The Old House

Im aware that many people absolutely despise the redesign of Bosko, and whole understandable, ive personally never any issues with it. Racially, yes, in terms of it being ugly, not really. Asides from that, it cant be denied that this is a very well made short. From the beautiful animation, with the colorful outside contrasting with the dark and insanely creepy interior of the house, the atmosphere levels in this one are just simply off the charts. Hugh Harmon definitely improved as a director by this point in tome, with the gags of Honey and Bosko confusing each other for other ghostly figures building and building, and the scene of Bruno literally stopping mid-jump when seeing Bosko dressed as a ghost was an unexpectedly funny moment. The ending with the screaming skeleton was also heart warming, not in a cloying way though, and terrifying with the skeleton chasing Bosko and Honey. Voice acting by Phillip Hurlic is also great, providing a truly child like voice and even some representation for the Black Community on cinemas at the time, despite going uncredited here. All in all, a great short that undeniably showed what MGM was capable of. Such a shame Harman left in 1942 and didn't have much mainstream success after that, sadly. At the very least, he did leave behind a unique career, with hidden gems like this one left for us to view in the present day.

While this short mainly depicts two black kids screaming and running for their life in a haunted house-thereby reaffirming the "blacks scared of spook" stereotype-there are some good animation and nice humorous touches that redeems this short, The Old House, somewhat. This is the MGM Bosko and not the Warner Bros. one that looked like a little monkey (that remark may offend some people but it's true). Both though were created by Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising so there was no copyright infringement involved. If what I just described doesn't appeal to you, by all means avoid. To anyone else interested in MGM animation pre-Tom and Jerry and Tex Avery, it's worth seeing at least once.

The Bosko cartoons may not be animation masterpieces, but they are fascinating as examples of Looney Tunes in their early days before the creation of more compelling characters and funnier and more creative cartoons. There are some good cartoons, as well as some average or less ones.

'The Old House' is one of the good cartoons, and one of the better Bosko cartoons in general. Bosko cartoons are not to be known for their stories as such, and that is true for 'The Old House', which is fairly thin on the ground and isn't particularly original. It is true too that some of the cartoon is stereotypical and occasionally is not for the easily offended, though there is definitely far worse examples of racism in cartoons if one deems it as that.

A lot of 'The Old House' works very well however, with the cartoon having a lot of good merits. As always for a Bosko cartoon the animation is good. Not exactly refined but fluid and crisp enough with some nice detail, it is especially good in the meticulous backgrounds and some remarkably flexible yet natural movements for Bosko. The music doesn't disappoint either, its infectious energy, rousing merriment, lush orchestration and how well it fits with the animation is just a joy.

Sound quality has clarity and the synchronisation isn't sloppy and has imagination. The way Bosko is animated is well done and remarkably natural.

With a great mix of amusing fun and quite scary spooks, the gags all hit the mark and none of them miss or are less than amusing. The pacing is all very lively, and all the characters, including Bosko who is not always interesting but sometimes he is fun and likable and he is here, engage.

On the whole, fun and spooky and one of the better Bosko cartoons. 8/10 Bethany Cox