The County Fair

I should warn you that this is not the same as the Oswald cartoon KOUNTY FAIR, which was a synchronized one from 1930. Bill Nolan did work on it.

This one looks barely Pre-Code as Oswald hooks up with another little kid and they go to a fair. The little kid indulges in a lot of violent gags, including shooting a flying pig full of holes. This allows nasty behavior and offers Oswald a beard. He still has no clear personality but the rough and ready gags are a lot of fun.

Notice the diagonal wipes that the film makers use for scene changes. They were advanced but not bizarre for the era.

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.

So far the 1934 batch of Oswald cartoons ('The Candy House' and this have been watched to date, 'Chicken Reel' is also listed but as of now seems impossible to find) have been decent but without much special, more middling Oswald cartoons than among the best or worst.

A few of the gags are rather violent for a 30s Oswald cartoon that it doesn't make for exactly comfortable viewing, a few a little scattershot in timing. The cartoon occasionally lacks momentum but the worst aspect was the kid character, an irritating brat with no cute or funny features at all, his treatment of Oswald unjustified.

Best asset of 'The County Fair' is the animation, which is very good. There is the looser and more elaborate look of many of the previous Lantz era Oswald cartoons, but it was surprising and lovely to see parts of the animation reminding one of the animation style of the Disney years in places.

Music is much more fitting and appealing here than the weirdly placed and discordant scoring heard in 'The Candy House', and much more dynamic to the action. Most of the gags are amusing and raise a good laugh.

The story may not that special, but mostly it's lively, more eventful and obvious that there actually is one than most Oswald cartoons around this time. Oswald is endearing and one feels for him.

In summary, decent. 6/10 Bethany Cox