The Bored Cuckoo (film #532 on Open Source Movies). [Category: Sleaze & Outsider]

This is a sign-language interpreted version of one of those classic old Warner Bros. toons that feature characters from books coming alive at night and engaging in various antics. These toons were usually an excuse to make lots of topical gags, and they are essentially plotless. Nevertheless, the interpreter pops in about every three seconds and tries to explain what is going on, even though most of the gags are visual. Some of the explanations are inexplicable, such as announcing a caricature of Greta Garbo with huge feet doing a soft shoe on the cover of So Big as, “Oh! Here is a very bad dancer!” While others are merely incredibly obvious, such as announcing and slowly finger-spelling the name of Rip Van Winkle, when in the cartoon, the large legend “RIP VAN WINKLE” appears above his head. OK, I suppose the intended audience of deaf children will probably not get the topical references (hearing children don’t, either), and maybe a lot of them can’t read. But was it really necessary to explain the Thin Man gag? Of course, the idea of even attempting to sign-language interpret this particular cartoon is strange, and its even stranger in execution, making this an interesting piece of ephemera all the same.

Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: **. Weirdness: ****. Historical Interest: ****. Overall Rating: ****.

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