Somewhere in Egypt

Quality-wise, the Terrytoons cartoons, as an overall standard, was always inconsistent. The most consistent asset has always been the music, in a great way, while the animation was something that was less than great before but the improvement over-time was enormous. Much more variable were the characters and material, the story also being a frequent weak spot. Generally though they are worth watching, if for some for one time only, if wanting to see all of their available cartoons. Some are decent, few great but there are a lot of lacklustre or less.

1943's batch of Terrytoons cartoons saw all of the above, though it was a case like all the previous years of some cartoons being better than others. With the music and animation being merits but characters and content being hit and miss. This was not unexpected, given that from 1929 onwards hit and miss has been the general standard for Terrytoons, but some years fared worse than others. Like the previous year, 1943 was one of Terrytoons' better years, none really being terrible and most ranged from average to decent while none being great. Do not consider any of the Gandy and Sourpuss cartoons terrible and Gandy improved hugely as a character when partnered with Sourpuss, he was very bland before when he was on his own. 'Somewhere in Egypt' is definitely watchable, if not one of the series' best. As far as the Gandy and Sourpuss cartoons go it was all starting to feel a bit on the tired side.

'Somewhere in Egypt', starting with the good things, is very well animated. Which was not a surprise as this aspect had come on enormously by this point with Terrytoons. It is nicely detailed, lively and colourful without being garish, particularly in some imaginative visuals in the dream sequence. Again, the music, the thing that was the most consistently good thing from the very beginning with Terrytoons, is a big strength. It is beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is terrific fun to listen to and the lively energy is present throughout, doing so well with adding to the action.

There are amusing moments here, and the surrealism in the dream sequence (by far 'Somewhere in Egypt's' highlight and the only sequence that is especially memorable) is imaginatively handled particularly on a visual level. Gandy and Sourpuss carry the cartoon reasonably well, with Sourpuss being more interesting as a character, and their chemistry which has always surprisingly gelled despite how it sounds is nice enough.

It is a shame that too much of the rest of 'Somewhere in Egypt' is a standard Gandy and Sourpuss army cartoon, and with not much variation or surprises outside of the dream sequence and the different setting it felt very predictable and not much different to any Gandy and Sourpuss before it.

While there are amusing moments here, there aren't enough of them, and with the predictability and the less than snappy pacing in spots there was a real sense that the Gandy and Sourpuss series was getting tired and had, like Terrytoons' output in general for a while now, run out of ideas and were just recycling old ones with not so major variants. It doesn't really get going until the dream sequence and it can at times be a touch heavy-handed.

On the whole, watchable but pretty average. 5/10