Aesop's Fable: Golden Egg Goosie

'Golden Egg Goosie' (1951)

Opening thoughts: The 1951 batch of Terrytoons cartoons was unsurprisingly uneven, though none of the cartoons are inherently bad. 1951's 'Golden Egg Goosie' is one of the average efforts from that year and one of the middling Terrytoons from it too so neither one of the best or worst. As far as Terrytoons' overall output goes, 'Golden Egg Goosie' is in neither extreme of good or bad. It's very inoffensive but also very average and not particularly memorable. A few things are done really well, but very little comes off exceptionally with the most important categories to get right being where the cartoon fails.

Good things: Am going to start with the good. Music is fantastic and as ever with Terrytoons the best thing about this cartoon. It is beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is terrific fun to listen to and the lively energy is present throughout, doing so well with adding to the action. Close behind was the animation, as said more than once this component has come on considerably since the Terrytoons Studio first started. Overall, it is nicely detailed, lively and colourful, with nice attention to detail and vibrant colours that don't look garish.

Did find the titular character quite cute and there are a few amusing moments here and there. The cartoon does come to life towards the end too.

Bad things: It does though take a bit of time to get there. It is very low on the gag count and few of the ones present are amusing or imaginative. A vast majority of the material is a stringing along of recycled ideas that felt tired long before 'Golden Egg Goosie' was made. Overall atmosphere wise, the cartoon is pretty bland and tends to veer on being too cute.

Regarding the story, that is very slight (not uncommon for Terrytoons) but most of it doesn't really go anywhere and only towards the end is there signs of a plot. The pace is less than lively, pretty dull actually, and the structure is as said a cobbling along of done to death ideas.

Concluding thoughts: Summing up, very average.

5/10.

A goose fleeing from some wolves accidentally drinks a lot of gold paint. This causes her eggs to come out looking like gold. The wolves now pursue her for them.

It's an inherently middling-decent Terrytoon, with a particularly good score by Terry's musical director, Philip Scheib, and a number of standard cartoon gags that are nicely done by the staff. Director Eddie Donnelly was rarely given the opportunity to excel at the studio - Paul Terry was more interested in producing profitable cartoons than in making great ones. Even so, he knew there had to be good work put in, and it's evident here.