The idea for 'Killarney Blarney' actually did sound interesting. It was great to see Blue Racer in a different setting and a more exotic one at that, and anything Irish-related has always appealed to me. That is including leprechauns and gold (what they're most associated with when depicted in animation etc). Was a bit wary though, being a general non-fan of the Blue Racer theatrical series despite liking quite a good deal of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises' output.
'Killarney Blarney' just didn't work for me. It is very easy to say on paper that any Blue Racer cartoon that doesn't feature one of the studio's worst creations the beetle is automatically better than those with him in, but that has not always been the case. Proven with this cartoon, and in fact one of the best cartoons of the series ('Blue Racer Blues') actually had him in. This could have been a pretty decent cartoon with the right execution, but it felt bland, fairly cheap and it didn't sit right with me.
It's not all bad by all means. The music is characterful and infectious, with another winner of a main theme (something that was common with all the studio's theatrical series). The opening credits are well designed and creative.
Larry D. Mann does a nice job voicing Blue Racer, who has grown as a character. The best part is the ending, which is the one that one hopes it would be and it's quite clever compared to everything that comes before it.
While Blue Racer is rootable here, he works a lot better as a crafty sort of character (something that is only really seen at the end). Not the sort of character that the writers tried to make one feel sorry for by placing him in a scenario where he is treated in a mean spirited way, like here, which dulls his character down a bit. Really did not like the leprechaun characters, you are not supposed to like them sure but they are annoying and mean-spirited characters as well as poorly drawn. Mann did well as Blue Racer but the leprechauns' voice acting is proof of Irish accents being very difficult and near-impossible to pull off well as they don't sound remotely Irish and more like someone that grew up around people badly imitating pirates all their lives and resorting to at best approximate stereotyping. It was really surprising that the voice actor was Tigger's original voice actor Paul Winchell, have always liked Winchell but he is not on form here and that saddens me.
Animation is really not great here, apart from the character animation of Blue Racer. It is very flatly coloured, static and the backgrounds are overly-simple and unfinished looking, even for a purposefully abstract visual style. Blue Racer often has amusing lines, but they are not particularly funny here and are corny. Worse is the too talky dialogue for the leprechauns. So this is not a case of where you can say the funniest moments are in the dialogue as tends to be the case with the Blue Racer series. The gags are too few and all of those attempted are stale and not funny, also too cruel.
Overall, mediocre. 4/10.
'Killarney Blarney' just didn't work for me. It is very easy to say on paper that any Blue Racer cartoon that doesn't feature one of the studio's worst creations the beetle is automatically better than those with him in, but that has not always been the case. Proven with this cartoon, and in fact one of the best cartoons of the series ('Blue Racer Blues') actually had him in. This could have been a pretty decent cartoon with the right execution, but it felt bland, fairly cheap and it didn't sit right with me.
It's not all bad by all means. The music is characterful and infectious, with another winner of a main theme (something that was common with all the studio's theatrical series). The opening credits are well designed and creative.
Larry D. Mann does a nice job voicing Blue Racer, who has grown as a character. The best part is the ending, which is the one that one hopes it would be and it's quite clever compared to everything that comes before it.
While Blue Racer is rootable here, he works a lot better as a crafty sort of character (something that is only really seen at the end). Not the sort of character that the writers tried to make one feel sorry for by placing him in a scenario where he is treated in a mean spirited way, like here, which dulls his character down a bit. Really did not like the leprechaun characters, you are not supposed to like them sure but they are annoying and mean-spirited characters as well as poorly drawn. Mann did well as Blue Racer but the leprechauns' voice acting is proof of Irish accents being very difficult and near-impossible to pull off well as they don't sound remotely Irish and more like someone that grew up around people badly imitating pirates all their lives and resorting to at best approximate stereotyping. It was really surprising that the voice actor was Tigger's original voice actor Paul Winchell, have always liked Winchell but he is not on form here and that saddens me.
Animation is really not great here, apart from the character animation of Blue Racer. It is very flatly coloured, static and the backgrounds are overly-simple and unfinished looking, even for a purposefully abstract visual style. Blue Racer often has amusing lines, but they are not particularly funny here and are corny. Worse is the too talky dialogue for the leprechauns. So this is not a case of where you can say the funniest moments are in the dialogue as tends to be the case with the Blue Racer series. The gags are too few and all of those attempted are stale and not funny, also too cruel.
Overall, mediocre. 4/10.
