![]() Ī Kodachrome print was once struck from a Technicolor original version, containing all of the original Paramount titles. However, a French TV station in France had aired a Technicolor version, minus the sing-along sequence, and without the Paramount logo on the head and tail. The cartoon was backlogged it was originally supposed to be released in 1945, but production backlogged it to June 7, 1946. This was the second official bouncing ball sing-along in Technicolor released, as well as the second Famous Studios release to revive Max Fleischer's Bouncing Ball concept after the Fleischer Studios' Screen Songs series had ended its run in 1938. The horse goes jazzy with the trumpet, and the two chicks do the jitterbug, and after the dance sequence, Old MacDonald asks the audience to sing along with the bouncing ball to " Old MacDonald Had a Farm".Įach animal sung is sung in every verse, and the boys and girls alternate, then the animals form a conga line. The cat tries to eat the mouse with a violin, but ends up with the mouse playing the harp in his mouth using the cat's whiskers. In the end, he blows a balloon (using a jar wrap), popping the balloon causing himself to disappear with nothing left but his hat that falls in a bathtub of water. He blows smoke on the lambs, revealing a blackface gag (edited out in some prints) with the lambs singing "Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was black as coal!". The pig plays the stovepipe like a tuba and the lambs sing " Mary Had a Little Lamb", in a fashion like the Andrews Sisters. The rabbit tries to concentrate on playing his flute, but ends up with the snoring goose swallowing his flute, and causing the rabbit to play flute in a "strangling" manner. Old MacDonald is tired, then goes to the barn, and warms up the farm animals which leads to blackout gags: In summary, a good fun cartoon.Old MacDonald Had a Farm is an animated musical-comedy short, produced by Famous Studios and released by Paramount Pictures on June 7, 1946. The last minute and a half or so consists of the characters doing a charmingly upbeat Conga. And these tunes are arranged brilliantly here, with vibrant orchestration and lively rhythms, the most fitting was the use of Three Blind Mice and the most entertaining being the horse playing the jazz trumpet. The high point of Old MacDonald Had a Farm was the music, with the use of familiar tunes arranged by the great Winston Sharples. The farmyard animals are great fun and have colourful personalities and the farmer is a nice character too. ![]() The funniest was the duck with the balloon and the chicks do an adorable jitterbug routine. The first half of Old MacDonald Had a Farm was filled with some brilliantly entertaining and clever moments and sight gags, like with the choice of instruments and how they were used(i.e. The animation is very good however, everything is bright and colourful, the backgrounds are lively and detailed and it's all smoothly drawn, the characters drawn with little ugliness either(the lambs and chicks were very cute-looking in fact). Most of the gags are terrific, but one didn't really work for me and it was lambs' blackface gag, that it's racially stereotypical(animation, vocals and lyrics) is part of the problem but the bigger problem was how truly misplaced it felt within the rest of the cartoon. More could have been done with the actual sing-a-long section which takes up half the cartoon, the visuals are good and the song arrangement even better, but it does lack the vibrant energy and inventive cleverness of the first half and felt somewhat over-stretched. Seeing as it is not the first cartoon to have this and not the worst-affected, I can forgive. Old MacDonald Had a Farm is virtually plot-less and felt more of an excuse to string along a series of familiar tunes and gags. Old MacDonald Had a Farm, as far as Famous Studios goes, is neither one of their best or weakest, instead ranking near the very solid middle, while ranking as one of their better sing-a-long shorts. ![]() Famous Studios' output is hit and miss, with some good, even great, cartoons in their early- middling years, and then got cheaper-looking and a little repetitive around the mid-50s.
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