Fowled-Up Birthday

None of the "Beary Family" cartoons are animated masterpieces by any stretch, but this first cartoon of twenty eight in the series is much better than anticipated for a 60s Walter Lantz-studios cartoon. Generally, while not great cartoons, for the studio's final series (which indicates disaster on paper because the studio had declined drastically by the 60s) the "Beary Family" cartoons could have been far worse.

It is easy to criticise 'Fowled-Up Birthday'. Like many 60s Lantz-studio cartoons, the animation is not good. 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 pretty slight and contains few surprises or much imagination. Suzy is on the annoying side too.

However, the music puts one in a good mood and is rousing and lush. Jack Hannah does a very nice job directing, timing the gags well and making the characters and their interaction engaging, making the most of the animation limitations.

The dialogue amuses, especially Charlie's. There are a lot of gags and they are good fun and well-timed, if not hilarious or innovative.

Characters carry 'Fowled-Up Birthday' very nicely. Suzy is annoying, but Bessie is loyal and charming here, serving as a good introductory narrator. Stealing the show are the goose, whose acrimonious chemistry with Charlie is a lot of fun while also cute with Suzy, and particularly lovable Charlie, the consistently funniest and most easy to relate to character of the "Beary Family" series.

Voice acting is very solid.

Overall, not bad or fowled up at all, for a very late Lantz-studio effort it's pretty good. 7/10 Bethany Cox