The circus comes to a small boy's town.The circus comes to a small boy's town.The circus comes to a small boy's town.
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Featured review
The circus parade comes to town
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.
1942's batch of Terrytoons was, like the other years, a mixed bag. Most of the 1942 Terrytoons were watchable if unexceptional in quality, while there were also a few decent ones, none great, and some rather mediocre/weak ones. 'Happy Circus Days' is thankfully one of the decent ones and one of the better 1942 Terrytoons. Not a lot to get excited about but worth the look, with more to it than just completest sake, though for me that was the main reason to see it being someone who is trying to see all the Terrytoons available. Just to say that the circus-themed Terrytoons cartoons have generally not come off very well, 'Happy Circus Days' actually happens to be one of the better ones.
'Happy Circus Days' best asset is the music, which unsurprisingly is outstanding. This is hardly surprising as it is always the best thing of the Terrytoons cartoons and always a redeeming quality of the lesser efforts. 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. Again, the other great asset is the animation, by now this component had come on enormously since Terrytoons were first established. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is still great to see, as is the comparatively improved fluidity of drawing and movement, transitions are also smoother. Much of the colour is vibrant and the senorita's character design and movements intrigue and life-model-like. Synchronisation in movement and sound is neat.
Also present are some amusing and well-engineered gags that do have variety and are timed well. There is a charm that is never forced and the cartoon does a better job than most circus-themed Terrytoons at portraying the colour, danger and excitement of the circus and trying to show some variety with the nice idea of Barker Bill describing the circus antics rather than being a series of variable and less gags like most Terrytoons on the circus themes tend to be. There is coherence and less disjoint too. Barker Bill is an appealing character.
Did however find the boy on the bland side, his personality is nowhere near as strong as Barker Bill's, and do have to agree that the cartoon tends to be too cute.
It is also typically thin and somewhat formulaic and there is still the sense that Terrytoons had run out of ideas and recycling familiar ones, the circus theme is a familiar backdrop and started to feel told quite a few years before this. It is much worse in other Terrytoons cartoons though.
On the whole, decent if with not much to get completely enthusiastic over. 6/10 Bethany Cox
1942's batch of Terrytoons was, like the other years, a mixed bag. Most of the 1942 Terrytoons were watchable if unexceptional in quality, while there were also a few decent ones, none great, and some rather mediocre/weak ones. 'Happy Circus Days' is thankfully one of the decent ones and one of the better 1942 Terrytoons. Not a lot to get excited about but worth the look, with more to it than just completest sake, though for me that was the main reason to see it being someone who is trying to see all the Terrytoons available. Just to say that the circus-themed Terrytoons cartoons have generally not come off very well, 'Happy Circus Days' actually happens to be one of the better ones.
'Happy Circus Days' best asset is the music, which unsurprisingly is outstanding. This is hardly surprising as it is always the best thing of the Terrytoons cartoons and always a redeeming quality of the lesser efforts. 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. Again, the other great asset is the animation, by now this component had come on enormously since Terrytoons were first established. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is still great to see, as is the comparatively improved fluidity of drawing and movement, transitions are also smoother. Much of the colour is vibrant and the senorita's character design and movements intrigue and life-model-like. Synchronisation in movement and sound is neat.
Also present are some amusing and well-engineered gags that do have variety and are timed well. There is a charm that is never forced and the cartoon does a better job than most circus-themed Terrytoons at portraying the colour, danger and excitement of the circus and trying to show some variety with the nice idea of Barker Bill describing the circus antics rather than being a series of variable and less gags like most Terrytoons on the circus themes tend to be. There is coherence and less disjoint too. Barker Bill is an appealing character.
Did however find the boy on the bland side, his personality is nowhere near as strong as Barker Bill's, and do have to agree that the cartoon tends to be too cute.
It is also typically thin and somewhat formulaic and there is still the sense that Terrytoons had run out of ideas and recycling familiar ones, the circus theme is a familiar backdrop and started to feel told quite a few years before this. It is much worse in other Terrytoons cartoons though.
On the whole, decent if with not much to get completely enthusiastic over. 6/10 Bethany Cox
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- TheLittleSongbird
- Nov 11, 2018
Details
- Runtime7 minutes
- Sound mix
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