This was one of those rare Famous Studios cartoon shorts that I just discovered on Thad's Animation Blog which linked this from YouTube. The title character had just laid an egg for the first time but finds her other farmland animal friends unimpressed since they have had plenty of children before her. After reading about how valuable a golden egg is, Cilly paints hers that color and gets so much attention, she gets booked at the Madison Square Garden to lay several in person! As in many Famous cartoons in the '40s, the animation is quite good and the music matches them perfectly. Nice use of pantomime in most sequences with an ending you may or not predict if you're familiar with many cartoons. Well worth seeking out.
2 Reviews
The goose's gold
TheLittleSongbird21 November 2019
Like some other Noveltoons cartoons from Famous Studios, saw 'Cilly Goose' when younger but neglected to take note of the title. Youtube is just so good for finding new discoveries and re-visiting old favourites, it has also been a good source for getting answers to long unanswered questions and that was the case here. 'Cilly Goose' was part of my marathon to see as many cartoons from Famous Studios and Fleischer Studios as possible, or shall we say continuing it from about four years ago.
It proved to be well worth seeing again, as good as remembered, and was very fond of it at the time, and even better perhaps which is not always said for every animation re-visited in my young adulthood. 'Cilly Goose' is an early effort for Famous Studios in their best decade of their twenty five tenure and in perhaps their best period (so the early/mid-40s, was less taken by their late 50s/60s efforts), and to me it's in the better half of their output from this particular period.
There is not an awful lot wrong actually with 'Cilly Goose', apologies if there is anybody who is tired of me saying that every now and again. Like all Famous Studios cartoons (some more so than others, it is at least more discernible and engaging than those for the studios' screen/sing along cartoons), it is very slight, perhaps a touch too thin for the running time, and perhaps it could have gotten going quicker.
However, again like with a vast majority of the studio's cartoons (not all mind, the quality did become less good when the studio declined and became less consistent from the late 50s onwards) the animation is great. It has vibrancy and atmosphere, while the drawing is neat and expressive and the attention to detail in the animation is particularly note-worthy. Winston Sharples' music score is expectedly outstanding, the one component to be consistently good throughout the studio's run regardless of hoe everything else fared. The energy and lushness is quite a feast for the ears.
Once it gets going, 'Cilly Goose's' energy is quite infectious and the cartoon is full of charm. There are plenty of amusing moments and the use of pantomime doesn't annoy or bore at all, quite the opposite. Am going to be somebody who did find the ending surprising. The titular character is an engaging one and while the other characters are not quite as interesting they provide some nice conflict.
Altogether, very nicely done. 8/10
It proved to be well worth seeing again, as good as remembered, and was very fond of it at the time, and even better perhaps which is not always said for every animation re-visited in my young adulthood. 'Cilly Goose' is an early effort for Famous Studios in their best decade of their twenty five tenure and in perhaps their best period (so the early/mid-40s, was less taken by their late 50s/60s efforts), and to me it's in the better half of their output from this particular period.
There is not an awful lot wrong actually with 'Cilly Goose', apologies if there is anybody who is tired of me saying that every now and again. Like all Famous Studios cartoons (some more so than others, it is at least more discernible and engaging than those for the studios' screen/sing along cartoons), it is very slight, perhaps a touch too thin for the running time, and perhaps it could have gotten going quicker.
However, again like with a vast majority of the studio's cartoons (not all mind, the quality did become less good when the studio declined and became less consistent from the late 50s onwards) the animation is great. It has vibrancy and atmosphere, while the drawing is neat and expressive and the attention to detail in the animation is particularly note-worthy. Winston Sharples' music score is expectedly outstanding, the one component to be consistently good throughout the studio's run regardless of hoe everything else fared. The energy and lushness is quite a feast for the ears.
Once it gets going, 'Cilly Goose's' energy is quite infectious and the cartoon is full of charm. There are plenty of amusing moments and the use of pantomime doesn't annoy or bore at all, quite the opposite. Am going to be somebody who did find the ending surprising. The titular character is an engaging one and while the other characters are not quite as interesting they provide some nice conflict.
Altogether, very nicely done. 8/10
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