Have You Got Any Castles?

The "town crier" inside a warm house on a snowy winter night dazzles us with his vocabulary, introducing us to various literature characters who come to life in this home's big library.

Most of the characters were people seen on screen in the mid '30s, actors like Paul Muni (The Story of Louis Pasteur) or Williams Powell (Nick Charles of The Thin Man fame) or, well.....there are so many I'm not going to list them all. It starts with four horror stories: Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, Fu Manchu, The Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein and runs the game to Topper, the Invisible Man, The Good Earth, The 39 Steps, on and on and on. We see dancers and singers like Bill Robinson and Cab Calloway represent some of the titles.

With all the jokes and sight gags poured into this, you get a lot of silly, stupid, clever and funny, some of it depending on how familiar you are with the characters, and how much you enjoy puns.

My personal opinion would involve three "c words" - clever, cute and colorful. Having seen almost all of those classic films, I thought this was a lot of fun to watch.

This is the kind of cartoon that would have influenced Chuck Jones.

Books come to life with its title characters.

So Dr Jekyll, Fu Manchu, The Phantom of the Opera and Frankenstein start it off with a little song and dance routine.

The Thin Man shows up. Later it is the turn of The Invisible Man and Topper.

You have to be familiar with the 1930s references. So The Informer look like Victor McLaglen. Heidi sings a song in the style of Cab Calloway. The House of the Seven Gables are Clark Gable.

It is rather clever and amusing although some of the references are of its time.

The idea of using the books in a library to infuse characters into a plot is full of possibilities. I was a bit disappointed in the result, although there are some decent moments. Most of the books that are featured are based on well-known movies, using the actors that played those parts as caricatures. For instance, William Powell is the thin man (and he is really thin). Where it bogs down is when the musical numbers have nothing to do with the books.

Another of the 'books are alive' shorts, perhaps it's having just watched Robert Clampetts' superb "Book Revue" short, but I found this one to be still a bit amusing, but somewhat bland. The rapid fire gags were there in spades, but the whole thing just seemed to be missing the manic energy of a typical Looney Tunes short, and therefor felt a bit lifeless and just a tad stale to me. It still remains watchable, but lacks the spark that makes it stand out in any way, shape, or form. This animated short can be seen on Disc 4 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 2.

My Grade: C

A rather annoying cuckoo clock summons us all to the town crier who rather monotonically introduces us to figures from fictional history. Amongst them are "Fu Manchu", "Frankenstein" and "Dr. Jekyll" - but they are not so menacing after all as they indulge in something akin to the dance of the "Sugar Plum Fairy". That's the start of our ensuing jolly and quite innovative trawl through a library of books that gives the animators an excuse to use the titles as some creative inspiration for the drawings and for the musicians to imaginatively score along to, too. I especially liked "Whistler's Mother", "Bulldog Drummin" and that has to be Charles Laughton on the front of "Mutiny on the Bounty"... Do we get to castles? Well not really - but that doesn't seem to matter as the snake charmers and even Henry VIII get in on the act. Who knew little boy actually blew!!?