User Reviews

Frank Moser's last cartoon as director -- indeed, his last IMDb credit, although he lived another quarter century -- is a standard but certainly decent cartoon in the style he had invented for the Terry Studio. Kiko the Kangaroo is pitching in a baseball game. A lot of standard gags occur. If the character design and the animation is a bit old-fashioned and less fluid than that developed by George Gordon and Mannie Davis, it does not explain Moser's disappearance. He had entered animation at Raoul Barr's studio in 1915 and there is no reason to imagine he had grown rich enough to retire or sufficiently out-of-date to be fired. It's one of those mysteries that I hope more assiduous cartoon historians will tackle.

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.

1937, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch. Of which 'Play Ball' is one of the low middle ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons, and one of the lesser ones of the 1937 batch. It is an unexceptional, nothing exactly special and somewhat lacklustre cartoon and has the same amount of problems as it has the amount of strengths. 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 in places is still great to see and some synchronisation is neat.

A little charm here and there and the occasional mildly amusing touch.

Transitions in the animation are still a bit crude and lacking in smoothness and the lack of finesse shows in some of the drawing too, even though generally the quality in comparison to previous years has improved.

Likewise, the story is paper thin and formulaic, a familiar story with very over-familiar execution. It's also pretty dull, due to a lot of padding and not enough content. Very few of the characters are memorable with not enough distinct personality (Kiko is more a supporting character pitched with stronger personalities, as a lead it doesn't work), the conflict is stale and parts try too hard to be cute.

Gags are scarce, or at least nowhere near enough, and what there is is nothing to write home about, too much of it is very stale. The charm isn't enough either, neither is the tension, and some of it is structured in a choppy manner. Too much is too saccharine like at the start and the fun and danger of the sport is never captured, it all feels fatigued.

Overall, lacklustre. 4/10 Bethany Cox