Comin' Round the Mountain

It's the Catfields versus The McHounds in this parody of the famous mountain feud of the Hatfields and McCoys. One family lives on the Cat-Skill Mts. while the other is across the way on the Adir-Hound-Act Mts. Once the rooster crows, signaling "Round 362" in the feud, the firing starts.

Even the trees are yelling at each other: the pussy willows and dogwoods. Yes, lots of puns and laughs in this animated short as the two groups fight it out like, well, cats and dogs!

Then, the rooster announces the new school marm is comin' round the mountain (via train) so the action starts and - I am not kidding - the cartoons turns into a sing-along with a bouncing ball following all the lyrics to the title song! After that comes even a stranger ending.

Overall, this is a bizarre but very intriguing cartoon.

Expectations were a bit mixed here for 1949's 'Comin Round the Mountain'. Although the Hatfields and the McCoys feud has been parodied to death in animation, it is always interesting when there is any variation on it. While liking enough of Famous Studios' output, their Screen Song Singalong cartoons (a type of cartoon that was not uncommon at the time) were a very mixed bag, with only one or two great cartoons and some misfires with most falling between average and decent.

'Comin Round the Mountain' for me is one of the average ones and somewhere around low middle when ranking the cartoons making up the Screen Song series. In some cartoons, the second half is better than the first and in others it is vice versa. 'Comin Round the Mountain' is in the latter category, and while there aren't any outdated stereotypes or any tasteless moments or anything along those lines it is a pretty undistinguished if watchable effort.

The animation in 'Comin Round the Mountain' is good. Especially the vibrant colours and equally loved the background detail where a lot of care went into it, the setting looks handsome yet has grit too. The incidental music is even better, very lushly orchestrated and full of character rhythmically.

A few of the gags are amusing early on and there are moments of tension. The story is nothing exceptional at all, but there is some nice energy thankfully, with the first half not feeling tired here and certainly not suffering from stereotypes or distaste. The characters may be thin but are nicely done.

Much of the story however, when there is any which is only vaguely present in the first half, is bland and does nothing new with over-familiar territory. Other jokes are very corny and the predictability is blatant.

While the first half is fun, the singalong portion feels like a different cartoon and not in a particularly good way. It is dull and too cute, and while the title song is a catchy one it does get annoying within the cartoon and feels repetitive. One has to be in a good mood to bear it.

Overall, watchable but very average. 5/10.

The feud between the cats and the dogs was fun, but the whole thing is ruined when the sing-along starts. I suppose that some theater goers like these things, but I always found them distracting. If one could imagine for a second the amount of lead that was expended by these two factions, it would be phenomenal.