User Reviews

Gandy Goose leads a baseball team of mostly roosters and one goat against a team of pigs in this very amusing Terrytoon.

Co-directors Mannie Davis and Connie Rasinski have turned in a nice cartoon, with nicely timed and expected gags. That sort of detail was a given at Paul Terry's studio. He had been making cartoons for two dozen years at this point. Mostly the problem with a certain amount of stodginess and lack of character. Gandy Goose, who had been introduced in 1938, was turning into decent, if not great lead comedian. Here, given things to do, he does them well.

As for the stodginess, musical director Philip Scheib had done a fine job of turning that into charm. He does this by choosing 19th century songs to use in his musical cues.

The Terrytoons are oddly interesting, mainly for anybody wanting to see (generally) older cartoons made by lesser known and lower-budget studios. They are a mixed bag in quality, with some better than others, often with outstanding music and with some mild amusement and charm and variable in animation, characterisation and content.

1939, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch, more so than the other years even. Of which 'Barnyard Baseball' is one of the middling ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the in the middle 1939 cartoons. It is an unexceptional but watchable cartoon that has the same amount of problems as it has the amount of strengths. 'Barnyard Baseball' is also very watchable, completest sake is the main reason to see it but it's not the only reason.

Best asset is the music, which predictably is incredible. It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is still great to see, as is more fluidity and visual appeal than usual, plus the crisp shading, and some synchronisation is neat.

Enough amusing moments, some well-engineered gags like with the umpire and there is zest and natural charm, a real sense of celebration. The characters are not personality deprived and appeal.

However, there is an at times incomplete look to the drawing and transitions and there is some reusing/recycling going on. Gandy was never the most compelling of characters and it's no different here.

Likewise, the story is paper thin and formulaic, not much new. Gags could have been more and a few better organised and developed more. Not quite enough gags oriented around baseball, and the cartoon doesn't convey the excitement and danger of the sport enough. A lot of it is pretty predictable, the ending can be seen from a mile away, and it can be very corny.

In summary, unexceptional but alright for a one time watch. 5/10 Bethany Cox