The Butcher of Seville

In terms of quality, Terrytoons Studios were always inconsistent. Never irredeemable but never properly outstanding, the cartoons generally ranged between mediocre and decent with some exceptions both ways (meaning less than mediocre or ones that were surprisingly very good). The best asset tended to be the music and the weakest the story, while there were assets that improved (the biggest improvement over time being the animation).

1944's Terrytoons' batch started off with 'The Butcher of Seville'. Found it on the whole to be decent, considering the type of cartoon it was (opera melodrama) surprisingly so. Am saying surprisingly so because Terrytoons tended to not do opera/operetta melodramas very well, tending to be very predictable with a running out of ideas feel, fairly dull and the villains being the only interesting character, but 'The Butcher of Seville' turned out to be one of their better examples. Also found it one of Terrytoons' better 1944 cartoons, despite what my perhaps misleading summary suggests, though there are still things that could have been done better.

Starting with that side of the argument, there is very little story, or at least little narratively that hasn't been seen before with Terrytoons' melodrama cartoons, so there is an over-familiarity that may bother some. There could have been a little more energy in places.

Regarding the characters, the leads are pretty bland. That was not unexpected as in the Terrytoons opera/operetta melodramas they did tend to be. Some of the colours unusually for Terrytoons at this stage are on the garish side.

However, the music is fantastic and as ever with Terrytoons the best thing about 'The Butcher of Seville'. Would go as far to say that it is like a sometimes deliciously eccentric character of its own, am aware that that is such an overused phrase by me but it is apt here. It is beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is terrific fun to listen to and the lively energy is present throughout, doing so well with adding to the action. Most of the colours are fine counter-balancing what was said in the above paragraph and the animation does show the vast improvement that has been made over-time in this aspect. Overall, it is nicely detailed, lively and colourful.

'The Butcher of Seville' is mostly lively in pace, the action looks good and it has well timed and amusing gags that are more than usual for most Terrytoons and for their melodramas. They're not unique gags but there is not as much of a running out of ideas and recycled feel in the gags here. Not as much as feared here and the cartoon is also pretty charming. The elevator gag is indeed a highlight. Absolutely loved the audience interaction, which is what sets 'The Butcher of Seville' apart from their other opera/operetta melodrama cartoons, and the role of the orchestra. Of the characters, the best are by quite some way the operator and the villainous wolf.

Summarising, decent. 6/10

There is a new opera in town as the animals perform the title show. A butcher who cannot get any meat for his shop decides to steal a milk cow in this amusing Terrytoon.

Philip Scheib, like most of the cartoon studios' musical directors, like to stretch his wings with the occasional operetta. With this one, he offers some eccentric scoring of Rossini and Mozart, along with the usual assortment of well-executed terry studio gags. For some reason the ink-and-paint department decided to use a lot of yellow in this one. Perhaps paint was in short supply and they were running low on reds and blues.

Rationing on the home front was a civilian problem that other Terrytoons had mentioned, including rubber. Several gags in Warner Brothers cartoons mentioned gas rationing. MGM even produced a Wallace Beery feature called RATIONING.