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. 'The Tree Surgeon' popped up as a random recommendation here when reviewing one of the Rudolf Ising cartoons and was on a roll with watching lesser known cartoons from the 30s, 40s and 50s (and have been for the past four or five years or so). It didn't look or sound great from having seen stills and plot summaries but as an animation fan it was still seen anyway.
'The Tree Surgeon' is nothing special and actually has very little to it. It has a few good things that are done very well indeed, enough to raise it above mediocre level, but the too many flaws in the more crucial areas made it very difficult, nigh on impossible really, to rate it above average. 'The Tree Surgeon' isn't terrible and is slightly watchable for lesser known animation completest sake. As said, there is little that stands out and so much has been done before and much better.
By all means there are good things. The animation is vibrantly colourful and fluid, with lovingly crafted and detail background art. Nothing looks rushed or static, loved the ambitious animation on the tree. Even better, and this is probably the best aspect of 'The Tree Surgeon', is the music, it is lushly orchestrated and very characterful in an energetic way that is not matched enough in the story and gags. Both are worth two points each of my overall rating.
A few of the gags are quite amusing and the action is well choreographed and animated.
However, as said, 'The Tree Surgeon' is not really anything special. There could have been more gags and they could have been a lot more inventive and less tired, they are also never hilarious and are generally forgettable. That tiredness is obvious also in the story, which is slight to the point of non existence and the conflict is very predictable due to it being another variation of conflicts that had been seen many times in animation already.
Pace wise, the cartoon is pretty dull due to some of the material being over-stretched to make up for the content being too little in quantity. Neither the donkey or termite are particularly appealing or interesting characters, the former having little personality and the latter on the obnoxious side.
Overall, not terrible but very average and forgettable. 5/10.
