The Bored Cuckoo

1948 Animation 8 minutes Directed by Bill Tytla

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About The Bored Cuckoo

A wooden cuckoo has to pop out of a wall clock and call every hour, so he never sleeps. An accident dumps him outside, real birds snub him, and he falls for a nightclub songbird who sings "If I Were Free" from a gilded cage, not knowing the number is her act. Her manager throws him out, and when the flock flies south he cannot follow because he is made of wood. He comes back to find her tidying his rooms. They settle in, and three hatchlings pop from eggshells to call the hour while he stays in his chair.

Cast & crew

More about The Bored Cuckoo

Bill Tytla and George Germanetti directed. Bunny Gough, Bill Turner, and Larry Riley wrote it, from a story in Funny Book magazine, issue 7 (January–February 1946). George Germanetti, Steve Muffatti, and Thomas Moore animated. Robert Connavale painted the backgrounds. Paramount released it on April 9, 1948.

Themes

  • A job that rings every hour
  • A torch song taken literally
  • Hatchlings who inherit the clock
  • cuckoo clock
  • songbird
  • nightclub
  • migration
  • If I Were Free
  • hatchlings

Making

Winston Sharples composed the score. The character is a wooden clock bird, not a living cuckoo, which is why he cannot migrate.

Music

Winston Sharples composed the score. The nightclub bird sings "If I Were Free."

Preservation

Public domain in the United States since 1976. NTA's print keeps a Paramount end logo that other television copies often lose. One timed print runs 7 minutes 52 seconds.

Notes

  • Jack Mercer voices the cuckoo and other birds. Sid Raymond also does birds. Gwen Davies voices the songbird.
  • The nightclub number is "If I Were Free.
  • The Famous Studios logo on the titles is the one used for Screen Songs.
  • It is the last of three Noveltoons, after Spree for All (1946) and Flip Flap (1948), with a "By Arrangement With" line in the credits.
  • The NTA television print leaves the Paramount logo on at the end. A Cellulo print is missing the copyright year on the title card.
  • NTA missed the renewal. The short entered the U.S. public domain in 1976.
  • The Internet Animation Database times a print at 7 minutes 52 seconds, MPAA 4337, 35mm Technicolor, 1.37:1, RCA mono.

Scenes

  • The cuckoo is shoved onto his perch every hour and never gets a night's sleep.
  • He tries to free the nightclub bird during "If I Were Free" and her manager boots him.
  • Three hatchlings pop from eggshells and call the hour while he sits in the chair.

Influenced by

  • A story in Funny Book no. 7 (January–February 1946)

Also available

  • DVD and Blu-ray Noveltoons Original Classics (Thunderbean Animation, 2012 and 2019)

Quotes

If I Were Free

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