User Reviews

The Fleischer Screen Song series rarely descended below very good, but this one just scrapes over the goal. It's a standard format, with a comic beginning, a performance of the song and another comic episode, ending in a fight. Although the voice actors are uncredited, the female cat in the beginning is Mae Questal; the main performance of the song sounds like Rudy Vallee, but I wouldn't take an oath to that belief.

A cartoon mouse appears in the opening sequence; a cat that suggests Paramount star Sylvia Sidney with a Russian accent -- is mourning a lost lover. A mouse tries to cheer her up.

Mice like this were fairly common at most cartoon studios in this period and they all looked a lot like Mickey. Some Terrytoons were overrun by them. The story is that Uncle Walt began to sue people for trademark infringement and it wouldn't until Chuck Jones came up with Sniffles that we saw another cartoon mouse.

That Old Gang of Mine (1931)

*** (out of 4)

The Fleischer Studio produced a number of these animated short films where the "bouncing ball" would have audience members singing together. A female cat is hanging out on a fence talking about "that old gang of hers" when a mouse enters the scene. If you're already familiar with this series then you know that these shorts start off with a brief animated piece that leads into a bouncing ball sing-a-long with the title track. This here is pretty entertaining as the animation is terrific and the song itself is quite good as well. There are some funny gags along the way including one bit about the film being censored. Fans of the series should at least get a kick out of it for what it is.