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. Alex Lovy's work as director and associate producer varied a lot as well, but when he was on form the cartoons had a lot of good things. When he was not, which was primarily in his later career where tighter deadlines and lower budgets affected the quality, the cartoons in question were average or less.
1942's 'Pigeon Patrol' is neither one of Lovy's best or one of his worst. Same goes with the cartune specials cartoons. It is a decent cartoon that is worth a one-time watch at least, but it is also rather uneven and with not much that is exceptional. With 'Pigeon Patrol' being one of those cartoons that starts off well but loses momentum later when it runs out of ideas, a type of cartoon that this viewer has seen a lot of in recent weeks. Which is not too much of a problem, but merely an observation.
'Pigeon Patrol' does do a lot right. The best thing about it is, somewhat predictably (not meant in a derogatory way), the music, which is fantastic throughout the entire cartoon. Even when the story is uneven in pacing the energy and character in the music are consistent and in a great way. It is just so infectious and clever, one of those instances of wanting to get up, grab an instrument and start playing and dancing. Most of the animation is fine too, especially in the very vibrantly coloured first third, beautifully synchronised movements with the instruments and a lot of clever touches in the sight gags, especially in the middle third, can be seen.
Also thought that the first third had a lot of energy of the lively sense and a lot of funny and beautifully timed sight gags. Homer and Daisy are engaging characters that have nice personalities even if they are on the one dimensional side. The vocal performances are wonderfully exuberant throughout.
However, there are things that could have been done better. It did start losing energy and had a running out of ideas feeling towards the end of the middle act. That the story was slight was absolutely expected, but was not expecting it to feel like a different cartoon that felt rather predictable and phoned in.
Did feel too that the animation was not always consistent. The character designs do become less appealing later on and come over as on the primitive side, character designs that one would see in the late 20s and throughout the 30s but not when animation had come on significantly. The ending is very abrupt and tacked on-like.
All in all, decent if unexceptional. 6/10.
