The Little King tours his nation's prison - and he inadvertently causes a riot and mass-escape.The Little King tours his nation's prison - and he inadvertently causes a riot and mass-escape.The Little King tours his nation's prison - and he inadvertently causes a riot and mass-escape.
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Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.
'Jolly Good Felons' is the eighth of eleven Van Beuren cartoons based on Otto Soglow, and the sixth to star The Little King. It is for me one of the better The Little King cartoons, even if the first two Van Beuren/Soglow cartoons with Sentinel Louey 'A.M To P.M' and 'A Dizzy Day' were more successful in being faithful to Soglow's humour and visual style (the closest The Little King cartoons gets to that is 'Jest of Honour' perhaps).
It's flimsy in story, not unexpected in a The Little King cartoon, the material is standard and occasionally a little too sweet and pace-wise it's not one of the livelier The Little King cartoons, dragging a little when The Little King is journeying.
Actually though, there is a huge amount to like about 'Jolly Good Felons' and it vastly outweighs the flaws. It demonstrates why Van Beuren's cartoons adapted from Soglow's work are among the studio's better, more ambitious and more entertaining efforts.
One expects Van Beuren cartoons to generally not be well animated. That's not the case with 'Jolly Good Felons', the studio's Soglow adaptations come to think of it were all among their better-looking cartoons and showed more detail and crispness. It may not quite be as imaginative visually and have the ambitious human character designs of 'The Fatal Note', which introduces The Little King, but for Van Beuren this animation is surprisingly good.
Music as always with Van Beuren, very nearly always the best thing about their cartoons and sometimes the only good thing, is lively and beautifully and cleverly orchestrated. The gags are amusing, well-timed and charming, if not quite as subtle as in the first two Van Beuren/Soglow cartoons. The ending is cute and amusing and the second half of the cartoon is when the pace does pick up and the material gets even more interesting. The Little King is appealing as a lead.
Overall, another pretty good The Little King cartoon. 7/10 Bethany Cox
'Jolly Good Felons' is the eighth of eleven Van Beuren cartoons based on Otto Soglow, and the sixth to star The Little King. It is for me one of the better The Little King cartoons, even if the first two Van Beuren/Soglow cartoons with Sentinel Louey 'A.M To P.M' and 'A Dizzy Day' were more successful in being faithful to Soglow's humour and visual style (the closest The Little King cartoons gets to that is 'Jest of Honour' perhaps).
It's flimsy in story, not unexpected in a The Little King cartoon, the material is standard and occasionally a little too sweet and pace-wise it's not one of the livelier The Little King cartoons, dragging a little when The Little King is journeying.
Actually though, there is a huge amount to like about 'Jolly Good Felons' and it vastly outweighs the flaws. It demonstrates why Van Beuren's cartoons adapted from Soglow's work are among the studio's better, more ambitious and more entertaining efforts.
One expects Van Beuren cartoons to generally not be well animated. That's not the case with 'Jolly Good Felons', the studio's Soglow adaptations come to think of it were all among their better-looking cartoons and showed more detail and crispness. It may not quite be as imaginative visually and have the ambitious human character designs of 'The Fatal Note', which introduces The Little King, but for Van Beuren this animation is surprisingly good.
Music as always with Van Beuren, very nearly always the best thing about their cartoons and sometimes the only good thing, is lively and beautifully and cleverly orchestrated. The gags are amusing, well-timed and charming, if not quite as subtle as in the first two Van Beuren/Soglow cartoons. The ending is cute and amusing and the second half of the cartoon is when the pace does pick up and the material gets even more interesting. The Little King is appealing as a lead.
Overall, another pretty good The Little King cartoon. 7/10 Bethany Cox
Details
- Runtime
- 9m
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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