Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.
Aesop's Fables/Van Beuren have done good cartoons, three of their best were from 1930 ('The Haunted Ship', 'Gypped in Egypt' and 'Circus Capers', neither were perfect but they were a lot of fun, inventive and wonderfully absurdist). So it is not as if all their cartoons are bad as indicated in my first paragraph. 'A Toytown Tale' is a strong example, while not among their worst, of when they produce cartoons that are not good.
It does contain pretty much all of the faults of Van Beuren's worst, or all the faults of many Van Beuren cartoons, while having a few good points.
Best asset about 'A Toytown Tale' is the music score, pretty much the best thing consistently of Van Beuren's output. Sometimes even the only good thing. It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action.
There is a relatively neatly rendered toytown setting and some neat incorporation of sound effects. That's pretty much it.
Coming onto the numerous criticisms, the animation is not good, in fact it is downright bad most of the time with erratically sloppy character designs in particular while the simplistic background detail and lack of fluidity and crispness are just as difficult to ignore.
Story is very slight to the point of non-existence and suffers from far too hectic pacing a vast majority of the time, something that affects the visuals a lot of the time because most of it is out of sync. While it may make more sense than most of their other efforts and have some kind of story, that doesn't stop 'A Toytown Tale' from being dull, far too saccharine and formulaic, there is nothing new here.
None of the characters are particularly engaging or memorable, and generally they are very unattractively drawn. Generally 'A Toytown Tale' is very low on laughs, actually none of it is remotely amusing. Nothing is inventive, never rising above the forgettable and there is not much absurdist about them. Instead cutesiness is significantly favoured over being funny. This is a reiteration of a lot of the average and less Aesops Fables/Van Beuren cartoons that have been reviewed by me, but this is due to them having the same strengths and drawbacks.
In conclusion, dull. 3/10 Bethany Cox
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