TheLittleSongbird
Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.'Panicky Pup' is neither among the best or worst Van Beuren cartoons, instead it's somewhere around average middle and more an uneven, mixed bag cartoon than a good or terrible one. One with good qualities and also not so good qualities, with the flaws being ones often found with Van Beuren. As with many Van Beuren cartoons, the music score is the best asset. It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated, is great fun to listen to and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. There is evidence of more ambitious and detailed background art once the cartoon gets surreal, some interesting nightmarish imagery here.The cartoon is much more interesting and gains momentum once the chase down the well happens and the surrealism, done in a way that's suitably absurdist, kicks in. The title character is pretty endearing, one that does undergo a character growth, even if not a novel one. The Disney and Fleischer influences can be seen without it ever becoming overly-derivative.However, the character designs aren't much of an improvement, still looking pretty crude and stiff. The first part of 'Panicky Pup' is not particularly engaging, to me it was pretty saccharine and dull. It is much more interesting once the chase down the well is introduced into the barely existent story, but the two halves/tones are somewhat too much of a disjointed mismatch. There is not much funny here in a cartoon with not enough gags, it is the surrealism and nightmarish imagery that one remembers most after watching 'Panicky Pup'.All in all, watchable and interesting, admire that the studio shows signs of visual and concept ambition here, but fairly average and uneven in overall execution. 5/10 Bethany Cox
boblipton
A small dog escapes from his leash one night and chases a cat down with a well. Overcome with regret, he begins to fantasize spooky cat images in this decent Van Beuren Halloween cartoon.Halloween and Christmas are probably the two biggest holidays for themed cartoons. Halloween is the one night a year where it's acceptable to scare little kids, and for decades, cartoon makers took advantage of the privilege.Van Beuren was probably the weakest of the cartoon factories in the 1930s. You can see it here in the unadorned character design here. Still, they had access to the music scene in New York and took advantage of it to make some watchable music cartoons, like this one.
