User Reviews

Gandy Goose goes to his girl's house with flowers and candy. The Bantam, however, takes her canoing. When disaster strikes, who will save her in this decent Terrytoon.

After an absence of several months, Gandy was back in production at Paul Terry's studio. While the hapless gags are good, they make Gandy seem to be positioned against Disney's Donald Duck. Donald's temper made him his own worst enemy, while Gandy was simply hapless... a condition sure to excite more sympathy, but not as sharp and interesting a character flaw.

Musical director Philip Scheib and his collaborator offer the audience an unremarkable ballad "It Must Be Love." Given its prominence in the cartoon, some one was hoping to make a few extra bucks.

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.

1940, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch, though marginally more consistent than previous years. Of which 'It Must Be Love', another Gandy Goose cartoon after some months' absence, is one of somewhere in the middle ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the middle average 1940 cartoons. It is an unexceptional, nothing exactly special cartoon and has the same amount of problems as it has the amount of strengths. 'It Must Be Love' is worth a one-time watch, 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. The colours are vibrant.

A number of well timed and amusing moments, some imaginative and there is some zest and natural charm, and parts of it and the basic set up are nicely done. Bantam is great fun and by far the best and most compelling character in 'It Must Be Love', 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). While with more gags than expected for a Gandy cartoon, a few lack freshness and wit to work properly. The cartoon tends to veer towards being too cute and a lot of it is pretty predictable from being such a familiar premise for Terrytoons and in animation overall with little new done with it. Some choppiness too and the cartoon feels very old fashioned and at times routine with Gandy still not being the most appealing character on the block and is quite bland. The love interest is with not much personality either.

Concluding, average but more a one-time watch cartoon than one to see on repeat. 5/10 Bethany Cox