Title: A Worm's Eye View
Studio: Columbia
Date: 4/28/39
Credits:
Story
Art Davis
Music
Joe De Nat
Animation
Sid Marcus
Series: Scrappy
Running time (of viewed version): 7:04
Synopsis: Scrappy's worm does his best to avoid doing his baitly duties.
Comments: Worms always seem to tie themselves to fishhooks; I wonder why they don't show the cruel steel barbs piercing the gooey worm flesh? The worm has the Screwy Squirrel voice. This is the third underwater cartoon in a 13 day period, each from a different studio. The underwater effects are a bit nauseating when they kind of randomly appear. Yet another cartoon where the series title character is more or less ignored. The jokes are a bit obtuse, but some of them are interesting enough; I like the telegram with a fish in the envelope to deliver the message. The title is a cel that fades out over an in story background (and animated rooster) rather than a separate card. Columbia seems to have preferred transitioning titles more than the other studios. The fish make lots of faces.
I really like your blog. However, I think you should put a rating system on each cartoon as your reviews are somewhat confusing. Maybe do a 4 stars system, perhaps? Other than that, good job.
ReplyDeleteConfusing they are and confusing they shall remain. There will likely be a best of list after the main entries are done, but having reviewed entertainment products for a 7 year period in the past, I find grading/stars systems to be by and large artificial and ultimately problematic. Stars/grades are meant to act as a replacement for understanding commentary. But cartoons, like life, are a murky amalgam of subjective things. Best to leave the specific grades to objective subjects.
ReplyDeleteWow. Well, I guess that settles the rating idea! Actually I admire you for trying to justice in a paragraph or two to each toon without resorting to any critical shorthand. More power to you!
ReplyDeleteWell, my comments are by and large a shorthand. It's not totally stream of consciousness, but the comment section is more or less a collection of things that occur to me about each short; they are held together by revolving around a given short, but they are more akin to notes than a traditional review would be (in that I do minimal restructuring; they are often out of chronological order for their placement within a short because I watch each short more than once, and different things occur to me on different viewings.
ReplyDeleteFound this on 8 mm in my father's stuff after he died. I remember watching as a kid. Gonna try and get it put on digital somewhere. This version has no sound, or at least the projector we had didn't play sound.
ReplyDelete