Toyland Premiere

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 animation characters. It is a shame as, while not cartoon masterpieces, they are fascinating for anybody wanting to see what very old animation looked like.

Oswald in the Disney years saw mostly good to very good cartoons, and while the Winkler years had some duds there were also cartoons as good as the best of the Disney years. The 1929-1930 batches of Walter Lantz-directed Oswald cartoons were a mixed bag, with some good, some forgettable and not much special and a few mediocre. The 1931 batch was mostly underwhelming, with only 6 out of 18 cartoons being above average or more. The 1932 batch had a few not so good, though the cartoons in question were nothing compared to the worst of the previous 3 years, cartoons, but most were decent to good and some even very good. The 1933 batch is one of the most consistent, with the weakest 'Beau Best' still being decent.

Alongside 'Sky Larks', 'Toyland Premiere' is one of the best of the 1934 batch of Oswald cartoons, a group that was mainly decent but unexceptional with a few average ones. Story-wise there is not much of one and that's putting it mildly, and there are funnier Oswald cartoons, but 'Toyland Premiere' is nonetheless colourful and entertaining stuff.

Where it particularly excels is in the animation and music. Once again the animation is terrific, it is elaborate, beautifully and cleverly drawn and rich in detail and colour in the backgrounds, some of it in the gags is quite imaginative too.

Love the music too, which is very characterful, bouncy and beautifully and lushly orchestrated and performed.

The gags may not be hilarious but they are still amusing, and one of 'Toyland Premiere's' biggest joys is seeing and recognising the caricatures (was familiar with all and found them very cleverly utilised and entertaining. 'Toyland Premiere' luckily avoids being too cutesy and saccharine, a common problem of the 1934 Oswald cartoons. Oswald is endearing.

In conclusion, very good and one of the two best of the 1934 batch. 8/10 Bethany Cox

"Toyland Premiere" was recently issued on DVD in "The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection," a three disc set from Universal. It's technically an Oswald, the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, although he doesn't get much of the footage. In a very crisp, clean two-strip Technicolor print (red and turquoise dominate the color schemes), we see how Santa Claus's helpers make him a new suit after the first one has been eaten by moths; then Santa leads a big parade to a big-city department store, where a lot of Hollywood celebs at a banquet help him demonstrate this year's line-up of toys. Among the luminaries are Lupe Velez and Johnny Weissmuller, Shirley Temple, Eddie Cantor (in black-face!), the Frankenstein monster, Bing Crosby, and Laurel and Hardy. Stan and Ollie run afoul of the monster when Ollie wants too much of a large cake. There's not much in the way of story or gags here, but the movie-star caricatures and the bouncy musical score (featuring a trio of girl singers) make this a very enjoyable cartoon.