Ape Birthday

[ponamytrail]

Thanks for helping me remember alot of the old ones.
In the same spirit, can anyone fill in bits of this animation?

it was about an ape, who was drawn in a loose cartoon form, who somehow had a birthday party.
there were (kind of) lyrics to the narraration..they kind of sang small bits of it

what I remember is the ape skydives down to his birthday party and lands in a haystack. (they sing, "into a bale, a bale of haaaaaaaaaaay")

the ape sits at the front of a table and says, "Sorry I'm late"
they sing:
happy birthday to you
happy birthday to you

and it ended with
They all had fun;
ate alot of cake;
and when they were done
they cleaned up after themselves.

A.

 

[fuzzygobo]

The birthday ape is great!

The train to Spain was late today
An ape pulled the brake
And made a getaway

(One line omitted)
Tried to escape by a plane
Hanging on the tail

But the ace was afraid the ape wasn't tame
So he tried to shake him by making it rain

The ape bailed out sailing through space
Thought he'd land in a nice safe place
(Line omitted due to lack of memory)
His face was changed, by a bale of hay.

The ape raced away 'cause he had a date
With his favorite pastry, birthday cake
Now straight through the gate of his great estate
He grabbed a plate and said "Sorry I'm late!" HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

And his friends all shouted HOORAY!
The rest of the day they drank lemonade, ate a lot of cake
And when they were through, they cleaned up after themselves.

I ALWAYS loved the singing on this one, and the animation was great too.
Can't go wrong with this one

Also look in the last scene for an animated Big Bird!

 

[Splurge]

The train to Spain was late today
An ape pulled the brake
And made a getaway

(One line omitted)
Tried to escape by a plane
Hanging on the tail

I think I can fill in that line: Listed in Bold Italics
The train to Spain was
late today
an ape pulled the brake
(sung) And made a getaway....

Agents made a chase
but lost his trail
He escaped by plane
(zoom) Hanging on the tail.

 

[Ziffel]

Yeah this was a great animated sketch! I always loved when this came on. Fun music too. And great job with the words, fuzzygobo! Thanks for the addition too, Splurge. Some of these words were hard to make out back then, especially when the festive music plays at the cake scene. This is great to see what some of these were. Other people have done a similar great job with some other old skits, like that rather psychedelic "e" sketch from the first SS season.
http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=3235&highlight=easter

Fascinating to see the complete lyrics to some of these old (and sometimes obscure) classics and favorites.

Getting back to the birthday ape one, I also remember at the very beginning the narrator says, "A". And at the very end a group of people are singing "AAAAAAAAA" real enthusiastically and the narrator says the word, "A" in the midst of it. And I think the letter A was flashing rapidly, right? But I didn't ever catch the animated Big Bird! If I ever get to see this sketch again I'll have to look for it.

 

[PiLfan]

Getting back to the birthday ape one, I also remember at the very beginning the narrator says, "A". And at the very end a group of people are singing "AAAAAAAAA" real enthusiastically and the narrator says the word, "A" in the midst of it. And I think the letter A was flashing rapidly, right?


the way i recall it....he say's "a", then the narrator repeats it quickly: "a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-aaa"....much like the typical sound of a choo-choo train.


at the end of his "aaaa" is where the overdub of backup lady/soul singers sing "whoo-ooh" to imitate the sound of the train's whistle...at this point the animation goes from a orangish/redish lower-case a to a bunch of a's in puffs of smoke coming from the stack of an old-fashioned rail train, which is making it's way over a series of small hills in, what i imagine, is an outlying area of southern France (the only place the train could've originated from, according to the clip's line of: "the train to spain was late today...")


and well, the rest you know.


probably my all time favorite 'toon clip of the letter a. never saw the big bird at the end though...it was a bunch of animals at a zoo, i know that...there was a rabbit and some others. i'd like to be able to see it again to check, but i'm sure this one has been retired for some time, never to be seen again (unless someone has a downloaded mpeg clip)...haven't seen it since the 80s.


one final note...the narrator/"singer" of this clip (the only real singers are the backup r'n'b ladies, really) sounds a little like David (Northern Calloway), but i could be wrong.