User Reviews

The evil spider summons his bat to attack the fly circus. When the populace flees, it's up to the performers to save the day.

This is a pretty good Terrytoon for the era. The bats are particularly creepy. In fact, this looks like it was intended for a Halloween cartoon and would have been very effective for that season.... except it was originally released in June. Was this canny planning on the distributors' part, to have it in repertory by the time October rolled around, or was it a matter of just pushing product out the door before they went bust and sold out to Fox? It's hard to say from this distance. Fox was in the process of being swallowed by Zanuck's 20th Century Productions and who, if anyone, would be left standing when the music stopped was a shadowy question.

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.

Like with the Terrytoons from 1930 and 1931, the 1932 batch has been very mixed, the best being above average if not mindblowing and the worst being weak. 'Bluebeard's Brother', while not exactly great still, is one of the better cartoons from that year. As said a few times already in my previous reviews for the Terrytoons, the main reason for viewing is mainly for anybody striving to see every Terrytoons available like me.

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. Some of the backgrounds are detailed and ambitious enough and yes it's a little more elaborate looking than the previous 1932 cartoons. The characters, especially the bats, while still crude are an improvement to usual.

There is a charm that is natural and never forced, the gags are mostly amusing and reasonably timed, there is not as big an issue with the pace, synchronisation has neatness and the characters are neither annoying or deprived of personality, the spider being a suitably creepy antagonist.

However, some of the animation is still a bit primitive with some choppy transitions and less than smooth drawing.

Story is not much of one and formulaic, doing very little new with a familiar concept. The liveliness is not always consistent and it's all very easily foreseeable in the outcome of the gags and how it's all going to end, surprises are none.

In summation, above average but not one that will have one jumping out of their chair. 6/10 Bethany Cox