Release Date:

May 23, 1953

Main Character(s):

None

Summary:

A squirrel attempts to crack open a coconut to no avail.

That’s Not All, Folks:

The production number is 1246 and was released as a Merrie Melodie.

There is no dialogue in this cartoon.

With this being a dialogue-less cartoon, Milt Franklyn is credited for orchestrations.

The title is a pun for the Shakespeare play, “Much Ado About Nothing”. Jones would also use this pun again at MGM for the 4th of the 34 Tom and Jerry cartoons he and his unit worked on, “Much Ado About Mousing”.

The squirrel in this cartoon makes a cameo appearance near the end of “Looney Tunes Back in Action” (2003).

This cartoon makes literal use of the phrase “tough nut to crack”.

The cartoon is in the 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons book.

In reality, coconuts are not nuts.

The squirrel bears some similarity to Wile E. Coyote in that he never succeeds in accomplishing his goal (cracking open the coconut in this case), but yet never gives up (though the squirrel does give up near the end, which provides a twist ending).

The cartoon itself is also similar to the Roadrunner cartoons in their use of blackout gags and being pantomime cartoons. Jones directing this cartoon also supports this.

Favorite Scene:

The squirrel eventually resorts to rolling the coconut up the many stairs of the Empire State Building and pushing it off the observation deck, only for the coconut’s impact to break the street instead.

What Happens in This One:

The title card and credits are shown on a camera pan through Central Park with “While Strolling Through the Park One Day” playing. From his tree, the squirrel spots a store having all kinds of nuts for sale. He excitedly runs down his tree, on top of the park’s fence, and after climbing down the fence, begins to cross the street (animated by Ben Washam).

The squirrel then hears the horn of an oncoming truck, so he hides in an empty tin can to avoid getting run over. The truck passing it causes the can to spin all the way to the curb, rendering the squirrel dizzy (animated by Washam). Upon coming to, he is delighted to see that he is in front of the nuts sale and climbs up into the wagon full of peanuts. He takes a handful and then sees something even better: walnuts. Running over there, the squirrel puts one in between his feet and kicks it around in place, but before he can take a bite, he notices the Brazil nuts. The squirrel tosses the walnut he was holding aside, and goes over to the Brazil nuts, jumping into them. Before he can take a bite of one of them, his pupils grow big in excitement upon seeing the biggest nuts of all: coconuts (animated by Ken Harris).

The squirrel takes the coconut on top of the stack, and after briefly getting flattened from it after rolling it down a “Special Today: Coconuts” sign, he pushes it all the way across the street before crashing into the curb in front of the park, due to being unable to see in front of the coconut. After getting it into the park with him, the squirrel pushes the coconut (animated by Harris) all the way to his tree. Due to its hard shell, however, he is unable to bite down into it (animated by Washam).

After thinking briefly, the squirrel runs off and comes back with a small rock to hit the coconut with, but the impact only splits the rock in half. The squirrel becomes annoyed at this, so he tries to kick the coconut, only to succeed in hurting his foot. He jumps up and down on the coconut before picking it up and slamming it onto the ground, only to break the concrete under it (animated by Washam).

Looking at how high his tree’s branch is (animated by Washam), the squirrel decides to push the coconut up the tree while he moves backwards up the tree, but the coconut’s weight only sends him sliding back down. He then pushes the coconut away from the tree very fast to get a good running start and pushes it towards the tree, this time getting all the way up to the branch, due to having made enough momentum to do so. The squirrel pushes the coconut off the branch, but it only sinks halfway into the ground (animated by Lloyd Vaughan).

The squirrel goes into a workshop and gets a saw from there to cut the coconut open, only for all the pointy pieces on said saw to fall off one by one as he moves it across the coconut. The squirrel then attempts to use an ax, but the blade ends up splitting upon impact. He then sees the nearby “ACME Construction Co.” and takes the coconut over there (animated by Vaughan).

Attempting to use a jackhammer on the coconut, the squirrel only succeeds in completely destroying said jackhammer (animated by Vaughan). The squirrel surrounds the coconut with dynamite, and after he pushes the TNT plunger, the explosion sends the coconut flying into the air. After the squirrel goes over in confusion to the spot he blasted, the coconut comes back down and lands on him, pounding him into the ground (animated by Washam).

The squirrel then takes the coconut into the Empire State Building where he decides to push it up every floor by taking the stairs. After a while, he is seen pushing it up the 57th floor, then later the 86th floor, and then even higher on an unidentified floor before finally making it all the way to the top of the observation deck, and pushing the coconut off of the deck’s telescope. The coconut once again proves its apparent indestructibility when it ends up destroying the street on impact (animated by Harris).

Exhausted, the squirrel gives up and puts the coconut back where he found it. However, the coconut rolls off of the stack and this time splits in two upon hitting the ground, much to the squirrel’s delight. Upon opening it, however, he ends up finding another coconut inside! The squirrel faints in shock, while this coconut winks with the sound effect of Bob Clampett’s “Bee-woop!” (animated by Washam)

Where Can I Watch It?

At archive.org!

Carrot Rating:

🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕