The Phantom Ship

This is one of nine cartoons where Beans the Cat starred in Looney Tunes shorts. During this period of time, the Harmon-Ising team had left Looney Tunes, which was a good thing long-term, as their cartoons tended to have too much singing and cutesy characters, but since they took Bosko with them, the studio was left scrambling to create a new star. Their attempts were mostly unsuccessful for the next couple years and the likes of Bean as well as Buddy and Goopy came and went...and 99.9% of viewers today probably never heard of these characters. When you see "The Phantom Ship" you might just understand why. It's because although Looney Tunes had some major talent animating their shorts, the characters and writing were generally quite bland.

Joining Beans in this one are his nephews, Ham and Ex...which is weird since they are dogs and Beans is a cat! I wonder what sort of unholy union created these creatures! Regardless, the three go flying in Beans' plane and discover a phantom ship filled with frozen pirates. But as Beans loots the ship, the pirates come to life and give chase.

Beans and his nephews have no particular personality other than they are good. Sadly, the same can be said for the pirate leader...he's bad but not much more. Overall, very well animated and dull.

There are two things that make a cartoon character: cuteness and funniness. The characters in this film (Beans, and Ham & Ex) possessed considerable measures in both categories. It's so hard to believe why those three have such a short run in the Looney Tunes series. When some critics give their take on why this is, chances are they'll say it has something to do with personality. I just wonder how some people define the word "personality"? Well, whatever the meaning is, the three aforementioned characters are still worth featuring.

For some reason, WB retired them in favor of Porky. True, his stuttering speech is funny. But at the same time it could be quite a drag in trying to understand what his trying to say. This guy maybe quite hilarious. But when it comes to cuteness, he probably doesn't come close.

The Phantom Ship is an entertaining film. It does feature sufficient thrill and humor.