King Tut's Tomb

Heckle and Jeckle are in the ancient land of Egypt, lurking around pyramids and looking for a way to pick up loot. They work their way into a pyramid, but they are reckoning without the powers of ancient spirits and the curse of Tut. Also termites.

This one was released at the end of September, just in time for a spooky month of cartoons to celebrate Halloween. Many cartoons were released to tie to particular holidays, like July 4th and Christmas. Halloween cartoons formed a nice little genre, and this one probably was revived for several years. It has some nice gags in it, typical for Terrytoons' best series.

"King Tut's Tomb" is a Heckle & Jeckle cartoon, but it avoids the usual anarchic violence of those magpies. Instead, the two friends go on an exotic adventure which features more imaginative visuals than usual for a Paul Terry cartoon, and the climax features an interesting musical number. This cartoon (intentionally) has fewer laughs than usual for Heckle & Jeckle, but it's bright and well-paced, and makes for enjoyable family viewing.

Heckle and Jeckle, wearing pith helmets, are riding their flying carpet over Egypt. They come in for a landing near a likely pyramid, and decide to investigate. When they open the tomb, various Egyptian artefacts fly out into the desert. The last item to emerge is a levitating mummy case, which opens to reveal a cartoon version of Harpo Marx. The comedy of Heckle & Jeckle was always strongly influenced by the Marx Brothers, so it's nice to see an honest acknowledgment of this.

In appropriate cartoon fashion, the inside of the tomb is larger than the outside. Inside the tomb, Heckle and Jeckle discover an ancient Egyptian jukebox. (It looks to me like it's Twentieth Dynasty, second Ramesside period.) The jukebox and its records have been sitting in this dusty tomb for thousands of years, but when Heckle starts it up (of course) it works just fine. The two magpies do a spirited dance to the catchy tune on the jukebox.

The character animation in this short is better than usual for the Terry studio, whose characters sometimes had a distressing tendency to wobble. I enjoyed 'King Tut's Tomb' without actually laughing out loud, and I recommend it with a rating of 7 out of 10.

In my opinion, the Heckle and Jeckle theatrical series is generally the best of Terrytoons Studios' regular character theatrical series (do like some cartoons from that of Gandy/Sourpuss too, personally find Mighty Mouse hit and miss). Which generally were interesting watches, if more the earlier ones than the later ones. It does help too that Heckle and Jeckle themselves are compelling lead characters in the way that some of the studio's other recurring characters weren't and their personalities were already very well established at this point.

1950's 'King Tut's Tomb' is not one of their best cartoons, though also not one of their weakest. There is a lot to like about it, as is the case with many of Heckle and Jeckle cartoons (especially the earlier ones), and the best aspects are excellent. There are also a couple of things done better than usual. There though have been consistently funnier Heckle and Jeckle cartoons and with such an exotic location a little more could have been done with it perhaps.

'King Tut's Tomb' may be unoriginal and thin in terms of the story, which is to be honest expected from Heckle and Jeckle.

Will agree too about the climax being too tacked on and introduced too out of nowhere, the musical number is catchy but if there was a section that could have been shortened or left out it was this portion.

A lot however is recommendable. The music, a consistent good thing, is so lovely to listen to and there is such an uplifting vibe hearing it because of the snappy character it has. The animation is every bit as great. It is vibrantly coloured, quite smooth in drawing and transitions, doesn't look static or simplistic and the attention to detail is good. Absolutely loved the interiors of the tomb, which was quite imaginative, and the character designs are more elaborate agreed than the usual Heckle and Jeckle cartoon.

While 'King Tut's Tomb' may not be laugh a second quality, it is hardly short changed when it comes to gags and while they are not hilarious or original they are still well engineered and made me laugh. The dialogue avoids being too corny and the action is deliciously anarchic, sometimes darkly so when the two get more malicious in their outsmarting. The pace is fast and furious and the action and increasing anarchy is wonderfully chaotic, yet remarkably it doesn't feel too much of an overload. Once again, Heckle and Jeckle are highly entertaining characters, their movements, the way they talk (in the use of language and the voices themselves) and their expressions make them quite unique characters for Terrytoons.

In conclusion, worth watching if not one of the best Heckle and Jeckle cartoons. 7/10.

I never cared for these characters as a child. They always seemed to dish out cruelty without much thought. This is a bit better, although they are set upon stealing Egyptian artifacts and getting rich. There are a few decent bits here. The termites at the end were really out of the blue and simply tacked on with no connection to the world they had entered.