Bill and Coo is a 1948 film directed byDean Riesner, filmed inTrucolor, and conceived to showcase George Burton's trained birds (Burton's Birds). The 61-minute live-action film stars many types of birds, includingbudgies (commonly known in the US asparakeets) andlovebirds. The film also features other trained animals, including cats, dogs and acrow. Except for three humans (producerKen Murray, bird trainer George Burton, and Elizabeth Walters) in a short set-up segment before the opening credits, the film features an all-animal cast. The film was shot on the world's second smallest film set, a miniature village built onto a 15 by 30 ft (4.6 by 9.1 m) tabletop.
The film received anHonorary Academy Award from theAcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences "In which artistry and patience blended in a novel and entertaining use of the medium of motion pictures." It also one of the first films to be released to cinemas on slow-burningcellulose acetatesafety film instead of the dangerously flammable nitrate stock used up until then. Initially, projectionists reported film damage due to the acetate base being less 'slippery' than that of nitrate (celluloid) based film. Before long it was found that a thin coating of wax applied along the film edges solved this problem. The copyright on the film lapsed and is in thepublic domain.[1]
The plot of the film is that the birds live in a fictional, peaceful town named Chirpendale. A crow arrives known as the Black Menace. As his name suggests, the Black Menace terrorizes the town. The story follows the adventures of the hero Bill, a cab driver, as he tries to save Coo and the rest of the town's inhabitants from certain destruction.
