It is not as if Fleischer Studios were a terrible studio. Actually loved their early work, the best of Betty Boop, Popeye and Koko are excellent and even liked some of their "Color Classics". Some of which had innovative visuals and did amuse and charm. By 1940 however, the studio did decline significantly, 'Little Lambkin' being sadly a good example of this.
Fleischer's decline is evident in the worst of their Gabby and "Color Classics" series, s well as most of the "Stone Age" and "Animated Antics" cartoons. They were barely worth watching despite being well animated and scored. 'Little Lambkin' was made during Fleischer Studio's declining period and has pretty much all of the things that made their later work vastly inferior to their earlier work. It looks good, it sounds good and it has its too far and between moments, but there are a lot of things that are wrong with it. Of the "Color Classics" cartoons, 'Little Lambkin' is far from a classic and perhaps one of the lesser cartoons in the series. Having all the flaws of the series in general and its biggest ones are very badly executed.
Beginning with what 'Little Lambkin' does well, the best thing about it is the animation. Something that can be said for most of the series, well either being that and the music score (as will be mentioned later as another component that comes off well). Just love the vibrancy of the colours, that have a lot of atmosphere as well, and the meticulous attention to detail in the backgrounds. The music score adds so much to the action and even enhances it, on top of being sumptuously orchestrated and being full of character.
The appliances are cool and 'Little Lambkin' does start off well. The kitchen scene is amusing and is very cleverly animated with some wonderfully strange visuals to match.
'Little Lambkin' however has much wrong with it. In two particular areas, though it will be briefly said that it is a very bland cartoon, sometimes too cute and the more intended berserk moments are nowhere near insane enough and feel very anaemic. One of the biggest problems is that a vast majority of the cartoon is just not funny, there are not enough gags and other than the kitchen scene they all come over as tired and silly. The appliances are cool but they don't feature enough and later on have the same problem as the not many gags.
Even more of an issue is the titular character himself, don't be deceived by his semi-cute appearance he is as far away from likeable as one can possibly get and has to be one of the brattiest kids in animation. Very irritating and sadistic and not cute or even remotely amusing at all. The story is practically non-existent and the pace is very dull throughout.
Concluding, very mediocre with a few things done outstandingly well and they save the cartoon from being unwatchable, but the flaws outweigh them and their execution make it very difficult to like let alone enjoy. 4/10
