User Reviews

Have found a lot to admire about much of Famous Studios' earlier work and while the Noveltoons series is an uneven one it is worthwhile with some very good and even great cartoons when the studio was at its peak. Their best decade being easily the 40s, then by the mid-late-50s it started to feel like a different studio and not for the better. That is not to say that every 40s Noveltoons cartoon was good, there were lacklustre ones. The studio did a number of Screen Song cartoons.

Of which 'Base Brawl' is one of the below average ones, speaking as someone that generally found the Screen Songs a mixed bag. It is also an example of not every 40s cartoon from Famous Studios or of their Noveltoons series being good. If anyone likes good animation and music with moments of charm, 'Base Brawl' has a little appeal. For anybody wanting anything resembling a story or any funny material with moments of freshness, it's probably best looking elsewhere.

It's the animation and music that save 'Base Brawl'. Especially the music, which was consistently of a high standard throughout the studio's run even in lesser efforts. The orchestration has a lot of energy and there are some truly luscious sounds throughout. "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" is very catchy and doesn't get annoying, will admit to singing along. The animation was not as consistent for the studio overall, with the quality declining when the studio did but throughout the 40s to mid-50s it was a strength. As one can tell, to me it was one of the compensations here, nice colours and the attention to detail in the backgrounds was admirable (also fitting the gags and the song arrangements beautifully).

There are a few cute moments and a couple of too far and between very mildly amusing ones.

'Base Brawl' however does suffer from a very weak story, even though one doesn't expect a story that blows the mind not many people would expect to find some so non-existent and little more than a stringing along of very variable gags. The gags were not enough and all of them were stale and agreed old well before this was produced, a couple amuse slightly but generally they were not funny and tended to be too cute.

Found the cartoon quite repetitive as well and none of the characters are interesting or appealing. It doesn't do very well at capturing the sport's spirit (baseball is actually pretty exciting when the game is a good one, speaking by the way as a non-sports fan, but 'Base Brawl' was quite low on the energy), and just resorts to over-cuteness and stale humour.

All in all, pretty lacklustre. 4/10