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.

1930 was a good example of this quality inconsistency. There are decent cartoons, such as 'Hungarian Goulash', which is among the best Terrytoons overall too. There are also bad ones, such as 'Bully Beef', among the worst and laziest. 'Jumping Beans' is among the better Terrytoons from 1930. It is not what one would consider a great cartoon but it is worth discovering for mainly completest sake while it's still available. On a side note, do prefer the French prints with German subtitles and the silhouetted orchestra opening than the somewhat bland US(?) prints that most of the Terrytoons are available on.

'Jumping Beans' 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 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.

Pacing is neither too hectic or dull, there is a natural charm and fun amusing moments and the characters may not have significant development to them but are not annoying or personality deprived. Synchronisation is pretty neat, back when the technique was still being refined but managing here in being a major accomplishment for so early on. The gags are funny and well-timed.

However, as is the case with a lot of the Terrytoons cartoons, the character designs are crude and simplistic which doesn't match the rest of the animation.

Again, as usual, the story is basic and formulaic with a couple of not so lively stretches in the early stages and a couple of gags could have gone for it a little more with the absurdity instead of being on the bland side. There are more gags than can be found and while it doesn't make complete sense it's less random and disjointed than other Terrytoons.

Overall, worth watching if not essential. 6/10 Bethany Cox

You can tell this is supposed to be set in Mexico because all the mice wear those high-crowned, wide brimmed straw hats that evolved into the ten-gallon hat. The villainous cat wears one too.

This is a very good Terry cartoon from the dawn of sound cartoons. It's mostly a synchronized cartoon, because the techniques of animating mouths -- particularly mice mouths -- was neither reliable nor cheap. Still, it's a very good cartoon, with a lot of well-timed gags, even if they average more Western than Mexican. There is also a single gag referring to Mexican jumping beans -- they still had them when I was a kid, although the ones I got never jumped or did much of anything.