There were quite a few reasons for wanting to re-watch 'The Mite Makes Right'. One of the main reasons being my lifelong love of animation, of all styles and decades as well as most studios, which is never going to go away. Also re-watched it for completest sake, having liked a fair bit of Famous Studios' output even if it is uneven, which is obvious in the long running Noveltoons series. Tom Thumb when portrayed or inserted into anything tends to be a likeable character. And who doesn't love anything that has a circus setting.
As a child, 'The Mite Makes Right' struck me as a nice enough if rather unexceptional cartoon that is a little forgettable after a few days. As a young adult, my feelings are pretty much the same, not many rewatched 40s Noveltoons cartoons made me feel this way (some improved and others had flaws that were more noticeable). And as far as the Noveltoons series goes it is somewhere in the middle. 'The Mite Makes Right' is cute and has some well crafted elements with nothing really done disastrously, but it never made me go wow as an overall whole.
Certainly there are things that are done right. The best assets being the animation and the music. Something that was not uncommon for the Famous Studios cartoons, the music especially was outstanding throughout their output and the animation quality was mostly consistent (in a good way) until the late-50s. The animation has a lot of vibrancy and atmosphere and the drawing is suitably fluid but it is the attention to detail in the backgrounds that is particularly impressive in this regard. Even better is the music. Just love its energy, the beautiful and not sugary orchestration and how it adds so much and even enhances the action.
Moments of amusement and charm can be seen and the cartoon does pick up towards the end. Tom Thumb is a likeable and not overly cute character and the voice acting is solid, all from Famous Studios regulars and can be counted upon to give good work.
For all those good things, there is too much bad too. The story is paper thin and very predictable, also felt that it took too long to get going and could have done a fair bit more with the circus setting. The colour is there and there are moments of excitement but the danger doesn't come through.
Did feel that the gags were too few and the amusement actually was reasonably mild rather than laugh out loud. Some of it was a little too on the cutesy side and none of the supporting characters while serving their purpose are properly memorable. One of not many times in Famous Studios' output where the supporting characters didn't outshine the lead.
In conclusion, watchable but nothing special. 5/10
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