User Reviews

The Looney Tunes cartoons we all know and love today were mostly made from the early 40s through the 1950s. However, the studio had been making cartoons long before this. Unfortunately, most of their output during the 1930s was pretty saccharine--with lots of cute singing animals and the like. Fortunately, this one is pretty good and lacks the cutesy look of previous outings.

This film is a parody of the old melodramas made in the early years of film as well as which were performed by traveling companies in local theaters. The characters are all caricatures--complete with a villain in mustache (much like Snidely Whiplash), a manly hero and a damsel in distress. However, it begins in the present time of 1938--with an elderly couple reminiscing about how they met. At this time, the old story is enacted--complete with a lot of corny but funny jokes. Not a great film but for the time, pretty good stuff from Looney Tunes. And, in case you want to see it, it's included as a special feature with the film "Gold Digger in Paris"--an odd but enjoyable musical starring Rudy Vallee.

Animation was a big part of my life as a child, almost as dear to my heart as music (classical music and opera in my case) was. Whether it was Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera or Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. With my horizons broadened to include more obscure animation and foreign animation and with wider knowledge of what studios, directors etc. love it even more so and have even more appreciation for it.

'Love and Curses' is hardly a classic and don't exactly love it. At the same time, it is fascinating for its premise of parodying melodramas and is quite well done, it is hardly a curse. Despite its low rating, actually consider 'Love and Curses' one of Cal Dalton/Ben Hardaway's better efforts, which are a fairly mixed bag and can be on the corny and saccharine side. This can be very corny and not everything has held up well, but there is not an awful lot here that is too sugary sweet, which is a good thing.

Sure, 'Love and Curses', even for parodying melodramas, does have too much of an over-familiar vibe. Have seen a lot of cartoons reminiscent of melodramas or with melodramatic elements with hit and miss execution, early Terrytoons being a primary example, and plot-wise there is not an awful lot that's different. It is silly and very predictable in terms of story, though at least there is signs of a story and there is energy.

The content when there is humour is more amusing than hilarious, and parts are very of the time.

Having said that, 'Love and Curses' has a good deal to recommend and is not a bad cartoon. there are far better cartoons that are funnier and with more memorable characters, but it is not deserving of its relative obscurity status. he animation is very good. It's colourful in a sumptuous way, meticulous in background detail, crisp, beautifully drawn and fluid in movement. Carl Stalling's music is outstanding. Lush, characterful and adds a lot to what is going on.

Characters are caricatures and very deliberately archetypal, but are entertaining and at least have personality if not perhaps distinction. The very colourfully characterised villain in particular, which is apt because in melodramas the villain often is more interesting than the lead character(s). 'Love and Curses' does amuse and even with its corniness and predictability it is lively in pace and has its fair share of charm and affectionate nostalgia. Cannot fault the voice acting, with Mel Blanc with the most to do showing why he deserved/deserves to be so highly regarded.

Concluding, decent. 7/10

This short is a takeoff on the old melodramas, where the hero is forthright and true, stalwart and brave, with the IQ of a grape, the heroine bats her eyes and sighs either lovingly or sorrowfully, depending on the scene and the villain is truly despicable and hissable. This is an excellent cartoon for its time. Just don't watch it and also watch The Dover Boys as well, or Love and Curses will pale in comparison. Well worth looking for. Recommended, especially for the ending.