and chaos, the red and sound, the cacophony of shapes and unraveling madness, is leading up to that moment, to the point where it is already quite duly expected.

This color and musical theory to express emotion and more specifically “vibes” exists throughout the entire animation as well. When the female witness describes her experience, she sings it rather than speaking it (just like the other characters in the animation, if you play close attention), and the sound of her song is that of a slow and drawn out lament, classy and silky, which gives even more life to her very figure, as she is drawn tall and slender, with slow and coiling movements like that of a snake or some other sleek and elegant creature. In fact, SHE EVEN WRAPS HER ARMS AROUND EACH OTHER like a snake coiling itself up — which of course isn’t possible in real life, but then again, everything is possible in animation. The blue and purplish background during this woman’s scene really draws out the elegant and slick vibe even more, giving off the vibe of a high class blues or jazz club with connoisseurs in the seats, drinking high-class wine and listening to a classy piano performance (that mental scene in itself is even hinted at within the animation, as during the witnesses account, we can actually see the victim playing the piano for her — which was a surprise, to say the least, since I’m sure that I’m not the only one who thought that they would be doing something else in there).

I could give countless more examples — every scene is coded with color, music, and character proportions/appearance to tell the story; one more example is the white color which defines the defendant’s “account” of the story, in which he describes her to be “pure” in fantastical detail, and white is often used as symbolism of pureness — but I would then be going on forever, and ever, and ever, I’ll reckon. (You can see how much I’ve typed already!) I must say, although I think this is already quite obvious, that I’m a big fan of this use of color, musical, and proportional symbolism, although the use of color is, out of these three, undoubtfully my favorite. I believe that the animations of today — as 2D animations are struggling to survive — should take more inspiration from this style of animation, learning from their predecessors to put more detail into their work like this, because it can produce incredibly clever results.