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.

1939, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch, more so than the other years even. Of which 'The Two-Headed Giant' is one of the better ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the best 1939 cartoons. There are flaws but also a lot of strengths, and a few things done better than what was seen before. 'The Two-Headed Giant' is well worth watching as an above average watch with more to it than completest sake.

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, the Terrytoons at this point showed more fluidity in design than in previous years and some synchronisation is neat. The drawing is more fluid generally and the colour vibrant. The sound has also gotten much sharper and clearer.

A fair share of amusing moments, with more gags than there can be usually found and they are all beautifully timed and funny (not always the case with Terrytoons), and there is a lot of zest and natural charm. Also a suitably strange and absurdist quality that was fun and endearing to watch. The characters are amusing and interesting, with the mice not too bland (mice tended to be portrayed rather blandly with Terrytoons), and that the cartoon doesn't get saccharine is appreciated. There are imaginative visuals and moments, some nice touches, it was amusing and the giant is great fun to watch with a touch of menace as well.

On the other hand, there are occasions where transitions and drawings are not as smooth as they could have been and the odd garish colour.

'The Two-Headed Giant' also to me took a little time to get going, pace-wise that is, didn't have a problem with the story. Jack is slightly bland for my tastes too.

Concluding, definitely worth watching. 7/10 Bethany Cox

All the stops are pulled out for this Technicolor version of Jack the Giant Killer -- from the Giants point of view.

Paul Terry's staff had only recently begun to use three-strip Technicolor and, like most of the competition, would not give up at least the occasional black-and-white cartoon for a few years. Production costs were not the only reason. Much of the character and foreground animation used flat expanses of color, suggesting a paint-by-numbers approach, while the background artists seem to be trying for a watercolor effect, which winds up looking blotchy on the print I saw.

Still, the story is given a nice twist by using the giant's perspective. John Foster, who had succeeded terry as producer for van Beuren's cartoons, was now Terry's story editor. He clearly wanted to tell the stories in a new and interesting way, not simply pad out the same old story with a few new gags. Although he would not manage uniform success, he did have at least occasional triumphs.

I was curious about this cartoon after seeing its pictures on an animation blog. So I watched it online, and now I love it.

I thought it was a great satirical (if you would call it that) take on one of my favorite English folktales, "Jack the Giant Killer." Of course, in this cartoon, the two-headed, Yiddish-sounding giant's buzzard spy brings the "Jack" storybook to him. When the giant reads the part where the king will give Jack his daughter's hand in marriage if he slays all the giants, he scoffs, heads down to Earth, and wreaks havoc on the kingdom. But fortunately, Jack will come to the rescue.

You know, I think the animators got the idea for the giant from the Popeye cartoon "Popeye the Sailor meets Sindbad the Sailor." But anyway, I love this cartoon.