Studio: Van Beuren Studios (Rainbow Parade)
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Short Synopsis
Parrotville is a town of parrots, and its fire department is a crew of birds in helmets led by a chief called the Flasher. When a fire breaks out, the brigade goes through the standard routine of the fire-engine comedy, the alarm, the pole, the engine, the hoses and the ladders, each stage complicated by the fact that the firemen are parrots who can fly, squawk and repeat everything they hear, and the rescue of the burning building's occupants is as chaotic as the blaze. The town, the engine and the flames are in two-colour Cinecolor, with the parrots' plumage chosen to show it off. The film survives and circulates; a shot-by-shot account is not in the sources used here, and the outline follows the premise and the series' pattern.
Why It Matters
- Parrots in colour were a good idea for a studio limited to two hues, and the Parrotville birds, loud, bright and all talking at once, have a personality that the Rainbow Parade's one-shot casts often lacked; the fire-house routine, already a cartoon classic by 1934, gets a fresh look through feathers.
- This was the first of three Parrotville cartoons, the Rainbow Parade's first attempt at recurring characters, and the only film Gillett co-directed with Steve Muffati. Winston Sharples, who scored it, went on to be the Fleischer and Famous Studios' house composer for twenty years; his work here is among his first. The Parrotville films are the Rainbow Parade's most likeable original creations.
Notes and Trivia
- The two later Parrotville cartoons were Parrotville Old Folks (1935) and Parrotville Post Office (1935).
- The series' other recurring character, Molly Moo-Cow, was less successful; the Toonerville Trolley and Felix the Cat films followed.
- See also: Pastry Town Wedding (1934), Alice the Fire Fighter (1926), Fiddlin' Fun (1934).