Musical Madness

The Little Roquefort series was first introduced in this year 1950. None of the cartoons were my definition of great, but many were pleasant inoffensive watches as long as you know what to expect. Little Roquefort is not the most compelling of lead characters and in the series (like a fair share of cat and mouse cartoon series) it is often a case of the supporting characters being a lot more interesting in personality. Which was true of recurring character Percy the Cat.

'Musical Madness' is another one of the decent, pleasant and inoffensive Little Roquefort cartoons, but also another one of the not particularly great ones as well. There are a lot of good things that help make it worth watching, but there is not an awful lot that is exceptional and it falls short in a few crucial areas. As far as the 1951 Terrytoons cartoons go, a slightly less prolific/dominant year for both Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle (unusual considering both theatrical series were dominant in the 40s) and saw a big step backwards in Gandy Goose's development, 'Musical Madness' is somewhere in the middle instead of being one of the best or worst.

Like a lot of Terrytoons' output, there are two things that are done very well indeed and raise 'Musical Madness' significantly. One is the animation, the studio's most improved component. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is on display, the colours are a mix of vibrant and atmospheric and fluidity of drawing and movement has improved such a lot for the studio. Even better is the music, 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.

Did think that enough of the gags, and the cartoon is not short changed in this area, are cute and amusing. Percy is a fun and suitably ruthless adversary and did like the cat and mouse chemistry between him and Little Roquefort, which amused.

Little Roquefort himself however, while pleasant enough and not annoying, is quite limited as a character and is not as vibrant a personality, rather one dimensional and bland. Not much different at all from other theatrical series with mice as the titular character.

Perhaps there could have been a higher gag count and the story is very predictable, due to following very closely a very familiar formula, and quite flimsy, barely existent most of the time.

Overall, above average but not great. 6/10.

It's the wee hours in the music shop. Little Roquefort is in his hole, trying to get sleep. In trucks Percy the Cat, who proceeds to make music, . Roquefort wakes up, and proceeds to get Percy to leave, in various cartoonishly violent ways.

It's a turnaround from the usual order of things in the series, but it was still new, and the staff at Terrytoons thought it would be interesting. I think it works. Oh, the gags are basically the same as in most of the cat-and-mouse cartoon series. Still, it's good to see the cat, while still portrayed as a jerk, show a livelier disposition. And after listening to so many of musical director Philip Scheib's operetta score, it's fun to hear him burst loose with swing.