User Reviews

While fishing from his raft on the open sea, Oswald is pulled under by a big fish. The fish tells the Lucky Rabbit to come back later, when the fish will be hungry in this cartoon co-directed by Walter Lantz and Bill Nolan.

Except that the characters are all fish, the depths of the ocean is almost indistinguishable from the land. nonetheless, there are a few cute gags, like singing "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More"... that are driven int the ground. This sort of cartoon was common to almost all the cartoon factories and this one doesn't rise much above the pack to make it noteworthy.

Despite Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and his cartoons being popular and well received at the time, they have been vastly overshadowed over time by succeeding animation characters. It is a shame as, while not cartoon masterpieces, they are fascinating for anybody wanting to see what very old animation looked like.

While Walter Lantz was responsible for some good Oswald cartoons, though not all the best of his era were as good as the best of the Disney and Winkler eras, but also some lacklustre at best ones. While far from one of his worst, the third cartoon of the 1931 batch of Lantz's Oswald cartoons 'Shipwreck' is a lacklustre effort with not much if anything special here. This said, 'Shipwreck' is notable for being the first time Oswald can be seen wearing gloves.

Its best asset is the animation, not as elaborate as the first cartoon of the 1931 batch 'China' but smooth and detailed enough and very natural movements, gestures and expressions for Oswald. Not far behind is the energetic music score that is dynamic too with what's going on.

Synchronisation is not too sloppy, even if the sound occasionally lacks resonance, and while he has had better material Oswald is fun and likable.

However, as ever the story is paper thin and doesn't have the energy seen in the animation or heard in the music. 'Shipwreck' also does nothing new with an idea fairly old in animation, similar concepts have been done to better effect since. If the material was good they may have been a little more forgivable, but there is very little if anything that is funny, let alone inventive, here, too much suffering from being too predictable and drawn out. A couple of cute gags and scenes but nothing more than that.

The sound sometimes lacks resonance and occasionally some the drawing is a little crude.

In conclusion, okay but nothing special. 4/10 Bethany Cox