User Reviews

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.

'Dutch Treat' may not be one of the worst Terrytoons (of the previous ones 'Bully Beef' is down there), but it certainly is one of the oddest and not in a particularly good way. It is a long way from unwatchable, at the same time there is not an awful lot to it and of the 1930 batch it is in the category of Terrytoons that were just below the watchable but unexceptional general standard.

As always with Terrytoons, the best component of 'Dutch Treat' is the music, which 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 backgrounds for 1930 are remarkably detailed and there is some nice inventive visual detail, showing a studio that were aiming for ambition and succeeding in some aspects.

Some synchronisation is neat, some nice energy and there are a few quaintly charming Dutch details (like the windmills and the wooden clogs, pretty clichéd touches but very charming ones).

However, like the previous cartoons and much of the ones since, the character designs are crude and don't match the amount of detail that went everywhere else in the animation.

Furthermore, while there is some charm here thanks to some details, the story is basic and obvious and there is an disorganised feel that makes things come over as choppy and vague, which gives 'Dutch Treat' an odd vibe. Sadly, 'Dutch Treat' doesn't have enough lively pacing (erratic here) to make up for all this.

Nor any good gags, which are too few and are far too random and short to make much impression. Not to mention extremely dull, the absurdity isn't there, apart from an ending that goes overboard on the bizarre-ness, and there isn't even enough to them to reach the opposite way of cute, saccharine level, basically there's nothing to them. Characters are personally deprived and Holland is fairly indistinguishable apart from the few touches that one associates the country with.

Overall, odd and not particularly good but has marginally enough to make it a one-time watch. 4/10 Bethany Cox

This early sound Terrytoon is given a slight Dutch varnish, mostly in the form of dancing windmills which wear wooden shoes and a dike busting, which causes the contents of a fishpond to cascade down a high cliff -- rather silly and wrong, but a child's idea of what Holland is like.

This run-of-the-mill Moser cartoon has well-timed, if rather bland gags filling out an "ugly duckling" story in which the latest pup in a litter is kicked out by papa and succors a young Dutch girl The animation is competent, although not particularly compelling, as the style of animation begins to shift from the"rubber tube" animation which was so typical of this era of animation. This piece is not bad, but not really worth your time.