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.
1930 saw a few good Van Beuren cartoons, the prime examples being 'The Haunted Ship', 'Gypped in Egypt' and 'Circus Capers'. There were also a handful of lacklustre cartoons and some bad ones, the worst being 'Dixie Days' and 'Laundry Blues'. 'The King of Bugs' is one of the lacklustre ones, and somewhere around low middle. Not awful, but one won't find themselves appreciating bugs/insects more.
It does contain pretty much all of the faults of Van Beuren's worst, or all the faults of many Van Beuren cartoons, while having a few good points. Van Beuren have actually done quite a number of watchable or more cartoons, a few pretty good even though imperfect. So it's not as if they are all being hated on.
Best asset about 'The King of Bugs' is the music score, pretty much the best thing consistently of Van Beuren's output. Sometimes even the only good thing. 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 some nice energy and some neat incorporation of sound effects. The spider is wonderfully creepy and by far the character with the most interesting and easy to remember personality.
Coming onto the numerous criticisms, the animation is not good, in fact it is downright bad most of the time with erratically sloppy character designs in particular while the simplistic background detail and lack of fluidity and crispness are just as difficult to ignore.
While there is certainly more story than most Van Beuren and it is at least coherent, the story is still thin and very formulaic and predictable. The start of 'The King of Bugs' is a somewhat slow one and the ending can be seen from miles off. Other than the spider, none of the other characters are that engaging and suffer from their roles being done to death before and since. Found the hero of the cartoon fairly bland and it is easy to see why the king was bugged by him.
Generally it is very low on laughs, actually none of it is remotely amusing. Nothing is inventive, never rising above the forgettable and there is not much absurdist about them. This is a reiteration of a lot of the average and less Aesops Fables/Van Beuren cartoons that have been reviewed by me, but this is due to them having the same strengths and drawbacks.
In summary, lacklustre but far from unwatchable. 4/10 Bethany Cox
1930 saw a few good Van Beuren cartoons, the prime examples being 'The Haunted Ship', 'Gypped in Egypt' and 'Circus Capers'. There were also a handful of lacklustre cartoons and some bad ones, the worst being 'Dixie Days' and 'Laundry Blues'. 'The King of Bugs' is one of the lacklustre ones, and somewhere around low middle. Not awful, but one won't find themselves appreciating bugs/insects more.
It does contain pretty much all of the faults of Van Beuren's worst, or all the faults of many Van Beuren cartoons, while having a few good points. Van Beuren have actually done quite a number of watchable or more cartoons, a few pretty good even though imperfect. So it's not as if they are all being hated on.
Best asset about 'The King of Bugs' is the music score, pretty much the best thing consistently of Van Beuren's output. Sometimes even the only good thing. 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 some nice energy and some neat incorporation of sound effects. The spider is wonderfully creepy and by far the character with the most interesting and easy to remember personality.
Coming onto the numerous criticisms, the animation is not good, in fact it is downright bad most of the time with erratically sloppy character designs in particular while the simplistic background detail and lack of fluidity and crispness are just as difficult to ignore.
While there is certainly more story than most Van Beuren and it is at least coherent, the story is still thin and very formulaic and predictable. The start of 'The King of Bugs' is a somewhat slow one and the ending can be seen from miles off. Other than the spider, none of the other characters are that engaging and suffer from their roles being done to death before and since. Found the hero of the cartoon fairly bland and it is easy to see why the king was bugged by him.
Generally it is very low on laughs, actually none of it is remotely amusing. Nothing is inventive, never rising above the forgettable and there is not much absurdist about them. This is a reiteration of a lot of the average and less Aesops Fables/Van Beuren cartoons that have been reviewed by me, but this is due to them having the same strengths and drawbacks.
In summary, lacklustre but far from unwatchable. 4/10 Bethany Cox
