User Reviews

At this point, Paul Terry's staff was putting in a lot of effort on the Fanny Zilch series. The adult nature and elaborate technical work of that series, intended to compete with the Fleischer's Betty Boop, meant there was less money to spend on the bread-and-butter cartoons, intended for a kiddy audience.

Perhaps they thought that was all right, because small children were less discerning. That is a mistake. A young child may not be able to articulate why one work is superior to another, but still know which is better. If I speak of the cheating in this cartoon, the looping, the lack of background work, the inserted bit of Farmer Al Falfa, it may not be something that a small children might consciously notice, but he will be able to tell that the Fleischers did much better cartoons of this sort.

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 again was a hit and miss year for Terrytoons. 'Pick-necking' is for me one of the batch's weakest, with more problems than it has strengths in both cases being the same as usual. Instead of being watchable or more, 'Pick-necking' is pretty weak and its main, and really only, reason to view it is if you are a Terrytoons completest trying to see all that are available (like me).

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.

Sometimes the pace is lively and a couple of gags are mildly amusing. Other than that, there is not much to recommend with 'Pick-necking'.

It is one of the worst-looking 1933 Terrytoons. Not only having the crude and simplistic character designs and drawing, but it also doesn't have the usual ambitious detail in the backgrounds (also overly-simple) and there is some cheap and excessive looping.

Likewise, the story is paper thin and formulaic with a big air of over-familiarity. There are not enough gags and they are generally not particularly funny, clever or memorable. The energy mostly isn't there, the timing of the material not being sharp enough, and neither is the charm. It is non-stop bland. Don't remember the characters very much, other than the unnecessary throwing in of Father Al Falfa.

All in all, pretty weak. 3/10 Bethany Cox