Reviews

4 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
3/10
Flowers and Trees(1932) Review
14 November 2019
Flowers and Trees is another early 30's Disney short cartoon. The basic setup is the sun rises and trees and flowers awake for a new day of adventures. A young fertile male tree proceeds to court and hopefully mate with a young fertile female tree and then an old dead tree tries to burn down the forest because he's old and dead, or something. He should've just called AARP.

This short does not hold up as well compared to other shorts. It feels like a different studio than Disney created this one. The animations are basic, the backgrounds static and life-less. Almost as if one background plate was used for the whole thing. The characters are depicted as humans in tree form. Something is a miss. The tone is off or the story needs re-worked.

The characters seem too simple for Disney, not going that extra mile. The flowers are flowers, not characters. The trees seem static in expression, even though they move in ways real trees never will be able too. The male tree looks like a different species than the female. They could not possibly mate. They are going to have a really sad wedding night. Somebody should've told them.

The baddie in this feels too on the nose and goofy. I'm searching for some sort of memorable thing about this that will make it enjoyable these days. Its just an old cartoon about trees and flowers.

Best Scene: None

Worst Scene: Wedding Bells

The story ends with the tree getting one one knee (do trees have knees?) and then marrying the female tree. Cue flowers playing bell sounds and you are shocked back into the dreary real-life realization that you will forever be single. Thanks Disney.

Best Actor: None

Worst Actor: Female Tree

She pretty much stands around and shakes her hips (do trees have hips?). She sports a big tree afro for some reason. She does nothing really besides looking pretty waiting for that golden ticket called marriage.

Improvements: This is a wash. Just start over.

Hits
  • Interesting premise.
  • Music is nice.
  • Forrest fire.


Misses
  • Boring characters.
  • Does not feel Disney.
  • Poor quality animation and backgrounds.


Final Grade: D
0 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
8/10
Babes in the Woods(1932) Review
14 November 2019
One of the hallmarks of children's fairy tales is a wicked witch taking children, punishing them and society for moral and ethical issues. They can be looked at deeply or superficially, that's what makes a good fairy-tale. One thing modern kids stories starting in the 1990's has done is gutted the kids story genre into something so politically correct, tame and devoid of life that its a wonder society has not collapsed thus far.

What makes a great kids story is the same as what makes a great story for adults. The threat or danger needs to be there, your emotions go up and down. You win sometimes and you lose other-times, such as life. This short somehow displays that sentiment while still being charming, enduring and entertaining. The kids are left to their own devices to get passed the witch. The story is taken from a few other similar fairy-tales of which get really dark. This one still manages to be scary, but not gory or gruesome, which may affect the deeper meaning kids get from it. It would be interesting to hear what kids and parents thought of this film when it was released in the 1930's.

This is a fun short, that has a lot going on. The music is nice and the songs, but you suffer some listening to the scratchy vocals and often can't hear as sharp as you'd like. If only they could restore audio quality as they do with picture quality. This is an enjoyable short cartoon that's re-watchable, a nice edition to you Halloween lineup.

Best Scene: Turning Kids Into Animals

The end of the film the evil witch turns the boy into a spider and tries to turn the girl into a rat. The action picks up, the elves attack, there is excitement and danger at every turn ending in a thrilling conclusion.

Worst Scene: Opening Scene

The short opens by showing the old witch tree, essentially ruining the end of the film. The kids get lost in the woods somehow, there is a song playing but its almost too hard to hear the words the singer is telling us. I re-watched this segment with captions to see what she was singing.

Best Actor: The Witch

The witch steals the show, she is the only one that has voice lines. The elves make some noises and the kids, as far as I could remember dont say anything. Maybe because they are too in shock the whole time at what they are going through. The witch plays the classic witch style, kidnapping kids, being evil. Great fun.

Worst Actor: Too Many Elves

The kids find a village full of elves that all look the same, almost as if they are one character rather than individual people. The one that helps rescue the kids is nameless. It would've been nice to single out a few elves when the kids first come into town.

Improvements: The elves in the city all look and act the same, as if they are one being or clones. I would like to have seen the tone of the backgrounds get darker as the witch gets more and more evil. We have chase scenes where she's being pelted with harmless looking arrows for some reason and its a bright and colorful day. Color toning would go along way to make the witch seem darker and more evil without adding anything else. It would've been nice to give the two kids names and voices to better grab the audience into caring for them. The witch has a voice, so in some ways you want to cheer for her.

Hits
  • Great details in each scene.
  • Scary and exciting moments.
  • Nice pacing and ending.


Misses
  • Hard to hear some of the dialogue.
  • Two main kid characters look to simple in design.
  • Witches location too bright and colorful.


Final Grade: B
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
The Pied Piper (1933) Review
14 November 2019
The Pied Piper is one of the most re-told stories in modern times, there have been countless tellings of the story. This Disney version has some cute moments, but nothing really memorable or outstanding. It examines the story in the lightest terms and abruptly seems to end without a final conclusion or wrap up.

The town of Hamlin is infested with rats and the mayor offers up a reward to drive the rats from the town just as a guy with a long pipe walks into the gates and offers his services. Without any trouble or character development he bygones the town of rats, expects payments and gets the shaft. So he steals the kids of the town away at that very moment, without resistance and takes them away to some magical candy land inside of a mountain. The the end credits pop-up? Where is the rest of the story you will cry out.

The film feels more like a verse, rather than a story. The film focuses on the rats and its rather charming and interesting, but the animators spent more time on the rats than scenes with stealing the children, making you feel sad for the rats that got killed off rather than the city's problems.

One of the allegories the story is focused on is The Black Plague. The Pied Piper is a representation of Death or the Dark Angel. The Mayor and the rulers destroyed the town with their greed. The rats represent The Black Plague. The Piper is taking the kids off to Heaven. Many people watching this short or talking about this story fail to grasp this idea or deeper meaning behind the tale. All of which is completely pulled from the friendly Disney version.

The animation is nice and the music and sound are vastly improved having now been crated by RCA rather than Disney's first shorts using Cinephone. The audio is easy to be heard and understood on like the latter shorts. This short is largely forgettable and rather tame.

Best Scene: Rats Taking Over

The early scenes where the rats are rampaging the town are fun. There is a lot of animation going on. The rats resembling Mickey Mouse find creative ways to eat foods and cause havoc. They behave almost like pets, rather than disease carrying black plague card holders.

Worst Scene: Pied Piper Steals Kids

The Piper because they mayor did not pay him so in that moment he begins to steal the kids without any resistance. The parents just watch as he whisks away thousands of kids and then looks at the mayor like they are unable to think for themselves. Some parental instincts would take over and an exciting chase and war would breakout if this really happened. My money is on the Piper, who knows what other gadgets he's got up his sleeve.

Best Actor: The Rats

Even though millions of animated rats died in the film, they had great fun before their demise and served as wonderful BBQ to feed the newly captured kids of Hamlin.

Worst Actor: Townsfolk

They just stand by as their kids are taken away to a permanent day-care in the sky.

Improvements: More Depth Please

The film feels like they took a one paragraph story and stretched it out to 8 minutes long. We need more tension and threat. Pipe Piper is a Mary-Sue with no resistance.

Hits
  • Fun animations of rats eating and dancing.
  • Lots of characters on screen.
  • Nice songs and music.


Misses Feels too short.
  • Questionable voice-acting.
  • Needs more magic.


Final Grade: C
1 out of 1 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
5/10
Steamboat Willie (1928) Review
14 November 2019
Steamboats are amazing! Where else can you find dirty rednecks, smelly hobos, crazed-gypsies, loner transients, and die-hard Nascar fans all gathered together? The history of steamboats and canals in the United States of America during the westward expansion phase is really fascinating. Life was different then, when the river-ways were not regulated, controlled and owned by faceless government agencies, it was one of the last true wild aspects of modern life. I don't know how this ties into Mickey Mouse's early film, Steamboat Willie. But steamboats are amazing!

This simple short was one of the first times people saw Mickey on screen and apparently it was a huge hit back in the late 1920's when it came out. Its too hard to understand the impact it had or if its simply modern day revisionist history and marketing making this film more impact-full than maybe it deserves. Along with the history one has to consider the Disney copyright scandals that have plagued the company and this film it should have been thrown into the public domain decades ago, but that's a tale for another time.

The short is simple and fun to watch. It feels basic and almost crude. The quality of animation, especially the audio and music greatly improved shortly after this came out. This is a fun short to watch and appreciate from where Mickey started. The aged and poor quality audio ruins the enjoyment some. On its own Steamboat Willie is rather average and typical of the period.

Best Scene: Playing The Cows Mouth

Why is Mickey using the flat teeth of a cow as a make-shift drum set? We may never know, but its a silly part of the film that's fun to watch.

Worst Scene: Pete's Dipping On Deck

There is a funny gag where Pete spits dip and it comes back and rings a bell in the ships cabin in tune with the music. Then he tries it again and it comes right back in his face, while funny it weakens the character's threatening nature, so we in the audience know he can be defeated by Mickey Mouse.

Best Actor: Mickey Mouse

Mickey takes no prisoners, he insults and offends every type of farm animal possible in this film. What a bad! No doubt he's taking his harsh working conditions and devil of a boss out on helpless live-stock. What really separates the slaves from the captures is not really explored in this 8 minute short. Mickey is pure evil.

Worst Actor: Minnie Mouse

At the end of the film our hero Mickey Mouse is regulated to menial chores, locked away peeling potatoes all because Minnie Mouse came on board as a stow-away for river bound picnic. She has no concept of time, arriving late to meet Mickey at the dock. Why was she so late? Was she banging Donald Duck again?

Improvements: Pete Fights Back

Mickey's insane and dip-chewing boss is a big bad at the front of the film but then disappears all the way till the end. It would've been more enjoyable watching Mickey & Minnie trying to have fun while Pete keeps interrupting them. If this was a modern film the boss would simply sit back in his office losing at fantasy football draft while spying on his employees with 300 "security" cameras who's sole purpose is to berate and watch employees.

Hits
  • Can tell a story without the need for dialogue.
  • Cute & fun moments of one of Mickey's first adventure.
  • Music and sound effects add to the adventure.


Misses
  • Poor quality audio makes the film feel dated and less enjoyable.
  • Minnie Mouse really does nothing in the film.
  • Pete does not have a big enough role.


Final Grade: C
0 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

Recently Viewed