User Reviews

Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.

There are certainly worse Van Beuren cartoons overall than 'Barnyard Melody'. There are also worse Aesop's Fables cartoons from 1929 and overall. To me actually, 'Barnyard Melody' is one of the more watchable 1929 Aesop's Fables cartoon. Not great, or even good, with it containing some of the typical flaws for a Van Beuren cartoon. There are far worse ways to spend your time though.

Although used fairly sparingly, the music is lushly orchestrated and characterful. There is some quite well done synchronisation that fits well with the amusing sound effects.

'Barnyard Melody' has a higher gag count and is more amusing and better timed than most 1929 Aesop's Fables cartoons. The pacing is very lively.

However, the animation is not good, in fact it is downright bad most of the time with erratically sloppy character designs in particular while the simplistic background detail and lack of fluidity and crispness are just as difficult to ignore. Often you can't actually tell what the animals are actually meant to be.

With a couple of exceptions (the old man), too many of the characters are easily forgettable and fairly thin in personality. The story is practically non-existent and is pretty random and disjointed, sense was rarely a strong suit for Van Beuren even in their best work, it's far from a strong suit here. Parts of the action is confused and sometimes too hasty, the character designs particularly betray this.

In summary, not a bad watch but not one of those timeless see-it-over-and-over-again cartoons. More a one-time watch for interest/curiosity sake. 5/10 Bethany Cox

This is a typically weird Van Beuren cartoon but there is nothing mysterious or supernatural about it, and therefore I don't know why it makes some fantasy lists. It's also not very entertaining.

Of the various studios producing cartoons in 1929, Van Buren was not exactly a bright and shining star. But, on occasion, they created some decent cartoons...though NOT in the case of "Barnyard Melody". In fact, rarely have I ever seen a cartoon I enjoyed less!

When the cartoon began, I was shocked to see that the main character in the cartoon was a carbon copy of Felix the Cat....who was a far more successful character than any of the Van Buren characters. However, this Felix knockoff and the rest of the characters did almost nothing in the cartoon other than screech and make noises--and the volume of these bizarre sound effects varied tremendously. Many were simply impossible to really hear and understand. But during all this barnyard mess, there really was nothing in the way of plot...none....just screeching as Van Buren experimented on the audience their lousy sound system. Overall, a forgettable and awful cartoon with nothing to commend it...nothing. And, incidentally, none of this seemed to have anything to do with Aesop...and the cartoon was an installment of their Aesop's Fables series.