The Chimpanzoo

"The Chimpanzoo" is a deleted song from the movie, Mary Poppins.

According to concept art and storyboards, this would have been a scene where Mary Poppins sang a song to the Banks children while at Uncle Albert's floating tea party, which would lead to a live-action/cartoon fantasy sequence where humans are kept in cages for animals to gawk at.

Production

When this song was written, Walt Disney felt the number was more than the sequence needed, and so the amusing and uplifting “I Love to Laugh” is the only song performed in the high tea scene. Taking a cue from story sketches in which the animals at the Chimpanzoo are musically talented, this recording employs those creatures for the vocals, rather than Mary Poppins or Bert. Also, when the animals play kazoos, Richard Sherman himself joins in.

Lyrics

In Timbuktu, there's a Chimpanzoo

That's run by a chimpanzee.

It's an oddish place where the human race

Is under lock and key.

And on their backs, they wear small plaques

For the animals to view.

Which specify the reasons why

They're kept in the Chimpanzoo.

If you're boisterous and bumptious,

you're grist for the Chimpanzoo!

If you're overly rambuctious,

you're whisked to Timbuktu

Laughs, laughs, nothing but laughs

But you know who's laughing at who?

It's the animals there who giggle and stare

at you in the Chimpanzoo!

(Kazoo break)

Now this chimpanzee's relations

Keep the cages looking posh

Tend the wickets, take the tickets

And purvey the lemon squash

Laughs, laughs, nothing but laughs

But you know who's laughing at who?

It's the animals there who giggle and stare

at you in the Chimpanzoo!

You might never play the musicals

In all your wildest dreams

But billow and blast in the Chimpanzoo

And the animals burst their seams.

It takes a lot of talent and time

To become a West End attraction.

But in this place, one rude grimace

Gets a marvelous reaction.

Laughs, laughs, nothing but laughs

But you know who's laughing at who?

It's the animals there who giggle and stare

Gape with glee incredulously

At the boisterous bumptious rowdy crew

At you in the Chimpanzoo.

Gallery

Trivia

The tune of "The Chimpanzoo" would later be recycled by the Sherman Brothers into the soundtrack of the non-Disney film Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland as the "Etiquette Song"

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Media
Films: Mary Poppins (video/soundtrack) • Mary Poppins Returns (video/soundtrack) • The Cat That Looked at a King • Musical • The Legacy Collection • Practically Poppins in Every Way: A Magical Carpetbag of Countless Wonders