Honeyland

The bees are happily working and making honey in their colony. Two bees are out in the fields collecting from the flowers. They are attacked by a spider.

It's an MGM Happy Harmonies cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising. The bee colony is a lot of fine conceptions without being too interesting. There is a problem with the reality of the bees. I know it is a make-believe world, but worker bees are all female in the real world. I know. I know. The spider is not the worst looking, but I would make him a hornet instead. The animation design is old style and it's fine. None of this is that great. Whatever.

A treacly Happy Harmonies cartoon from Rudolf Ising as a bunch of childish, anthropomorphic bees spend their time, when they are not making honey, in cavorting with each other around Disney-fied mushrooms, until a big black spider with pink spots threatens their idyllic existence. This is one of those cartoons that exists only to be made fun of, and when Tex Avery showed up at MGM in the early 1940s, he skewered the entire genre with the opening to his first Screwy Squirrel movie.

Scott Bradley's music is right in there. Although he would become the second best conductor of cartoon music when working for Hanna, Barbera and Avery in the 1940s, he gave 'em what they asked for with close harmony and variations on "Flight of the Bumblebee".

Of more historical interest is that the early sections in the honey.... well, call it factory -- looks a lot like the beauty shop scenes in the 1939 WIZARD OF OZ. I suppose that's what they thought the kiddies wanted. The dopes.

I really hate cartoons like this! Violence in a cartoon isn't funny; it's just cruel. And "cute" characters don't make up for it. Having been stung (without provocation) by bees, I actually felt sorry for the spider! Avoid this short. at all costs.

'Honeyland' is very typical of Rudolf Ising, if one has seen any of his other cartoons (have seen plenty and their quality varies, with few being terrible but few being great) they should know what to expect and it is pretty much exactly what was expected. Like many of his cartoons, 'Honeyland' tends to lead towards the cute with a lot of sentiment cartoon with an at times heavier tone here, rather than the laugh a minute kind that many often prefer when it comes to animation.

This cute with a lot of sentiment approach has varied with Ising. In some instances it has been very sweet and charming, in others it can be cloying and too cutesy. Some fit in the former category, others in the latter category. Sadly, 'Honeyland' is in the latter category. So cloying and too cutesy, while any attempts of heavier content with the industrial theme do not gel. 'Honeyland' is not an unwatchable cartoon and Ising has done worse, but it is not too great either and it is not one of his best either.

Although 'Honeyland' mostly underwhelms, it does have good things. Its best asset is the animation, it's vibrantly and atmospherically coloured and shaded, beautifully drawn and rich in meticulous background detail. The music is another big plus, it's lushly orchestrated, full of charm and character and fits with the visuals beautifully.

When it comes to the characters, the best easily with the most interesting personality is the spider. Amusing and menacing, which brings some tension to the (too little) conflict. A few charming moments here and there early on.

On the other, 'Honeyland' has too many drawbacks to be recommendable. The lead characters are bland, in yet another 30s cartoon where the villain is by quite some way the best character and the only decently written one. Namely because they are on the generally wrong side of cutesy. There is a little conflict and a little tension, but it doesn't register massively because of the unbalanced characterisation and also because it is a kind of conflict that was done to death well before this cartoon was made and recycled frequently.

Moreover, the story is very thin and takes too long to get going. Only towards the end does there resemble much of a story. The pace is not great, tending to drag early on. Most of 'Honeyland' is too saccharine and cloying and some of the antics render it mostly charmless. Was not expecting a laugh a minute or hilarious cartoon, but this is completely humourless, even the sporadic moments that should have amused a little. The industrial moments are not that enlightening or insightful and the conflict doesn't really gel with the saccharine tone and should have been stronger when things got more eventful.

In conclusion, pretty lacklustre. 4/10.

Harman and Ising were making strides in their cartoons shortly after their arrival at MGM. Disney's exclusive use of 3-strip Technicolor ended in 1935, which allowed other studios to make use of it. Harman and Ising's cartoons really took off once they started to use Technicolor.

Ising, like Harman, fancied atmospheric cartoons, but was better at making his characters relatable. This short opens with elaborate shots of wide eyed bees producing honey in an assembly line factory, singing a catchy original tune. The plot involves a cute romance between two bees and a spider villain.

Some of the plot, and mostly the setting, comes from Ising's earlier short for Warner Bros. YOU'RE TOO CARELESS WITH YOUR KISSES, which also featured bees and a spider. The jump in production quality in less than three years is staggering.

The only criticism viewers may have is the ten minute length (typical for a Happy Harmony) but every moment is a feast for the eyes.

Harman and Ising really succeeded in capturing the visual and musical essence of the Disney cartoons.