User Reviews

Here we have the 1935 remake of the 1932 Terrytoon THE MAD KING. The evil/insane/nutty cat king is oppressing the mice peasantry until they rise in revolt.

Although the technical aspects of this version have advanced over the 1932 version, it raises a gloomy and uninteresting prospect for the future. Will the 1938 version be in Technicolor? Will the 1944 version feature Mighty Mouse, come to save the day? Will the 1956 version be the last one? Which version will be the best and why should we bother looking at any of them except for that one? This is not, of course, a problem that would have arisen in the movie theater in 1935. "Oh, look! It's a Terrytoon!", the recognition you had seen something like this before and a vague wish it had been a Mickey Mouse cartoon instead would have been the limits of analysis.

However, that's not the way we have looked at cartoons like this for a half century. It's been a matter of a half hour of fur or so of them or looking at as many as tolerable on the Internet. By that standard, who cares?

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.

Of the 1935 Terrytoons, 'King Looney XIV', reminiscent of 'The Mad King' (equally weak), for me is one of the worst. Also, again from personal opinion, among the lesser Terrytoons. Not irredeemably awful, but very weak. Its main reason to see it is, as has said a number of times by me already, if you are on a quest to watch every Terrytoon available (most are but not all).

Its best asset 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.

Also saving 'King Looney XIV' from total doom is the character of the cat, who is a good antagonistic threat, without being frightening, and deserving of heroes with stronger personalities than the pallid ones here to play off against.

However, the animation is not good. It's stiff and crude with choppy transitions, static drawing and even the overly-simplistic backgrounds underwhelm (background work-wise, 'Kinf Looney XIV' has to be one of the least detailed and ambitious Terrytoons, if a little more advanced than 'The Mad King).

Very little is fun or interesting. The story is flimsy and formulaic, with a premise done to death long before this cartoon and it shows badly in its very stale execution. The pace is dull often, and gags are too few and have nothing to them. Likewise with the mice heroes, the only interesting character is the cat.

In summary, weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox

The unremarkable "King Looney XIV" got released when animation was still in its relative infancy. I understand that it's basically a remake of an earlier cartoon. Whatever the case, it's a pretty flat cartoon. Since this is the first Terrytoons production that I've ever seen, I can't compare it to the rest. Warner Bros. Brought cartoons to their apex in the '40s and '50s, combining clever stories with creative animation. If the Terrytoons have mostly gone unremembered, it's because the creators put in little effort. Paul Terry once said "Let Walt Disney be the Tiffany's of the business. I want to be the Woolworth's!"