Mary's Little Lamb

The first thing you notice is the color: "Comicolor," to be exact. It's pretty decent considering the year this cartoon was made.

Although overall nothing great, the story had it's funny moments. It's certainly a lot better than what you might read from other critics here. Perhaps they were offended at "Percy," the gay kid who did a hilarious song and was greeted by "wooooos" at the end of his number. The teacher also was humorous, both in her song and in her movements, although I would have liked to have seen the poor little lamb exact a little more revenge on her than what was seen here. The lamb, who was ham and wanted to sing and dance, received abuse from everyone, which was uncalled for.

Nonetheless, it was entertaining enough to merit a look. This cartoon was viewed on a DVD called "Cartoons That Time Forget: The UB Iwerks Collection Vol. 1."

There's a funny thing about this cartoon-not that it's funny (it really isn't) but the characters all tend to look familiar. The teacher is the character Iwerks used as everything from a landlady to Flip's wife (!) in Flip the Frog, the kids all resemble each other like a B-grade horror flick (Village of the Damned Stepford Children perhaps?) and apart from good technical aspects, it would bore a five year old inside thirty seconds. Like some actresses I won't name-all looks and no substance. Worth a look or two, but don't expect much. Iwerks was just playing out the string here. For completists only.

Mary's Little Lamb (1935)

*** (out of 4)

Ub Iwerks directed this cute animated film about a small lamb who follows Mary to school. Even though Mary doesn't like him following her it turns into a fun school day when the lamb goes up against the mean teacher. Once again this Iwerks short benefits from his wonderful animation as well as some very good Technicolor. The animation is always wonderful looking but a lot of times the director wasn't really working with very good stories. That's not the case here because the lamb character is rather cute and funny and this helps make for a much more entertaining movie.

Ub Iwerks was a Disney employee and helped Walt come up with Mickey Mouse. So, it wasn't surprising that eventually Ub decided he wanted more control and went out on his own making cartoons. However, crap like "Mary's Little Lamb" doomed Ub and eventually his studio folded and he returned to Disney.

The animation and color in this cartoon are excellent--about as good as the stuff being done by the Fleischer Brothers and nearly as nice as Disney's work. However, this alone do not make up a cartoon and like the very worst Uwerks films, it's full of god-awful singing throughout and goes for cutesy instead of watchability or funny. The overall film looks good but is so saccharine and terrible I would only show this to children if I hated them and wanted to punish them.

While not one of my favourites, Ub Iwerks was responsible for a lot of interesting work. Especially when working with Walt Disney, his oldest friend and one of his best, and co-creating one of animation's most famous characters in Mickey Mouse. His career since opening his own studio had interest value but the quality was variable, often being successful in the animation and music but wanting in the story and variable in gags, lead characters and tone.

1933 to 1936 saw twenty five cartoons, mostly based on famous fairytales and familiar stories, as part of Iwerks's "ComiColor" series. The "ComiColor" series is very much worth watching and interesting, as is the case with many series some cartoons are better than others but there are no real animation nadirs. 1935's 'Mary's Little Lamb' is watchable enough but it is a little disappointing.

'Mary's Little Lamb' is very slight, pretty plot-less, and is too saccharine, like at the beginning. There is just not enough content to the poem to fill the cartoon's length and the middle especially is where one feels the over-stretching.

Its characters should have been much more interesting, their personalities are bland and most look too similar. There is far more imagination and humour in other cartoons in the series before and since, it did feel bland somewhat. Much of it is not very funny, could have had a sharper kick pace-wise, has very little conflict or enough urgency and tries too hard to be cute that it goes too far the other way.

However, 'Mary's Little Lamb' has enough interest to stop it from being completely dull. There are a few amusing moments that aren't too repetitive or corny, though this is sporadic, and there is a genuine likeability and charm. The lamb is adorably endearing and Mary charms enough.

Furthermore, the animation is great apart from an awkwardly animated Mary. Meticulously detailed, fluid in drawing, vibrant in colour and often rich in imagination and visual wit. The music is cleverly and lushly orchestrated, is infectiously catchy and adds a lot to the cartoon.

Overall, another example of a worth a look once but not repeat viewings cartoon. 5/10 Bethany Cox