The Van Beuren Studio’s cartoons, while pretty scrappy (with a lower ’s’!), have enjoyed a little bit better of a shake in more recent years, thanks to the internet and home video releases. A Little Bird Told Me (1934), along with the other two ‘Toddle Tales’ that Van Beuren produced that year, have always been favorites of mine for their strangeness and appeal.
In this live action-framed cartoon, Bobby’s big sister (unnamed) finds her little brother has broken into the world’s largest jar of jam. Bobby, who is nearly outperformed in his overacting by his sister, wonders how his big sister knew he was in the jam. She explains that “A little bird told me” and, with that statement, somehow an animated little bird shows up at their window, telling them an animated story explaining how reporters at the Birdland Daily Bugle reported on it. It’s a cute little film, featuring animation by Jim Tyer, who receives co-director credit.
The three b/w ‘Toddle Tales’ shorts, all produced in 1934, are the first films under the new directorial leadership of Burt Gillett, fresh from Disney. Immediately the technical and artistic qualities of the films get an upgrade, and one has to wonder how long the ramp-up took after Gillette’s arrival. Along Came a Duck appears to be the first produced in the series, with the animation layout and production qualities closer to the pre-Gillett shorts.
The background layout and painting is especially nice in “Bird” and Grandfather’s Clock, along with an improved quality of animation. Inking and painting is also very nice. Clearly there is great effort to make this film and the others a quality product. In this film, Winston Sharples’ score is breezy and enjoyable, with particular attention paid to synchronization throughout.
I’ve always wondered if there’s any way to find out who the uncredited child actors are in this film, and the other Toddle Tales. The child who plays Bobby returns in the later color Rainbow Parade short Spinning Mice (1935), and the kitchen that appears in The Picnic Panic seems to be the same one in “A Little Bird Told Me”. These two color films were clearly originally meant to be part of the Toddle Tales series, and were repurposed as Rainbow Parade releases. I wonder if these were children of people that worked at the studio, or if they were kid actors in New York stage or radio. Does anyone recognize them from anything else?
Back in 2014, we did a post here about A Little Bird Told Me (1934), and at that time I was debating doing an HD scan to upgrade the film. We did of course eventually!
Film collector friend Ralph Celentano was nice enough to sell his nice old original film print of the title, so the newer HD scan we’ve done of the film was from his print. We cleaned this up for the ‘Rainbow Parades, volume 1’ Blu-ray. We’re working hard right now on volume 2 right now.
Have a good week all!
