Charlie's Mother-in-Law

Just watched this Walter Lantz Beary's Family Album series entry on YouTube as linked from Saturday Morning Blog. In this one, Charlie is trying to go on a fishing trip but Bessie's mom is coming along to bark orders at him. If you're familiar with how stereotypically bossy these mothers-in-law can be to their sons-in-law, you'll probably guess what happens here. Needless to say, this was yet another lame "cartune" from this series that I just didn't find funny once. What a waste of the voice talents of Paul Frees and Grace Stafford who's Lantz' wife! And director Paul J. Smith seems to really have no talent for timing at least of the ones of seen of his so far. So on that note, Charlie's Mother-in-Law is definitely not recommend.

IMDb user tvam is right! This is a super awful short! It is a complete waste of money, a complete waste of talent, a complete wast of time and a complete waste of celluloid! Now I know you people who are reading this are thinking, is he going to do it. Answer: Yes! Because back by popular demand, it is time for "Matthew Rants!" So I saw this cartoon as a kid and I did not enjoy it. I saw it nine years ago dubbed in Portuguese (via YouTube) and it is still awful! It starts out as the Mother-in-Law nagging at Charlie to do some chores and stuff and out of annoyance he wants to get away from her and go fishing with his friends, but no matter what happens, it backfires. When he hid in a piano, it was zipping down the hill and down the road and he runs into a policeman and he asks him about why is he speeding. Charlie said that he wants to get away from the Mother-in-Law. He doesn't believe him and when she arrived, she starts nagging at the policeman, he covers his ears and lets out a big yell of quiet so she can shut up and now he believes the long-suffering bear. As a result, he gives her a ticket and Charlie comes out clean. What's wrong here. First of all, the story is awful and predictable. I mean it is so predictable that you don't need a crystal ball to tell me about what will happen next. When Charlie's plans will go wrong, when the mother-in-law is going to abuse him, when the policeman is going to yell, ad nauseam. While the animation and design is trying to cater to kids who watch UPA and Hanna-Barbera, the bad story is trying to bring out some sort of sexist message on woman-bashing. While the villain is the Mother-in-Law, the policeman (or policebear), treats her like garbage. When the Mother-in-Law starts giving him flack, she was babbling her long loud lecture that is sounds like a tape-recorder being played in high speed. Whoa! What is this social commentary?! I think this was made in a time when the Sexual Revolution of the 1960's was going on back the then until the 1980's. It was awful back then and it is awful today! What is with all the yelling, crashing, destruction and gender bashing?! Just because you are using sound, that doesn't need you have to be loud and obnoxious for the sake of being obnoxious! Sometimes the mind desires peaceful and quiet things it needs a break. It is like taking too much of something you forget about the things you like to take, it becomes like alcohol! Anyway, this cartoon along other ones made by Walter Lantz Productions fail to hold the test of time. This is because they were mega predictable, super boring and ultra anger inducing. Stick to Looney Tunes. If IMDb has a rating lower than one it would have that it would have that rating. Bottom line: just avoid it.

. . . "You can't beat that with a stick." As CHARLIE'S MOTHER-IN-LAW embodies this ubiquitous aphorism, the key to good marital relations is "To speak softly, and carry a good, stout club." Obnoxious, meddling in-laws are the bane of many marriages. However, as Daisy found out, a howitzer built for two can achieve the objective of erasing two shrills with one shell. Remember how Scarlet O'Hara used to say, "A bird in the deplorable basket is worth two in the net"? Charlie soon learns here that Steinway's are not a good match for 1928 Porters. Whether she's retired with retreads, or sporting brand new white walls, Mommy Dearest will reek of mothballs.

None of the "Beary Family" cartoons are animated masterpieces by any stretch, some are decent, with none being exactly great, and others are horrible. Saying recently that the series generally wasn't bad was based on initial memory or having forgotten the bad quality of the worst cartoons.

'Charlie's Mother-in-Law', after two surprisingly decent first two cartoons directed by Jack Hannah, is one of the series' worst. Indicative of when the studio and Paul J. Smith were at their worst the cartoons were very weak at best, unbearable in this case. Am a big animation fan and generally very lenient, but 'Charlie's Mother-in-Law' is one of the studio's worst, is even worse than the weakest Smith-directed Chilly Willy and Woody Woodpecker cartoons and one of the worst cartoons seen by me in recent memory.

There is one saving grace. That is the music, which is energetic and lushly orchestrated, succeeding in single-handedly giving the little energy the cartoon has.

However, the animation is not good. Time and budget constraints shows in a lot of the animation, which is very rushed looking in the drawing and detail wise it's on the simplistic and careless side with colours that lack vibrancy and a fair share of goofs. The story is not much of one at all and what there is is sloppily timed and without anything surprising or imaginative, predictability is non-stop.

Unlike the previous two cartoons, 'Charlie's Mother-in-Law' is not funny. There are a lot of gags, but here they are far too noisy and chaotic, irritating for the sake of it, and are memorable for their lack of taste than their wit. The dialogue is not amusing this time round, instead it grates and that both Paul Frees and especially Grace Stafford, very talented voice actors elsewhere, are made to overact makes it even more so.

Sadly Charlie's material is too weak for him to be funny this time, while the mother-in-law character is a strong contender for the single most obnoxious character in a "Beary Family" cartoon. Mother-in-laws are often stereotyped in a negative light but this was exaggerated overkill.

In conclusion, unbearable. 1/10 Bethany Cox