User Reviews

Two mutts are riding the rails until they decide to stop and enter a local dog show.

The rather elaborate design of the two pups makes me think that Paul Terry was looking for a new series to replace the fading star of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. There is also a continual music score, two songs, including a new one by Philip A. Scheib and, for Terry, a conspicuous lack of looping to hold down production costs -- although the last might be an artifact of my looking at a Castle Films version of the cartoon; it timed in at a minute and a half less than the time listed on the IMDb.

Although my taste does not run to the babyish-looking character favored by Terry's studio, the construction of the cartoon and the pacing and competence of its gag construction makes it very good.

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.

1936, like all the other years for Terrytoons, saw a hit and miss batch, more so than the other years even. Of which 'Rolling Stones' is one of the better ones ranking it in correlation with the rest of the Terrytoons and one of the best 1936 cartoons. There are flaws but also a lot of strengths, and a few things done better than what was seen before. 'Rolling Stones' 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 1936 Terrytoons showed more fluidity in design than in previous years and some synchronisation is neat. The drawing is more fluid generally.

A fair share of amusing moments, with more gags than there can be usually found, 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 quite relatable here too, and that it doesn't get saccharine is appreciated.

On the other hand, the animation is sometimes primitive at best with a fair bit of crudeness, though there is more fluidity than usual that was seen in a fair number of 1936 Terrytoons.

Likewise, the story, while refreshingly wild for Terrytoons at this point, is thin and formulaic, not much new. A few moments of staleness in humour though this was only occasional.

All in all, pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox