One Mother's Family

A hen shepherds her chicks past the farm's fence into the food-filled and dangerous fields on the other side of the road in this cartoon directed by Rudolf Ising.

I've made my admiration for the Harman-Ising studio's technical proficiency in other reviews, and also my contempt for the stories they chose to tell, little moral fables about doing what mother says. In 1937 MGM fired the studio from its contracts, and began to put together its own animation unit. Unfortunately, they weren't so good, so they hired back Harman & Ising, and the cartoonists responded by offering better stories. Here, there is still the little chick who doesn't do what mama says and gets in trouble, but the results are far more humorous.

The story is simple. A mother hen and her brood are out for a walk. She is trying to protect them and does a good job. But one of them is a big problem. A totally distracted chick who runs into things, makes noise when it has to be quiet, lags behind, and is constant trouble. The problem is that it is the same gag over and over. There is little variation on the theme. Not only that, but the wayward chick never reclaims himself or helps the mother in some way. An encounter with a skunk is sheer happenstance. If this had been shown before a movie when I was a kid, I would have really been disappointed.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. Rudolf Ising was a bit hit and miss for me, there are cartoons of his that are well worth watching with a lot of charm, well engineered gags and any sentiment not getting too much even when the story is weak. There are also other cartoons of his that are not particularly funny or interesting, dully paced and don't have great characters, despite good animation and music.

'One Mother's Family' is in neither extreme completely overall, but it has elements of both (luckily more the former hence the above average rating). Was not expecting an awful lot, as the story didn't sound that inspired and like there would be much funny with too much cutesiness. Having seen cartoons with relatively similar premises that have fallen into those traps. While 'One Mother's Family' is an uneven cartoon and may be easy to criticise for some, for me despite finding issues with it a large part of me just couldn't be too hard on it.

Beginning with what 'One Mother's Family' could have done better, it is wafer thin in terms of story and surprises are next to none, apart from one bit. With pretty much everything mapping out as expected. It does affect the pacing at times, which is not always secure and can be on the dull side.

Like a fair share of Ising cartoons, it does veer into cutesiness overload more often than ought, especially in the first half. It does take a while to get going and actually wasn't that grabbed by the mother and her chicks or their story in the first half.

Having said all of this, there is a good deal to like. The animation is vibrantly colourful and fluid, with lovingly crafted and detail background art. Nothing looks rushed or static, with the action in the second half and the character animation for the hawk being especially well animated. Even better, and this is probably the best aspect, is the music, it is lushly orchestrated and very characterful in an energetic way.

Enough of it is very sweet and charming and benefits from a very likeable lead character that is easy to root for and a suitably menacing antagonist in the hawk (the best character). Which helps make the conflict in the second half be convincing in the tension. Some nice side characters too that are more interesting than the mother and the chicks, despite being too incidental to the action. The cartoon really picks up in the second half, the pace is tighter, there are a few amusing moments like with the fight between the lead character and the hawk and there is less cutesiness.

Uneven and unexceptional, but nice cartoon that does pick up. 6/10.

A mother hen and her chicks are off on a walk into the woods. She has to protect them from different kinds of danger. One troublesome chick does tend to wander.

This is an MGM Rudolf Ising cartoon. First, I don't know any farmer who would let his chickens wander around outside his property. Realism aside, this is a fine animal road trip. The first half has no more tension than a leisurely walk in the woods. I did expect the predator to show up a little earlier. The eagle needs to make a comedic gesture about the smell. This seems to be a fine cartoon but there is nothing outstanding about it.