2 reviews
Includes a cute scene of a belly dancing mouse!
- ShiraDotnet
- May 24, 2006
- Permalink
A colourful birthday
Terrytoons Studios' output is interesting to watch but most it ranges between lacklustre and decent, seldom great but major misfires tended to be in their very early years or in their later output. An output that was uneven but intriguing. One of their most prolific characters, their most prolific character really, is the likeable but pretty limited Mighty Mouse, his cartoons mostly watchable but very formulaic.
1944 was another variable year for Terrytoons, though a little more consistent than previous years with a much lower number of less than average cartoons. It was also a pretty big year for Mighty Mouse, with a lot of the Terrytoons cartoons that year being his. 'The Sultan's Birthday' is not a great cartoon, but it is a vast improvement over the weak previous Mighty Mouse cartoon 'The Two Barbers' and around the high middle if ranking the 1944 batch of Terrytoons cartoons.
Best asset as ever is the music, which is its usual lush and characterful self. Also excelling in enhancing everything going on between the cats and mice. The animation is equally great in quality, especially the backgrounds and landscapes, though the colours are also very attractive and never drab or garish.
While nothing is completely hilarious, there is hardly a shortage of gags and they amuse if more in the second half. There is also a genuine sense of threat, without being too dark or too sinister. The story may be slight and predictable, but it engages and charms at least. While the mice are hardly devoid of personality and the cat villains are very entertaining and pose enough of a threat, it is the adorable belly dancer mouse and her surprisingly risque dancing that steal the show.
However, there are few surprises here and the events are very formulaic and easy to figure out, the second half being typical Mighty Mouse. If you have seen many cats versus mice cartoons you will have seen it all before here, likewise with Mighty Mouse's role here.
Mighty Mouse himself hasn't lost his likeability but for a titular character he could have been featured more and appeared earlier, am in two minds too as to whether his presence was particularly necessary considering that the cat versus mice battle was already engaging enough without him. Other cartoons however do worse though at this, and at feeling too much like two cartoons in one.
Concluding, nice enough though not great. 7/10
1944 was another variable year for Terrytoons, though a little more consistent than previous years with a much lower number of less than average cartoons. It was also a pretty big year for Mighty Mouse, with a lot of the Terrytoons cartoons that year being his. 'The Sultan's Birthday' is not a great cartoon, but it is a vast improvement over the weak previous Mighty Mouse cartoon 'The Two Barbers' and around the high middle if ranking the 1944 batch of Terrytoons cartoons.
Best asset as ever is the music, which is its usual lush and characterful self. Also excelling in enhancing everything going on between the cats and mice. The animation is equally great in quality, especially the backgrounds and landscapes, though the colours are also very attractive and never drab or garish.
While nothing is completely hilarious, there is hardly a shortage of gags and they amuse if more in the second half. There is also a genuine sense of threat, without being too dark or too sinister. The story may be slight and predictable, but it engages and charms at least. While the mice are hardly devoid of personality and the cat villains are very entertaining and pose enough of a threat, it is the adorable belly dancer mouse and her surprisingly risque dancing that steal the show.
However, there are few surprises here and the events are very formulaic and easy to figure out, the second half being typical Mighty Mouse. If you have seen many cats versus mice cartoons you will have seen it all before here, likewise with Mighty Mouse's role here.
Mighty Mouse himself hasn't lost his likeability but for a titular character he could have been featured more and appeared earlier, am in two minds too as to whether his presence was particularly necessary considering that the cat versus mice battle was already engaging enough without him. Other cartoons however do worse though at this, and at feeling too much like two cartoons in one.
Concluding, nice enough though not great. 7/10
- TheLittleSongbird
- Sep 5, 2019
- Permalink