Release Date:

May 23, 1942

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

NYC billboards come to life at night to perform.

That’s Not All, Folks:

This certainly feels the most “urban” out of all the inanimate objects come to life cartoons since this takes place in New York City.

This is the last Warner cartoon from the early 1940’s to be written by Dave Monahan (who is again credited as “Sgt. Dave Monahan”), due to being drafted into the Army. Monahan would briefly return to the studio in the late 1940’s where he wrote four cartoons for future director Arthur Davis, with those being “Mexican Joyride” (1947), “Catch As Cats Can” (1947), “Nothing But the Tooth” (1948), and “The Rattled Rooster” (1948).

The cartoon feels similar to “Billboard Frolics” in that both cartoons revolve around billboards coming to life at night.

Live action footage of New York City at night is used as the opening and closing shots of the cartoon.

A brief instrumental of the Chinatown scene can be heard on The Carl Stalling Project Volume 2.

What I Like About This One:

The “Yahoodi Cafe” advertises “No Cover Charge No Minimum No Entertainment No Nothing”

A billboard for “Understood Typewriters” types out its advertisements like a typewriter: “It’s Sensational”, It’s Colossal”, it then can’t make up it’s find on the last word (“stupendous”) and frequently misspells it, before it finally settles with “It’s Swell!”

The “Four Noses” (a stick figure quartet whose bulbous noses appear a few seconds later) harmonize in a rendition of “My High-Polished Nose”.

A clown advertising “Clown Cookies and Cake” can’t stop himself from laughing hysterically while singing “Laugh Clown Laugh” (animated by Gil Turner).

Coffee cans for “Face and Sunburn Coffee” dancing a can-can to a rousing rendition of “The Latin Quarter”.

A neon sign lighting up to the tune of Strauss’ “Voices of Spring”, ending with an “Eat at Joe’s” advertisement.

The final sequence where various signs perform in rhythm to the Conga (with the live action footage from the start of the cartoon also being timed to the Conga).

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕 ½