Way Back When Women Had Their Weigh

Really like to love a lot of Fleischer Studios' early/earlier cartoons. Just wanted to make that clear before anybody thinks there is any bias. The best of Popeye, Koko and Betty Boop are especially worth watching, but their cartoons from around 1940 onwards did not represent them anywhere as well. The "Stone Age" series and the worst of the Gabby cartoons don't do Fleischer justice, neither do most of the Animated Antics cartoons.

The final "Stone Age" cartoon 'Way Back When Women Had Their Weigh' doesn't end the series on either a high or low. Instead it lies somewhere in between. Ranking it amongst the other cartoons in the series, it is not quite up there with 'Way Back When a Razzberry was a Fruit', 'Granite Hotel' and 'Pedagogical Institution (College to You)' as one of the best of the series but it is nowhere near the terrible level of 'Springtime in the Rockage' and is the second best easily of the 'Way Back...' titled cartoons in the series. It is also a little better than the title suggests.

'Way Back When Women Had Their Weigh' has its fair share of good things. The best asset is the music score, the one consistently good component throughout the series. It is full of character and vibrantly orchestrated and is also merry and dynamic. Very catchy main song. Moments of crudeness in transitions aside, the animation quality is better than most cartoons in the series. Most of the series is not very well animated at all, but there is a lot more detail and finesse than usual and the backgrounds are simple but not as sparse. Nothing inventive here but it is not as cheap as other cartoons in the series.

Some nice references here. Anybody who is a fan of golden age/classic film, like me, will love the references to Gary Cooper and Jimmy Durante in caricature form. In fact the Hollywood references are a delight and nostalgic, only 'Granite Hotel' of the series did this and better. The voice work is good.

Even though deserving of better material. Other than the Hollywood references, 'Way Back when Women Had Their Weigh' is not particularly funny. There could have been far more gags and certainly fresher and more imaginative ones were needed, this was tired predictable stuff generally. The story is very thin on the ground and is not particularly engaging, also thought it took too long to get going.

There was a feeling of a not particularly new premise over-stretched, as the content was not enough to fill the length in my view. Didn't care for the characters and found them unappealing and lacking in personality. There was need generally of more energy, which the cartoon didn't ever really have.

All in all, as far as this underwhelming series goes this is not too bad but there is a long way from great. The series does end quite a lot better than how it started though. 5/10