Wolf! Wolf!

A fairly entertaining Terrytoons presentation, featuring Mighty Mouse as the savior of a flock of sheep terrorized by a malicious wolf. Essentially a war propaganda cartoon, this can easily be seen as a "America to the rescue" themed show, as M-M motivates the sheep to action.

A Mighty Mouse cartoon. Simple story is about a bunch of cute little sheep romping around without a care in the world. Nearby a wolf spots them. He immediately rouses his companions, gets dressed as a woman (!!!) and approaches the little sheep. "She" coaxes them away with music (using a flute and a horn). The wolves get the sheep and are ready to cook them. But the sheep's bleats alert Mighty Mouse who comes to save the day.

Very silly but this was made for kids. There are nonstop sight gags throughout this and the animation was superb. But Mighty Mouse looks a lot different than he later did. His powers seem somewhat diminished and the costume is completely different. And WHY is he always smiling? Enjoyable but mainly for kids. And, seriously, this needs some serious restoration--the color is dreadfully washed out. I give it a 5.

A lamb is captured by wolves who employ a lot of firepower. They cleverly set things up. Once Mighty Mouse gets involved there is little to it. He is so formidable that all the fun goes out of it. All his cartoons are a bit dull. The wolves are much more interesting than he or the sheep.

. . . "hip speed" is an anagram of "sheep dip." This will be of particular interest to WOLF! WOLF! Watchers, as some film buffs claim that this 1944 animated short has military ties to the ongoing World War Two. True, one of the latter scenes depicts the roof of the wolves' hideout suddenly bristling with a battleship's worth of steadily firing cannons. Which brings us back to sheep dip. Originally, this term referred to a liquid concoction of fungicide and herbicide, used to thwart external parasites from infesting these heavily-woolen creatures. However, it later came to denote the temporary transfer of military equipment to civilian "ownership," to disguise covert imminent sorties. Most enemies will not possess the hip speed to figure out what's going on in time to save their bacon.

Mighty Mouse turned out to be Terrytoons' most prolific character and the series of cartoons for regular characters that last the longest. He is a serviceable enough character and likeable though a fairly limited one. Similarly his cartoons have interest value and are well made, but they are very formulaic and Mighty Mouse tends to be too much of a supporting character rather than a lead that doesn't add much.

1944's 'Wolf Wolf' epitomises all of the above. It is a decent enough cartoon and as far as Terrytoons' typically uneven output, of 1944 and overall, goes, 'Wolf Wolf' is somewhere in the high middle and doesn't fare too badly. Either as a Terrytoon or as a cartoon on its own. A case of starting out pretty good, if not exactly mind-blowing, and then became half-way through too much of a two cartoons in one cartoon. Which is not exactly the desired effect or outcome.

Like most of Terrytoons' output, the best components are the music and the animation which was always the case generally from the late 30s onwards. Well the music was a consistent redeeming trait, even in the mediocre and less Terrytoons (have never faulted it), whereas the animation for the studio started rough but the improvement seen from the late-30s or so as said before was staggering. The music is typically lush in orchestration and rich in character, with great use of the flute and trumpet including the jazziest version of "Mary Had a Little Lamb" you'll ever hear. The animation is every bit the music's equal here, the attention to detail in the backgrounds is as careful and precise as it should be, the drawing is neat and smooth and as good as that for the early Disney cartoons and the colours are vibrant.

Of the characters, the most interesting characters are by default the wolves and it is a good thing that they are as strong as they are with them being practically the main characters really. They have great personalities, very funny on top of being a genuine threat. Their methods of trickery are a blast to watch and very clever. They provide the source of the humour, of which there is plenty and all of it is amusing and more, no misfires or inconsistencies here. The little lamb is adorable without being too syrupy. Really liked the first half, even if it is slight and predictable, with it being funny without over-doing it and cute without being saccharine. Quite charming too.

Didn't feel that the second half was anywhere near as strong. The main problem being that it felt too much like a different cartoon and a pretty average one. The odd amusing moment, but the climax is pretty much the climax for most of the Mighty Mouse cartoons, so the outcome is never in question. That's even when the character appears and for me it wasn't particularly exciting and needed more variety to avoid it being repetitive. Mighty Mouse is not a particularly compelling character.

He is certainly likeable and one likes his bravery but he is pretty one-dimensional, and despite 'Wolf Wolf' being billed as a Mighty Mouse cartoon he actually has not much to do in it and comes over more as a supporting character. Didn't find him necessary either, 'Wolf Wolf' was doing fine without him, or that he didn't add very much other than being a formulaic plot device. Was a little mixed on the narration, it doesn't over-explain or intrude but it's slightly corny and the cartoon could easily have been just as decent without it.

In conclusion, decent with a nice first half but loses its way when Mighty Mouse appears. 6/10