The Ugly Dino

Yup that's what it is. It is one of their Stone-Age cartoons that came out in 1940 inspired by the success of ONE MILLION B.C. They were created by Max Fleicher's animation team. Their cartoons predate THE FLINTSTONES so expect to see a lot of modern stone-age humor. In a nutshell, this cartoon is a prehistory retelling of The Ugly Duckling, except it had dinosaurs and had saber-toothed tiger as the villain. While the gags are good, it is a great cartoon worth watching. Not rated, but a G will work.

During the Late Thirties, with the Production Code bowdlerizing Betty Boop, the Fleischers kept trying to expand their regular series beyond Popeye and Screen Songs. They tried with Wiffle-Piffle, a relative of Termite Terrace's Egghead, but he didn't go anywhere. In 1940 they tried to do a bunch of Prehistoric-themed cartoons, perhaps influenced by reports of Disney's Fantasia. Running to dinosaur-and caveman gags, it was called the 'Stone Age' series. This is the sixth.

It is, as you might guess, a variation of the Ugly Duckling Story. It is rather sentimental for Fleischer, but the gags are numerous and well-constructed, as you might expect for a cartoon directed by Dave Fleischer. The result is a watchable, if not great cartoon.

Will admit to really not caring for the previous Stone Age cartoons from the short lived and generally not particularly good 1940 series, comprising of 12 cartoons, from Fleischer Studios. They were not unwatchable as such, but one can see why the series didn't last long in what was by far the studio's worst period. Actually liked to loved a lot of their previous work namely throughout the 30s, but it does pain me to say that the decline in quality in the 40s was drastic and obvious.

That is not to say that all the cartoons in the Stone Age series are below average. There are a few exceptions. 'The Ugly Dino', the series' prehistoric loose take on the classic Hans Christian Andersen story 'The Ugly Duckling', is one of the exceptions. It is not a great cartoon as such and has a few of the issues that the series in general has but it is one of the cartoons in the series that rises average level and is just above it.

Starting with what doesn't quite work, the story is slight and can lack energy on occasions. Although the gags here are generally not too bad for this series and there are more of them, they could have been fresher, being generally rehashes, and a few sharper in timing.

Did feel that there is some sentimentality too that occasionally gets a touch sugary and the corniness that the series has in general is still here.

However, 'The Ugly Dino' is one of the better looking cartoons in the series, and much more appealing than most of the other Stone Age cartoons. Being smoother and having more attention to detail. Even better is the music, which was the best asset with all the cartoons in the series. It is suitably merry and lush and dynamic with what's going on, with an infectious opening theme.

In terms of the humour, 'The Ugly Dino' is one of the better-faring Stone Age cartoons by far. There are more gags than most of the cartoons in the series and they are mostly very amusing and don't feel repetitive or stale. The take on 'The Ugly Duckling' story is mostly very cute and has an emotional impact that is rare for this series. The characters have more personality than the usual characters in the series and they are more appealing too, did root for the titular character and the villain is the most interesting. The voices are decent.

On the whole, not half bad if unexceptional. 6/10