User Reviews

That's what hated cartoon producer Eddie Selzer told his staff one day and they turned out BULLY FOR BUGS to prove him wrong. I'm a great fan of Bugs Bunny, but it's not one of my favorite Looney Tune.

Nor is this bullfighting cartoon starring Puddy Pup one of my favorite Terrytoons. It's not a bad one, but it is a collection of gags that had been collected by Terry and his staff over at least the previous ten years. Some had not been used in a while; the horses the picadors ride are jointed like children' marionettes, which was something Terry had used frequently when he was working for van Beuren, but not recently. So, over all, this is another competent but not particularly great collection of gags, music and drawings from the Paul Terry studio.

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.

1935, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch, more so than the other years even. Of which 'The Bull Fight' is one of the middling ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the middling 1935 cartoons. It is an unexceptional, nothing exactly special cartoon and has the same amount of problems as it has the amount of strengths. 'The Bull Fight' is also 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 and some synchronisation is neat.

A few amusing moments, some excitement and sense of danger (though there could have been more) and there is some zest and natural charm.

Outside of the backgrounds however, the animation is primitive at best with a fair bit of crudeness, over-simplicity and choppiness.

Likewise, the story is paper thin and formulaic, once again executing an already fairly tired premise with nothing new. Gags aren't enough and there is not much especially memorable about them. The characters generally are also lacking in memorability although they are inoffensive, the cartoon tends to veer towards being too cute and the conflict is predictable. Some choppiness too.

In summary, watchable but nothing special. There are much better bull fight cartoons around. 5/10 Bethany Cox