1949's 'Our Funny Finny Friends', centered around fish, could have gone either way of cute and amusing or corny and over-cutesy. Especially considering the premise that will be to some people's tastes and not appeal at all to others and that Famous Studios have gone either way throughout their whole filmography. Also that the whole Screen Song series from Famous Studios has been very mixed in this regard, with all the cartoons falling in either extreme or with elements of both.
'Our Funny Finny Friends' has elements of both, but generally leans more towards being in the latter category of corny and over-cutesy. Which was true of quite a number of the series' cartoons, but it was something that was done worse in others ('Spring Song' being a prime example). It is neither one of the best or worst cartoons in the Screen Song series and is somewhere in the watchable but very average middle when ranking it with the others.
Am going to start with the good. The animation in 'Our Funny Finny Friends' is good on the most part. Especially the vibrant colours and equally loved the background detail where a lot of care went into it, the setting looks handsome yet has grit too. The incidental music is even better, very lushly orchestrated and full of character rhythmically.
Furthermore, a few of the pun-heavy gags are smile-worthy amusing (if not hilarious) and there is some nice energy in the middle. The characters are well designed.
However, there could have been more gags and some of the puns are very obvious and corny, not so funny. The final third badly loses momentum, and while the song "Three Little Fishies" is sweet enough and nicely sung that is pretty much the only appealing thing about the saccharine, un-energetic and quite cheesy singalong portion that feels like a different cartoon altogether.
While the characters are well designed they don't have an awful lot to do and don't have much personality. Liked the pace to begin with but it does increasingly slacken by the slog that is the final third. The cutesiness and corn gets too much and the story is too slight and predictable.
Concluding, mixed feelings. 5/10.