To Catch a Halibut

'To Catch a Halibut' (1978)

Opening thoughts: Not all DePatie-Freleng's output is below average or bad. In fact, the 1960s Pink Panther cartoons (and some of those from the early 70s) and the Inspector and Ant and the Aardvark theatrical series were very good and excellent at their best. And the Roland and Rattfink and Sherriff Hoot Kloot series, while uneven, had their good moments. So on the whole, generally the output was the opposite of bad, even if it declined quite badly in the mid-70s.

The Misterjaw theatrical series is one of the studio's weaker theatrical series, with none of the 34 cartoons being awful but also none of them good, the flaws being the same in every cartoon. It is not as bad as the Crazylegs Crane series, which failed in almost every area, but my overall feelings are similar to that of the Dogfather series in finding it rather mediocre and forgettable. Which sums up 'To Catch a Halibut' very well, a few good things but also a lot of significant drawbacks done very badly.

Good things: There are good things here in 'To Catch a Halibut'. The animation is surprisingly, considering the period for the studio where the quality of almost everything was noticeably cheaper, not bad at all. Some nice colours and good fluidity in the air action.

Did think too that the music had some nice character and that some of the voice acting has some spirit.

Bad things: The drawbacks are many and big, as well as impossible to ignore. It is for one thing very formulaic, with pretty much all the too few gaga being rather tired and predictable to the extent that remembering them long after is hard. Also badly lacking in variety. The catchphrases are very lame and corny to the point of groaning, a big problem when the writing is so reliant on them in a cartoon that feels very repetitive. The cartoon would have been a lot better without the canned laughter track, which sounded cheap and wasn't necessary in the slightest considering that the writing is not very sitcomish.

Furthermore, the story is paper thin yet also feels rushed product like and repetitive. It is also overly silly, even for a premise where serious suspension of disbelief is needed to begin with. The characters are very one note and bland in personality, and they are neither funny or endearing and instead too slapped together and product of the time like. With Misterjaw and Catfish, it was like seeing an even more bumbling Pug and even more annoying Louie from the Dogfather series in fish form. There is not an awful lot of chemistry between them and the ending is mean spirited and felt abrupt and incomplete.

Closing thoughts: Overall, mediocre.

4/10.