Parrotville Post Office

"Mrs. Birdkin" drops off her juvenile-delinquent parrot kids at the post office, letting "The Captain" look after them. The postal worker said he'd help out because he's obviously smitten with her, but these kids are trouble so he winds up wrapping them up in two big mail sacks.

Meanwhile, he gets a telegram warning him that "the Black Mail Robber" is coming his way, and if he captures him there will be a $5,000 reward. (That's like a half million bucks today.) The Captain, however, is more scared than anything else and barricades the post office. Then he stands guard, singing a song. (They loved to sing in cartoons of the 1930s).

The fun starts when the robber does enter the office and literally scares the pants off the captain. When the bandit yells "stick 'em up," the Captain raises his hands and his pants fall down, revealing polka dot underwear, so the thief says, "Pick 'em up." When he does, it's "stick 'em up, and back and forth this gag goes like Daffy Duck against Bugs Bunny, until the reverse happens.

All in all, the cartoon was okay, with a predictable ending, but nothing super laugh- wise....yet not boring, either. It maintained a good pace and it was almost educational to see how they did things back in the '30s with the post office and mail service via train.

The Postmaster seems to have a thing for the woman with the two kids. But those kids are absolute horrors. They literally destroy the post office in seconds flat. He must put a stop to this and he does. But he gets a memo that a dangerous postal robber is around and may come to this place. As it turns out, it takes him and the kids to handle things. This is colorful with non-stop action.

\Orange Cinecolor

"Parrotville Post Office" is a cartoon from Van Beuren Studios--a cartoon producer for less than a decade during the late 1920s and into the 30s. While their cartoons were of decent quality compared to most companies of the time, the quality of their work never came close to rivaling Disney. Part of this was due to the deficiencies of the art and writing of the cartoons but part wasn't really Van Beuren's fault. Disney had an exclusive contract with Technicolor for full-color film stock for several years. Tinier studios like Van Beuren either had to make black & white cartoons of use the less advanced (and uglier) two- color film--such as with the Cinecolor you see in this particular short. Because it was not true color, the film is made up mostly of oranges and blues and comes off as a bit garish.

The short begins with a mother oddly asking if she can leave her two children with the postmaster for a while--even though the postmaster is supposed to be working. He agrees but doesn't realize that the pair are an unholy alliance of evil and they soon start destroying the place for kicks. Fortunately, when an evil robber shows, the pair are content with unleashing their hellish fury on his instead of the postmaster.

The film does get a point for sadism, as these kids are brats and not the typical cheerful and nice characters that you too often see in 1930s cartoons. But, as I already mentioned, the colors are rather grotesque (even for Cinecolor) and the overall film, while decent, just isn't up to the Disney standards that were leading the industry.

Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.

The third of the three Parrotville cartoons, 'Parrotville Post-Office' is the best of the three. Didn't care for the previous two, while not hating them, but moderately liked 'Parrotville Post-Office' while still not calling it a great cartoon. It is though one of the best "Rainbow Parade" cartoons. Saw it really as somebody who is trying to see as many Van Beuren cartoons as possible, so that is pretty much the main reason to see it.

'Parrotville Post-Office' has a good deal of strengths. Personally quite liked the animation, compared to the animation in the Cubby the Bear, most of the Tom and Jerry and other cartoons of Van Beuren, their production values came on a long way when switching to colour. There may be a lack of refinement in some of the drawing and the colour scheme is simple, but the cartoon is lusciously coloured and the backgrounds meticulous in detail. Even better is the music score, it is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action.

Some of the synchronisation is sharp enough. Was not left bored by the cartoon, thanks to a lively pace, and there are more gags than there usually are in the "Rainbow Parade" series, some amusing. The captain and robber characters are fun, as is their chemistry together. Thankfully, it is also one of the least saccharine "Rainbow Parade" cartoons, where it doesn't get too cutesy or go overboard with the sugar. Not to mention, some of it was educational with how post offices ran in the 30s.

Having said that, the story is very flimsy and very predictable. The ending can be seen from a mile away and is not a particularly memorable one.

While there are amusing moments and there are more gags than usual, others are bland and over-familiar with easily foreseeable outcomes and once again any absurdist surrealist humour is missing.

Overall, moderately enjoyable if not great. 6/10 Bethany Cox