A Haunting We Will Go

'A Haunting We Will Go' (1939)

Opening thoughts: Have seen a lot of the cartune special cartoons over time (some first time viewings recently, others re-watches), and while they are a mixed bag in quality there are plenty that are well above average and more. Burt Gillett did do a good deal of great work in his earlier career, with some of the best Disney cartoons (i.e. 'Lonesome Ghosts' coming from him), but his later work varied with some good cartoons but also some rather average ones. Same goes for Walter Lantz.

'A Haunting We Will Go' is one of three cartoons to star Li'll Eightball. Watching this and the other cartoons, which are very weak in nearly every area, it is hardly surprising that he and his series didn't last long. The good news is that 'A Haunting We Will Go' is the best of the three and is tolerable compared to the weak standard of the other two. It does help that it has the most appealing premise of the three cartoons and uses the setting quite well. The bad news is that it is not particularly good, with many of the flaws the series suffered from being present.

Good things: There are good things here. The animation is vibrant and beautifully detailed, with also some nice atmosphere. Even better is the very characterful music, that is also lush in orchestration and rousing and does so well at enhancing the action rather than merely adding to it.

It also has some well done spooky atmosphere and some fun supporting characters. Whereas the other Li'll Eightball cartoons were distastefully stereotypical, the material is nowhere near as offensive here. The voice acting is game.

Bad things: Having said all this, quite a lot is not done well. The lead character is very bland with no appealing personality, something that the series never improved, and the stereotypical talking and mannerisms induces cringing.

Furthermore, the story is flimsy and predictable, suffering too from a severe lack of energy from feeling like a 3-4 minute cartoon stretched out. The gags are nowhere near enough and there is nothing original and little amusing, let alone funny, about any of them.

Closing thoughts: Overall, tolerable but not particularly good.

5/10.

Lil' Eightball, a darker-skinned version of Scrappy and Buddy of '30s cartoondom, is unafraid of "ectoplasmic figments of the imagination",but a bunch of silly spirits in a haunted house try to prove the opposite. Some of the cast appear "borrowed" from Disney's "Lonesome Ghosts", a film the ex-Disney director had previously worked on.

Although, some pre-World War II live-action "spook" comedies took on racial overtones, it is difficult to criticize animated shorts like this and "Jasper And The Haunted House", since they closely resemble "Lonesome Ghosts", "Shiver Me Timbers", "Scrappy's Ghost Story" and many other 'toons featuring a variety of human races and animal species. The minor discretion here may be Eightball's big lips and "hee-hee" jive-talk (provided by the great Mel Blanc). Universal bravely included this excellent cartoon, along with the naughtier "100 Pygmies And Andy Panda", on the recent DVD "Woody Woodpecker And Friends Vol. 2".

. . . state that A HAUNTING WE WILL GO (1939) lasts 10 minutes, every version on the world wide web is listed as being about 7 minutes, 22 seconds long. I just timed it on Disc One of the Woody Woodpecker & Friends Cartoon Collection Volume 2, and it clocks in at exactly 7:22.50. Unfortunately, this is not the only fly in this picture's ointment. From Quasimodo ringing the big bell to scare the minority population of Paris to Dracula siphoning only the darkest berries, Universal's House of Horror is infamous for its racial insensitivity. As late as the 1950's, Universal churned out a series of flicks about THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON! How's that for rocking America's many-hued boat?