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.

1933 was again a hit and miss year for Terrytoons. 'King Zilch' may not be great but it is one of the best of the batch. It's mainly to be seen as part of a Terrytoons completest quest, which is happening with me at the moment, but has a little more to it than that (something that one doesn't say about a fair share of Terrytoons) if not warranting of repeat viewings.

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. For Terrytoons, 'King Zilch' is one of their best-looking cartoons, the backgrounds have nearly always been well done at this point and they show signs of detail and ambition here, among their most elaborate ever in fact.

'King Zilch' never feels forced in its charm, there are some of the series' most amusing and surprisingly ahead of their time gags, pacing is energetic and the characters are pretty colourful and entertaining to watch.

On the other hand, the character designs are crude and the looping is excessively used and looks cheap.

Story is flimsy at best, at times stale and is pretty predictable. To give less of a choppy feel to some of the structure, a minute longer or so would have helped even if only by a little. The ending is somewhat strange.

In summary, decent and above average. 6/10 Bethany Cox

this is quite a surprising Terrytoon, as midget King Zilch gets into all sorts of hi-jinks, including some canoodling with a blonde, Helen Kane-voiced chorine. The cartoon is paced like a burlesque skit and contains some very kinky things by modern standards, including the dwarf king, the big, dowager queen and a final spanking scene.

There are a fair number of these Terrytoons with adult themes and fairly elaborate detail work. In this one, although there's a lot of looping and the opening scene is only partially animated, the background work is elaborate and superb.

Within a short time, however, the Production Code would clamp down and then distribution would be upgraded to the Majors -- 20th Century-Fox, to be exact. Terry would retreat to a for-the-kiddies choice of subject matter. For the moment, though, he was turning out bizarre stuff in an effort to compete with the Fleischers. While it's not great, it certainly holds my attention.