User Reviews

Sour Puss' house is overrun with mice, so he calls an extermination service. Unfortunately for him, it's Gandy Goose who shows up in this extremely well made Terrytoon.

Take a look at those mice. They are cute, round-faced creatures with innocent smiles, even when they are pulling out pistols to shoot at Gandy. These juvenile features excuse every rotten, destructive thing they do and undoubtedly pleased Paul Terry's target audience of small children; look at what our surrogates can get away with! Whether this example of canniness was deliberate or an artifact of the studio's model sheets doesn't matter. It works perfectly. Terry's staff was as good as any in the industry; if their boss was a bit stodgy, they could still get decent work done. Occasionally, they could be great. Here's one of those times.

Did mostly like Gandy Goose and Sourpuss together, and it certainly did the world of good for Gandy in making him more compelling as a character. Their series, and it was more down to whether the material worked or not (sometimes did, sometimes did not) rather than them, never fitted in neither extreme of awful or classic, though a couple did come close in regard to the latter and their weakest still managed to be marginally watchable. Most were average or just a little bit more.

1945, one of the duo's busiest years, was a good example of the series' unevenness. 'Post War Inventions', which is a strong contender for their best, was surprisingly very good and remarkably inventive for the Gandy/Sourpuss series in a way that they hadn't reached before and didn't quite since. However, 'Who's Who in the Jungle' was very, very lacklustre, one of the series' worst and not only felt on the same level as the weakest Gandy solo cartoons (not a compliment) but Gandy's characterisation was a big step backwards. Their next cartoon 'The Exterminator', this, is a big improvement and one of the duo's best.

Would have liked to have seen more of Sourpuss (who always struck me as the funnier and more interesting character) though, whose role is not a particularly large one and it robs us of the odd but interesting dynamic between the two.

The ending is on the predictable side and a bit too pat.

However, after his characterisation took a big step backwards in 'Who's Who in the Jungle' and was closest to the bland, unappealing Gandy when he was first introduced and in his late-30s solo outings part of me was a little worried as to what 'The Exterminator' would do with him seeing as he has the larger role. He fares much better here thankfully, that the material is amusing and more and is more inventive than what is generally typical of the series helps.

Conflict has a lot of fun and tension, those rodents actually have personality and yes one is amazed at what is gotten away with here, there are more gags than usual for the series and to me none of them misfired and pace-wise this is the liveliest since 'Post War Inventions'. As always, the music cannot be faulted, love its lushness, character and how it merges so well with the action. The animation became more ambitious, more elaborately detailed and smoother over-time and that is obvious here.

In conclusion, surprisingly very good seeing the series back on form after a big dip. 8/10