The Brementown Musicians (1935) User Reviews

Untalented & Unwanted.....Until The End

[ccthemovieman-1 · 7/10 · 1 May 2008]

A rooster, dog, cat and donkey all get the heave-ho from their farmer owner. Actually, the old man isn't all that mean; the animals sleep on the job and deserved to get booted. They all cry the blues when the farm owner boots them in the butt but then things perk up when they notice a choir nearby singing. People throw coins from above and the singers go away happy.

The animals figure, hey, let's try that gig, too. The trouble is, they're brutal at that, too. Instead of coins, people throw pots, pans and the kitchen sink at them.

However, they may have little talent and aren't good workers, but they prove to be loyal to the farmer as we see in the dramatic final third of the story, which helps elevate this old cartoon from poor to fair.

This cartoon was viewed on a DVD called "Cartoons That Time Forget: The UB Iwerks Collection Vol. 1."

Nobody here sings "Old MacDonald had a farm . . . "

[pixrox1 · 7/10 · 22 August 2020]

. . . but plenty of E-I-E-I-O's resound during the soundtrack of THE BREMENTOWN MUSICIANS. This brief cartoon relates the story of a heroic dog, cat, donkey and rooster. This stalwart quartet of watch animals may not garner much in the way of coins from the unappreciative natives of their title village. But tune savants are seldom recognized in their home towns, as the Crickets, Beatles and Walking Sticks all found out. At least this soulful foursome have the good taste to eat the trio of robbers attacking their owner. Burp.

Animal quartet

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 11 June 2018]

While not one of my favourites, Ub Iwerks was responsible for a lot of interesting work. Especially when working with Walt Disney, his oldest friend and one of his best, and co-creating one of animation's most famous characters in Mickey Mouse. His career since opening his own studio had interest value but the quality was variable, often being successful in the animation and music but wanting in the story and variable in gags, lead characters and tone.

1933 to 1936 saw twenty five cartoons, mostly based on famous fairytales and familiar stories, as part of Iwerks's "ComiColor" series. The "ComiColor" series is very much worth watching and interesting, as is the case with many series some cartoons are better than others but there are no real animation nadirs. 1935's 'The Brementown Musicians' is remarkably very well done and one of the better cartoons of the series.

'The Brementown Musicians', while faithfully adhering to the basic details (and also spirit) of the story while putting its own spin, is slight and not exactly ground-breaking, but there is little to fault it. The ending, which is the most dramatic portion of the cartoon, threatened to be at odds with the rest of the cartoon but thankfully was not.

However, 'The Brementown Musicians' in no way disgraces the story and has enough freshness to stop it from being stale. It avoids the over sentimental factor and is never dull.

There are very amusing moments, that aren't too corny and never repetitive, it's very charming and there is a genuine likeability and cuteness without being over-sentimental. The characters drive 'The Brementown Musicians' very well, farm animals can be very cutesy and bland in the wrong hands but they were remarkably neither here.

Furthermore, the animation is great. Meticulously detailed, fluid in drawing, vibrant in colour and often rich in imagination and visual wit. The music is cleverly and lushly orchestrated, is infectiously catchy and adds a lot to the cartoon.

Overall, very good and one of the better "ComiColor" cartoons. 8/10 Bethany Cox

One of the more satisfying shorts Iwerks made.

[llltdesq · 9/10 · 24 November 2003]

This one works-at least for me, it worked. One of the most unusual singing quartets you'll ever see. Some exceptional backgrounds and very good animation here and also fairly well-developed characters (not usually a hallmark of Iwerks studio) make this an entertaining short. The farmer looks a bit like Al Falfa from Terrytoons, but character design wasn't a long suit for the studio either. They tended to draw things pretty much the same over and over. They may have had five or six basic variations on kids and used them interchangeably. The animals come off better than the humans do. Very good cartoon, an example of what Iwerks could do and if they'd done work like this more often, who knows what might have happened. Well worth watching. Good to see in print and on DVD. Recommended.

The Tale of a Bad Band

[Michael_Elliott · 27 June 2016]

The Brementown Musicians (1935)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Mildly entertaining short from Ub Iwerks has a cat, a dog, a rooster and a donkey forming a singing group where they are every bit as awful as you'd expect. If you watch enough Iwerks' shorts from this period you will see that the stories have always been rather weak but the animation would make up for that. This here is one of the more pleasant films because the characters are rather likable and the story itself is rather cute if predictable. There's no question that Iwerks once again delivers a great looking film with the characters wonderfully drawn. I'd also argue that the film manages to have some fun moments at the expense of the underdog characters. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but it's a nice little film.

This is what could have been.....

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 8 February 2017]

You should note that this is a traditional cartoon--NOT a stop- action film like the photo on IMDb would suggest.

This is a much, much better than average cartoon from Ub Iwerks. Iwerks had been employed by Disney and much of the responsibility for the studio's early success AND Mickey Mouse was due to Iwerks. Not surprisingly, he wanted to go off on his own and own his own studio. The results were VERY spotty...with a few very nice cartoons and quite a few that have aged very poorly. While the animation often was lovely, the stories were weak and filled with cutesy characters and singing--the same thing many of the studios did and the main reason that during the 30s Fleischer and Disney were the two premier cartoon makers!

This cartoon, however, is very different. The singing is important to the plot and works fine. The characters and story are also very strong. It's too bad more of Iwerks' color cartoons based on Nursery Rhymes and traditional fairy tales weren't more like this one. It's beautifully animated and tells the story well...very well.

The story is about an angry old farmer. Some of his anger is understandable--his dog is lazy and won't protect the chickens and the cat is being beaten up by the mice! But the farmer is awful and mistreats his rooster and donkey. So the four animals run away and try to make a living singing for their supper. I liked the singing...none of the humans in the film did! So what's next? See the film...it's well worth it.