A 1975 animated television special created by Maurice Sendak (based on some of his children's booksnote ) and performed by Carole King, which was later adapted into an off Broadway play.
Rosie (voiced by King) is a young girl who lives on Brooklyn's Avenue P and dreams of stardom. She decides she wants to make a movie about her life (in particular the "demise" of her friendnote Chicken Soup), and demands that her friends (Kathy, Pierre, Alligator, and Johnny, aka The Nutshell Kidsnote ) all perform a "screen test" to get themselves a role. Each of these turns into a Disney Acid Sequence depicting a story from one of Sendak's Nutshell Library books, with Rosie singing.
First up, Johnny performs "One Was Johnny", a counting song in which Johnny finds himself driven to distraction by various intruders in his home, including a rat, a cat, a dog, a turtle, a bird, a tiger, a monkey, and a thief. Eventually he loses his temper and insists that if they don't depart immediately he will eat all of them. The creatures flee, leaving Johnny by himself, which he enjoys. Rosie praises Johnny's performance.
Next, Alligator (an actual alligator) insists on auditioning, by performing "Alligators All Around" an alphabet song based around Added Alliterative Appeal and producing related items from a Bag of Holding. Rosie is less receptive of this performance, stating "Don't call us, we'll call you."
Pierre doesn't want anything to do with Rosie's film, and insists that he doesn't care what happened to Chicken Soup. Rosie tricks him by implying that Chicken Soup was in fact eaten, and Pierre enthusiastically tells his own life story, "Pierre." In it, he is a willful brat who announces "I don't care!" in response to everything and refuses to behave. A lion threatens to eat him, but he still claims not to care. After he is eaten, Pierre's parents find the lion sick in Pierre's bed, with their son's voice still saying "I don't care!" from within. Turning the lion upside down frees Pierre, who decides he cares after all.
A thunderstorm breaks out, and the Nutshell Kids flee indoors, where Rosie finally tells them what happened to Chicken Soup: he prepared a bowl of soup, didn't notice a small bone within, and choked to death. The kids decide to act this out, and Chicken Soup himself enters and wonders why everyone is lying down.
Rosie insists that he audition as well, and the others want to join in. The entire group performs "Chicken Soup With Rice," a song which celebrates the titular dish in a different way for every month of the year. Once they finish, Rosie tells her friends that they can all be in her movie, but by now they have lost interest and go their separate ways. Rosie nonetheless concludes that her film has been a great success.
Has nothing to do with Rosie O'Donnell, or Roseanne Barrnote .
The Animated Special Contains The Following Tropes:
- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the original books, both Johnny and "Chicken Soup" looked exactly like Pierre, with black hair and dressed in a blue suit. In this cartoon, Johnny has red hair and wears glasses and a teal suit, while Chicken Soup is chubby and wears a brown suit and a chef's hat.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- In the TV special Chicken Soup doesn’t show up until after "The Ballad of Chicken Soup", in the stage show he shows up right after "Really Rosie".
- A song example in this case, "Alligators All Around" happens before "One Was Johnny" in the stage show too.
- Adaptational Jerkass: The kids are much ruder to each other in the stage play compared to the TV special.
- Adapted Out:
- Of Rosie's original gang of friends from The Sign on Rosie's Door, only Kathy appears. Lenny, Dolly, Pudgy and Sal are replaced by Johnny, Alligator, Pierre and Chicken Soup.
- Buttermilk the cat and Jenny the dog do not appear in the stage play.
- Adaptational Species Change: In the stage play, Alligator is changed into a young boy who believes that he is an alligator.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: "Alligators All Around" is based on this trope, for every letter of the alphabet. It's even in the title.
- Affably Evil: The lion wants to eat Pierre, but warns him first. When eating Pierre makes him ill, he allows the kid to be released, offers him and his parents a ride home on his back, and stays on as a weekend guest in their home.
- All There in the Script: In the cartoon, Kathy is never referred to by name, neither is Johnny's dog, Jenny, or Rosie's cat, Buttermilk. In the stage play, Kathy is not only referred to by name, but also given the full Jewish name of Kathy Grossman.
- Alphabet Song: "Alligators All Around" which goes through A-Z with an added amount of alliteration.
- And Here He Comes Now: Chicken Soup enters right after the kids act out his story.
- Ascended Extra: Kathy actually gets a musical number in the stage play, in the TV special she did not get one.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Alligator is the smallest member of the gang and seems to be the most enthusiastic about being in Rosie’s movie.
- Bag of Holding: Alligator has his mom toss one down for "Alligators All Around". It contains a multitude of props to use during the song, some of which clearly can't fit inside. It even gets set on fire briefly, but somehow doesn't get burnt.
- Big Brother Instinct: Sister in this case, but in the stage play, Kathy immediately comes to Alligator’s defense when Johnny threatens to punch him.
- Bookworm: Johnny can usually be seen reading a book, and in the stage show regularly talks about things that he has read.
- Broken Record:There once was a boy named Pierre / Who only would say "I don't care!"...
- Brooklyn Rage: The kids are all Brooklynites, but loud-mouthed Jerkass Pierre has the strongest accent.
- Catchphrase: Pierre - "I don't care!"
- Composite Character: Minor example, but the role of Pierre’s Parents in "Pierre" gets filled by Johnny and Kathy.
- Creator Cameo: Maurice Sendak provides Jenny's bark.
- Creator Thumbprint: Sendak's sheepdog Jenny makes frequent appearances in his works. She appears here as Johnny's dog, with Sendak doing the barks.
- Creepy Child: Downplayed with Johnny in the stage play, while he is as normal as the others, his tendency to talk about strange things he has read tends to weird the other kids out.
- Darker and Edgier: The (off-broadwaynote ) stage play includes some frank examples of the main characters being slapped or screamed at by their parents. It also makes clear that this version of Rosie isn't nearly so happy or at peace with herself as the version in the special.
- Deadpan Snarker: All of the Nutshell kids to a degree, but especially Alligator with his signs.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Or in this case, an alligator named Alligator.
- Drama Queen: Rosie. She acts very dramatic.
- Dramatic Thunder: Done during the "Ballad of Chicken Soup" song. It also occurs right before she sings it, after ominously asking her friends "Did you hear what happened to Chicken Soup?" lightning flashes and it starts to rain.
- Disney Acid Sequence: All the "screen tests" are this. There are also a number of more normal songs, sung by Rosie in the "real world" that avert this trope.
- Easily Forgiven: The lion in "Pierre". His parents forgive it for eating their son (though he is none the worse for it) and even allow it to stay the weekend. At least it offered them a ride home.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Alligator, who is an alligator. Also, Chicken Soup really likes chicken soup. He even serves some to the others.
- Extreme Omnivore: Johnny claims he will eat all the creatures infesting his home, including a human being, if they don't leave at once. He was probably bluffing, but they take the threat seriously enough.
- Furry Confusion: Alligator is fairly anthropomorphic, possessing hands, wearing clothing, and walking upright. No other animal in the special does so, though some of them can talk. And during "Chicken Soup With Rice", he joins the other kids in riding on a (non-anthropomorphic) crocodile's back.
- Genki Girl: Rosie. She is always full of energy.
- Getting Eaten Is Harmless: Pierre comes out of the lion's stomach without a scratch.
- Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: Alligator wears a blue jacket and no pants.
- "I Am" Song: Both "Really Rosie" (and its reprise) and "Screaming and Yelling".
- Invisible Parents: Only Johnny's and Alligator's mothers are briefly seen during the opening number. Rosie calls out to her mother to drop her director's chair for her. Averted in the stage version where the mothers are only heard offstage.
- Jerkass: Pierre, who comes off like a prepubescent Mike Warner.
- Kids Are Cruel: The Nutshell Kids clearly don't believe for a second that Chicken Soup is actually dead (they show no surprise when he turns up), but they still find Rosie's story about him choking to death rather amusing and play along enthusiastically. They're also prone to teasing and snarking at each other in the street scenes. Maurice Sendak once said that he wanted to be more honest than other children's writers about how "barbaric" kids can be.
- Large Ham: Rosie in a Nutshell.
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!:
- No one at all finds it unusual in the slightest that one of the kids is an anthropomorphic alligator.
- There is also a literal application of this trope. "One Was Johnny" features a tiger and "Pierre" features a lion.
- Morality Ballad: "Pierre", with the moral "You should care". At least if a lion wants to eat you.
- The Musical: The Off-Broadway version ran for 274 performances, and remains a staple of children's theater productions.
- Offscreen Teleportation: During the opening song, Rosie goes from a 2nd story window, to a ground floor window, back up to a different 2nd story window, and finally to the steps outside the building.
- Pop-Star Composer: Carole King, at or not long after her artistic and commercial peak, wrote the music to the songs.
- Precision F-Strike: In the stage adaptation, Kathy's mother says, "Where the hell are ya?"
- Related in the Adaptation: In the cartoon, Rosie calls Chicken Soup her "lover boy." In the stage play, he's her brother. Also, Alligator and Kathy are brother and sister in the stage version, whereas no such relation occurs in the cartoon.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Rosie dresses and acts like a Hollywood starlet despite not having done anything to achieve fame. In the cartoon Johnny even briefly comments on it.
- Space Whale Aesop: If you don't care, your parents will leave you at home and you'll be swallowed whole by a lion.
- Shout-Out: Rosie mentions King Kong in "Avenue P".
- Swallowed Whole: Pierre in his song. He's perfectly fine once they hold the beast upside down and get it to roar.
- Talking with Signs: Alligator tends to do this, even though he is capable of speech.
- Title Theme Tune:"I'm really Rosie, and I'm Rosie real..."
- Trademark Favorite Food: Take a guess what Chicken Soup likes to eat.hint
- Two Girls to a Team: Rosie and Kathy are the only girls.
- Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Rosie was inspired by a girl Sendak knew in his childhood, who was constantly singing on her balcony. "The Ballad of Chicken Soup" was inspired by a story she once told the local kids about the horrible "death" of her very-much-alive grandmother.
- Vocal Dissonance: 10-year-old Rosie in her too-big dress-up clothes has the mature voice of 33-year-old Carole King.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Rosie's reaction when Pierre says nothing happened to Chicken Soup.
