Shortenin' Bread

Have found a lot to admire about much of Famous Studios' earlier work and while the Noveltoons series is an uneven one it is worthwhile with some very good and even great cartoons when the studio was at its peak. Their best decade being easily the 40s, then by the mid-late-50s it started to feel like a different studio and not for the better. That is not to say that every 40s Noveltoons cartoon was good, there were lacklustre ones, including the worst of the very hit and miss Screen Song series

Of which 'Shortenin Bread' is one of the below average ones (the worst since 'The Ski's the Limit'), speaking as someone that generally found the Screen Songs a mixed bag. It is also an example of not every 40s cartoon from Famous Studios or of their Noveltoons series being good. If anyone likes good animation and music with moments of charm, 'Shortenin Bread' has a little appeal for younger viewers (adults are more likely to find it difficult to sit through). For anybody wanting anything resembling a story or any funny material with moments of freshness, it's probably best looking elsewhere.

It's the animation and the music that save 'Shortenin Bread'. Especially the latter, which was consistently of a high standard throughout the studio's run even in lesser efforts. The orchestration has a lot of energy and there are some truly luscious sounds throughout. The title song is tremendously catchy. The animation was not as consistent for the studio overall, with the quality declining when the studio did but throughout the 40s to mid-50s it was a strength. As one can tell, to me it was one of the compensations here, nice colours and the attention to detail in the backgrounds was admirable (also fitting the material and the song arrangements beautifully).

There are a few sweet moments, some affectionate baked goods details and a couple of too far and between very mildly amusing ones in the singalong portion, which was quite lively and better than the bland and saccharine stuff that came before it. Surprising as often it's the first two thirds that are a lot better and the singalong portions vary in success.

However 'Shortenin Bread' does suffer from a very weak story, even though one doesn't expect a story that blows the mind not people would expect to find some so non-existent and little more than a stringing along of excessively sugary sweet scenes and predictable material. The gags are nowhere enough and the few that were pretty much were stale and old well before this was produced, a couple amuse slightly in the singalong but generally they were not funny and tended to be too cute.

Found the cartoon quite repetitive as well and none of the characters are interesting or appealing. Instead very bland and like the cartoon was trying too hard to make them cute. It is very low on energy, especially in the singalong portion where 'Shortenin Bread' completely runs out of gas, and if one likes to have three sugars in their tea watching 'Shortenin Bread' was like having a whole teacup's worth, that's how over sweet it was to the point of being sickly.

Mediocre at best cartoon overall. 4/10.

This is a musical more than anything else with cookie characters dancing and singing. We seen visual puns on the various types of sweets, such as Lady fingers walking, an upside- down cake on the ceiling, a drunk rum cake, a goofy nut cake, etc., all going to the famous "Cookie Carnival."

At the carnival, "Danny Doughnut" does a death-defying dive into a cup of coffee

After the jokes, we come to the second part in which that southern favorite "Shorten' Bread," leads us and the bouncing ball into chorus of the song by the same name. This is strictly for young kids and for kids most likely 60 years ago. This is a bit corny for today's crowd, except maybe really young children.

Note: The title on the cartoon reads "Short'nin' Bread," which is spelled differently than what's on the title page here.