As said a few times, will admit to not being the biggest fan of the Roland and Rattfink cartoons while certainly not minding either of the characters themselves, especially Rattfink. With three or four good exceptions, a vast majority of the cartoons are of the watchable but unexceptional kind that are good for curiosity's sake. Namely for animation and DePatie-Freleng Enterprises completests, like me, but if anybody gets more out of the cartoons that's cool.
The Prime-Pink Panther, the Inspector and the Ant and the Aardvark theatrical series do more for me to be perfectly honest. Of the seventeen cartoons, 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race' did have potential to be one of the more interesting Roland and Rattfink cartoons perhaps. But while it is far from being the worst it is a low middling effort and a contender for the oddest cartoon in the series somewhat. A long way from terrible but not exactly great or particularly good.
Every Roland and Rattfink cartoon has its pros. Have had no problem with the music in the Roland and Rattfink cartoons and that in 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race' is not an exception. Love its infectious cheerfulness and always have done and that was true for that for the prime-Pink Panther, The Inspector and particularly the Ant and the Aardvark theatrical series. The setting and period is vividly rendered and the most elaborately done one since 'War and Pieces' perhaps, the car race setting is made quite good use of.
Did get a good laugh out of the title cards describing the characters and what was going on and they were the main source really of 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race'. Rattfink's snideness amused too in places and Rattfink is a lot of fun and the only interesting character here really. Lennie Weinrib does well with the voices, at his best with Rattfink and the droll if slightly over-explanatory narration.
However, the animation in 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race' is some of the series' oddest. Namely because the character designs looked unfinished, they're not even coloured in and look like ghosts. An intentional choice, but one that puzzled me somewhat. The premise is a very melodramatic and over-familiar one, a very done-to-death one instead, and nothing new is done with it and suggestive that the series had run out of ideas. It was not easy to enjoy the cartoon properly when it was just seeing an over-faithful remake of something else and questioning the point of it. Other than the title cards and some of Rattfink's dialogue, the humour is too far and between and the gags are as tired as the story and recycled in nature.
While 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race' is one of the series' busiest perhaps narratively, meaning a fair bit going on, the pace is erratic, sometimes too hectic and at other points pretty dull. Rattfink is the only character that did much for me, Roland is pretty bland and one-note in a role that could easily be filled by another character. His good intentions and such is not particularly compelling here and doesn't gel with everything else actually. The female lead is just as bland and little more than a plot device with little to do, while the Indian Chief that looks recycled from 'Trick or Retreat' serves little purpose to what's going on.
In summary, watchable but odd. 5/10
The Prime-Pink Panther, the Inspector and the Ant and the Aardvark theatrical series do more for me to be perfectly honest. Of the seventeen cartoons, 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race' did have potential to be one of the more interesting Roland and Rattfink cartoons perhaps. But while it is far from being the worst it is a low middling effort and a contender for the oddest cartoon in the series somewhat. A long way from terrible but not exactly great or particularly good.
Every Roland and Rattfink cartoon has its pros. Have had no problem with the music in the Roland and Rattfink cartoons and that in 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race' is not an exception. Love its infectious cheerfulness and always have done and that was true for that for the prime-Pink Panther, The Inspector and particularly the Ant and the Aardvark theatrical series. The setting and period is vividly rendered and the most elaborately done one since 'War and Pieces' perhaps, the car race setting is made quite good use of.
Did get a good laugh out of the title cards describing the characters and what was going on and they were the main source really of 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race'. Rattfink's snideness amused too in places and Rattfink is a lot of fun and the only interesting character here really. Lennie Weinrib does well with the voices, at his best with Rattfink and the droll if slightly over-explanatory narration.
However, the animation in 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race' is some of the series' oddest. Namely because the character designs looked unfinished, they're not even coloured in and look like ghosts. An intentional choice, but one that puzzled me somewhat. The premise is a very melodramatic and over-familiar one, a very done-to-death one instead, and nothing new is done with it and suggestive that the series had run out of ideas. It was not easy to enjoy the cartoon properly when it was just seeing an over-faithful remake of something else and questioning the point of it. Other than the title cards and some of Rattfink's dialogue, the humour is too far and between and the gags are as tired as the story and recycled in nature.
While 'The Great Continental Overland Cross-Country Race' is one of the series' busiest perhaps narratively, meaning a fair bit going on, the pace is erratic, sometimes too hectic and at other points pretty dull. Rattfink is the only character that did much for me, Roland is pretty bland and one-note in a role that could easily be filled by another character. His good intentions and such is not particularly compelling here and doesn't gel with everything else actually. The female lead is just as bland and little more than a plot device with little to do, while the Indian Chief that looks recycled from 'Trick or Retreat' serves little purpose to what's going on.
In summary, watchable but odd. 5/10
