A Universal Oswald animated short. Oswald takes the place of a monkey after his bubble gum engulfs the organ grinder's little dancer.A Universal Oswald animated short. Oswald takes the place of a monkey after his bubble gum engulfs the organ grinder's little dancer.A Universal Oswald animated short. Oswald takes the place of a monkey after his bubble gum engulfs the organ grinder's little dancer.
- Director
- Writers
- Stars
Photos
Walter Lantz
- Kitty
- (uncredited)
William Nolan
- Pegleg Pete
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
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Featured reviews
Despite Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his cartoons being popular and well received at the time, they have been vastly overshadowed over time by succeeding animation characters. It is a shame as, while not cartoon masterpieces, they are fascinating for anybody wanting to see what very old animation looked like.
Not all the Walter Lantz cartoons are bad, 'Permanent Wave' for example is perfect proof of that, but some of them are not good representations of Oswald or Lantz and for historical interest only. 'Hurdy Gurdy' is not one of their worst (it's no 'Permanent Wave' but it's a marginal improvement over the first two Lantz Oswald cartoons, which were very poor), but it is not a patch on the best of the Disney and Winkler era Oswald cartoons and both Oswald and Lantz have had much better cartoons.
'Hurdy Gurdy' is mainly to be seen for historical interest, notable for its experimental early foray into sound. This experiment does come off quite well, with the sound for a cartoon so old and techniques still in its early days is not as primitive as it could have been. It is agreed too that most of the gags are fun and inventive.
The music is as energetic as ever too, and Oswald, while having much better material and deserving of it, is still pretty endearing.
On the other hand, even for an Oswald cartoon (which are not exactly to be seen for their stories), to say that the story is flimsy is an understatement, it's barely there that it's easy to say that there isn't one. Some of the synchronisation is sloppy, and a couple of the gags could have been significantly sharper.
Unusually, the animation is not great when most of the time in Oswald cartoons it's good. It's crudely drawn, the transitions has a tendency to look choppy and incomplete and the backgrounds lack detail and yes primitive.
In summary, only okay at best. 4/10 Bethany Cox
Not all the Walter Lantz cartoons are bad, 'Permanent Wave' for example is perfect proof of that, but some of them are not good representations of Oswald or Lantz and for historical interest only. 'Hurdy Gurdy' is not one of their worst (it's no 'Permanent Wave' but it's a marginal improvement over the first two Lantz Oswald cartoons, which were very poor), but it is not a patch on the best of the Disney and Winkler era Oswald cartoons and both Oswald and Lantz have had much better cartoons.
'Hurdy Gurdy' is mainly to be seen for historical interest, notable for its experimental early foray into sound. This experiment does come off quite well, with the sound for a cartoon so old and techniques still in its early days is not as primitive as it could have been. It is agreed too that most of the gags are fun and inventive.
The music is as energetic as ever too, and Oswald, while having much better material and deserving of it, is still pretty endearing.
On the other hand, even for an Oswald cartoon (which are not exactly to be seen for their stories), to say that the story is flimsy is an understatement, it's barely there that it's easy to say that there isn't one. Some of the synchronisation is sloppy, and a couple of the gags could have been significantly sharper.
Unusually, the animation is not great when most of the time in Oswald cartoons it's good. It's crudely drawn, the transitions has a tendency to look choppy and incomplete and the backgrounds lack detail and yes primitive.
In summary, only okay at best. 4/10 Bethany Cox
Oswald has to substitute for the organ grinder's monkey in this very early sound Oswald the Talking Rabbit cartoon.
Although the gags are well coordinated to the music, this is more of an experimental film, an effort by Lantz and his team, which was still being assembled at this point, to see if they could produce a sound cartoon to compete with the senior sound cartoons: Disney's Mickey Mouse, Van Beuren's Aesop's Fables, which had been at least occasional soundies for a few months before Mickey's debut, and the Fleischer Brothers' Screen Songs, which they had been producing since 1924.
Although the gags are well timed for the purely musical background, the animation is very crude, and the backgrounding is primitive. The net effect is poor. Lantz would assemble his team and get better fast, but except for some historical interest, this is not worth your time.
Although the gags are well coordinated to the music, this is more of an experimental film, an effort by Lantz and his team, which was still being assembled at this point, to see if they could produce a sound cartoon to compete with the senior sound cartoons: Disney's Mickey Mouse, Van Beuren's Aesop's Fables, which had been at least occasional soundies for a few months before Mickey's debut, and the Fleischer Brothers' Screen Songs, which they had been producing since 1924.
Although the gags are well timed for the purely musical background, the animation is very crude, and the backgrounding is primitive. The net effect is poor. Lantz would assemble his team and get better fast, but except for some historical interest, this is not worth your time.
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Details
- Runtime
- 6m
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.20 : 1
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