User Reviews

A teenaged frog boy takes a teenaged frog girl to a fair at a pond in this decent color Terrytoon.

Everything in this Terrytoon is put together well: the visuals work on a water-color basis, the story is decently done with the gags timed amusingly and Philip Scheib's music is just fine. It usually was. Although his work was nowhere near as ambitious in its variety and attempts at songs as it had been a dozen years earlier, Scheib had all the tricks of cartoon orchestration down pat: the leitmotifs carried by the woodwinds, the use of "All Through the Night" while the girl's father is pacing the floor waiting for them to come home.

It's just that there's nothing new or outrageous to command the audience's attention. Paul Terry seems to have lost all but purely commercial ambitions by this point: bring the cartoons in under budget, target them at small children and move on to the next one. At least, that's what he gave the audience: decent but unremarkable.

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.

1941, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch, though more consistent than previous years. Of which 'The Old Oaken Bucket' is one of the lower middling ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the weaker 1941 cartoons. It is an unexceptional, nothing exactly special cartoon, being generally a little below average, and has the same amount of problems as it has the amount of strengths. 'The Old Oaken Bucket' is watchable but unexceptional, completest sake is the main reason to see it.

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 ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is still great to see, as is the comparatively improved fluidity of drawing and movement, and some synchronisation in movement and sound is neat.

There is some zest and natural charm and a few amusing moments, and parts of it and the basic set up are nicely done.

A few transitions are not always polished however.

Likewise, the story is paper thin and formulaic with not an awful lot to it (like the cartoon in general) and doing little with a premise that's hardly new. Gags aren't enough, and what little there is is only sporadically amusing. There is definitely a sense of the studio having run out of ideas and just re-treading old premises and material. A lot of it is pretty predictable. Some choppiness too and the cartoon feels very old fashioned and basic. The characters are appealing but bland and it is all cuteness and not an awful lot in the way of conflict.

Summing up, cute but lacklustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox