Now a fairly obscure character, Buddy was the second Warner Brothers Looney Tunes character, after Bosko and followed by Beans the Cat. Buddy didn't last long, being retired in 1935 after 23 cartoons starting in 1933.
The Buddy cartoons are intriguing to see how very early Looney Tunes characters, before the iconic ones with far more interesting and funnier personalities were introduced, fared. His filmography is very much variable, most ranging between mediocre and decent though 'Buddy's Adventures' is one of the rare very good Buddy cartoons. Like 'Buddy's Show Boat', 'Buddy's Bearcats' and 'Buddy of the Legion', 'Buddy in Africa' is one of Buddy's weakest. Quality-wise it's not terrible but it's mediocre.
Certainly there are things that make it a one-time watch, if only for completest sake. The animation is nicely drawn and detailed with the black and white looking crisp. Even better is the very energetic and cleverly orchestrated music score. Music played a big part in the Buddy cartoons and it was essential for it to work.
'Buddy in Africa' does have some amusingly strange moments at the beginning while the voice acting is good. The most colourful, and the only interesting, character is the gorilla.
However, 'Buddy in Africa' is very weak in terms of story, one would be forgiven for not remembering there being much of one and what there is is so formulaic and hastily put together one is a couple of steps ahead of the cartoon the whole time, which takes away from the enjoyment. It also feels very erratically due to, even for a Buddy cartoon, being far too short and the lack of laughs and predictability also makes some of it a dull watch.
In regards to the humour, 'Buddy in Africa' is very much short-changed. There is nothing genuinely funny here, the best sporadic moments only being mildly amusing at best. The supporting characters don't register enough. Buddy is part of the problem too, like in all his lesser-just straining average cartoons he just isn't a particularly interesting or compelling in personality character, pretty bland actually, and his comic timing is barely there.
Overall, mediocre lesser Buddy effort that is a one-time completest watch. 4/10 Bethany Cox
