Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.
Also have much admiration for Tex Avery, an animation genius whose best cartoons are animated masterpieces and some of the best he ever did. 'Don't Look Now' is fairly early career Avery, but it's a good, very good even, early Avery cartoon. For Avery, 'Don't Look Now' is fairly tame with his uniquely wacky style being more obvious from the 40s onward, a sense that he was still finding his style. Meaning that one doesn't see his ahead-of-its-time risk-taking and that his material would become more hilarious, refined and visually innovative later.
Don't take that as a knock against 'Don't Look Now', because it's still a lot of fun and although it is very cute it is nowhere near as sickly sweet as one would think reading the summary. The story is a fairly slight one but doesn't feel too predictable or too thin that the love affairs battle wears thin too early which fortunately it does not.
The animation in 'Don't Look Now' is as expected great, the character designs would become more creative later but everything is beautifully drawn, sumptuously coloured and meticulous in background detail. Carl Stalling's music is lush and characterful, with clever orchestration and a mastery of not just adding to the action but enhancing it as well (Stalling was a near-unequalled master at this, though Scott Bradley gave him a run for his money).
Material here is not as imaginative or as hilarious as the material when he properly found his style, but it's still well timed and funny and as said it is very cute without being sickly sweet or sentimental.
Pacing throughout is lively and the characters are a lot of fun. The voice acting is very good, especially from Billy Bletcher, typically larger than life as the Devil Cuckoo.
All in all, very well made and executed to a high standard but Avery has done better since. 8/10 Bethany Cox
