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 'A Bully Romance', another Gandy Goose cartoon, is one of the middling ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the middling 1939 cartoons. It is an unexceptional, nothing exactly special cartoon and has the same amount of problems as it has the amount of strengths. 'A Bully Romance' is also watchable, completest sake is the main reason to see it but it's not the only reason.

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.

A few amusing moments, some neat Mexican/bullring setting touches, some imaginative and there is some zest and natural charm, and parts of it and the basic set up are nicely done. The supporting characters are great fun, especially the bull, and much more interesting than Gandy.

Outside of the backgrounds and more fluidity than seen previously however, a few of the transitions are not always polished.

Likewise, the story is paper thin and formulaic with not an awful lot to it (like the cartoon in general). Gags aren't enough, they are not always very organised (fairly scattershot), and there is not much especially memorable about some and some don't serve much point. The cartoon tends to veer towards being too cute and a lot of it is pretty predictable from being a familiar premise for Terrytoons. Some choppiness too and the cartoon feels very old fashioned and at times routine with Gandy still not being the most appealing characters on the block.

Summing up, watchable but nothing special. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Gandy Goose tells a young duckling about his trip to Mexico, where he fell in love with a beautiful senorita. Her father insisted that his daughter marry a brave goose, and that Gandy fight a bull in this decent Terrytoon.

Eddie Donnelly seemed to get a lot of retread stories to direct, probably because because story editor John Foster thought that a fellow van Beuren alumnus could bring a new touch to a Terry studios standard, last done in 1935 as THE BULL FIGHT. It had been a common practice at van Beuren also, with titles like GAY GAUCHO and HOT TAMALE.

The point is that this sort of cartoon was redone every few years, with technical advances taking most of the interest for someone who does an intensive study of these things. For someone looking at them in theater release, there was a vague sense there had been something like this a few years earlier and this was a bit better; the next one, in another few years, would likely be even better. And they were right.