Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.
Know Hugh Harman for his cartoons that have a cute approach with a lot of sentiment. There have been times where this approach has been done sweetly and charmingly, there have also been other times where it can be too cutesy and cloying. 'The Old Mill Pond' is one of the former for me. It is cute and charming, but there is not as much cutesy sentiment as other Harman cartoons and it's more humorously entertaining than most.
'The Old Mill Pond' caricatures famous musicians of the time, and much of the caricatures are done with respect. They are stereotypes and not all are subtle, but personally found nothing to be offended by (there are far worse, more blatant and more insensitive inclusion and writing of stereotypes in animation). A large part of the fun was recognising the caricatures and this is one of not many caricature cartoons where none went over my head.
Animation is rich in detail for design and backgrounds, vibrant in colour and crisp. Composer for the prime-era 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons and regular Tex Avery composer Scott Bradley provides a lush and atmospheric music score. The songs are just awesome and performed with such liveliness.
Characters here engage and despite their appearances are not too cutesy. They are not personality-deprived either. Pacing is energetic enough if needing a little more extra kick in some parts.
For all those outstanding qualities they are not quite enough to disguise that the story is one that is immediately forgotten by the viewer quickly and it's best to keep it that way. There's nothing new about it, not much of one at all and it's not hard to tell where it's all going to go.
With all that being said, 'The Old Mill Pond' is a nicely done and underrated cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox
