Barnyard Babies

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera, Studio Ghibli and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. With significantly broader knowledge of different directors, animation styles and studios, actually appreciate and love it even more now.

As has been said a few times already, 'Barnyard Babies' is fairly typical of Rudolf Ising, leaning towards the cute kind of cartoon with a lot of sentiment in alternative to the laugh a minute and hilarious kind, the latter being the one that a lot seem to prefer (understandably, though am hardly biased against the former). This approach has varied with Ising. In some instances it has been very sweet and charming, in others it can be cloying and too cutesy. Some fit in the former category, others in the latter category. Sadly, 'Barnyard Babies' is one of the latter category cartoons.

'Barnyard Babies' is not an unwatchable cartoon by all means. It may be underwhelming but there are redeeming values as well. Its best asset is the animation, it's vibrantly and atmospherically coloured and shaded, beautifully drawn and rich in meticulous background detail. The music from Scott Bradley is another big plus and actually the best thing about the cartoon, it's lushly orchestrated, full of charm and character and fits with the visuals beautifully.

There are a few cute and charming moments.

On the other hand, the characters are bland and very difficult to endear to, they may have cute exteriors but their antics can leave a bad taste in the mouth. The story is barely existent and there are times when it drags hard.

Most of 'Barnyard Babies' is too saccharine and cloying and some of the distasteful antics render it mostly charmless. Was not expecting a laugh a minute or hilarious cartoon, but 'Barnyard Babies' is completely humourless, with the parodies/caricatures being ones done to death in animation and much better, even the sporadic moments that should have amused a little.

In summation, underwhelming. 4/10 Bethany Cox

MGM presents "Happy Harmonies". It's a Hugh Harman-Rudolf Ising cartoon. Various barnyard animals are having babies. The kids put on a show for all the animals while the chickens wait for their eggs to hatch.

I don't particularly love the drawing style or hate it that much. It's early, but it's not ugly early. The coloring is also early. The colors are a bit washed out. It's all reddish-pinkish. I don't know if it's aging over time or the early color film system itself. As for the story, there isn't much of one. It's simple, non-consequential, and non-dramatic. It's rambling. It's cutesy. It's fine.

There's A 'Better Babies' contest going on in the big red barn. The eggs aren't due to hatch until after, so the rooster tries to speed up the process by hard-boiling the eggs. Meanwhile, the other critters perform on a makeshift stage in this early two-strip Technicolor Harman-Ising cartoon for MGM.

The style of animation and drawing hasn't changed much from their work for Leon Schlesinger, although it's more detailed, particularly in the backgrounding. The color work is also simpler, with a lot of browns -- appropriate, if not particularly interesting. Meanwhile, the effort is that overly cute style of storytelling that bores me to sleep.