Tall Timber

This is one of the last Oswald cartoons that Walt Disney produced before leaving Universal and creating his own studio and own characters this same year. In light of this, it's really interesting to see this particular cartoon, as Oswald has begun looking more and more like Mickey Mouse--as do the baby bears you'll see in this one. It's pretty easy to see how one inspired the other after you see "Tall Timber".

This cartoon finds Oswald in the great outdoors. However, it isn't easy--as he first has a tough time riding the rapids in his canoe and later he meets up with some tough bears. Throughout, Oswald is his usual plucky self and it's not surprising that he gets the better of the bears, as, after all, he's Oswald. Overall, while it's not a great Oswald cartoon, it is quite good--and quite watchable today. Plus the animation if a tad better than usual among the Disney produced films in the series.

Despite Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his cartoons being popular and well received at the time, they have been vastly overshadowed over time by succeeding Disney characters (like Mickey, Donald and Goofy) and those from Looney Tunes. It is a shame as, while not cartoon masterpieces, they are fascinating for anybody wanting to see what very old animation looked like and what Disney animation was like before Mickey arrived on the scene.

'Tall Timber' is not Oswald at his best, to me actually it's one of the weaker "Disney years" Oswald cartoons. Watchable, but lacking the creativity, imagination and consistent humour of the likes of 'The Mechanical Cow', 'Great Guns', 'Bright Lights' and 'Oh What a Knight'.

Starting with the good things, the animation is very good, such as the visuals for the rapids, it's crisp and fluid enough with some nice detail especially with animation techniques still in early days. The music is lush and energetic, adding a lot rather than distracting and enhances the cartoon's quality even, the use of sound is never static and helps make the action understandable.

Oswald is a likable enough lead with a nice personality and never doing anything that would infuriate the viewer.

However, the story is "Disney years" Oswald at its most slight, with much of the first half struggling for momentum with (very) minimal story and content that surprisingly for Oswald is lacking in laughs, energy or creativity. The content generally doesn't feel enough and it never reaches above mildly amusing and rarely even achieves that.

Pacing is erratic, with the first half lacking momentum and once things pick up a little it becomes a bit hectic.

In summary, watchable but for a "Disney years" Oswald cartoon it's pretty flat as well. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Oswald has a series of mishaps, including some canoe episodes. Once he gets out of that, he has a long encounter with a mother bear and her two cubs. He is squashed, stretched, ripped apart (always coming back to his original being). The animation is fun but not quite as imaginative as some of the past episodes.