As a non-fan of Baby Huey, finding the character one-joke and annoying often and his cartoons repetitive and not particularly funny, 'Swab the Duck' was somewhat of a pleasant surprise.
By all means it isn't perfect. The story is very over-familiar and basically you've seen the same story before in other Baby Huey cartoons with not an awful lot of variation story-wise. The dialogue is simplistic and forgettable, Baby Huey's catchphrases were of the kind that were amusing the first couple of times but are very predictable and worn now. Baby Huey himself is funnier than he usually is, mainly because the material is better than it usually is, but is still a bit annoying.
'Swab the Duck' has a good deal going for it. It is one of the better looking Baby Huey cartoons, which is remarkable seeing as generally in the late 50s the animation in the Famous Studios cartoons had declined significantly due to the deadlines being tighter and the budgets smaller. Here in 'Swab the Duck' the colours are lovely and vibrant, the backgrounds nice and detailed (was expecting very sparse and scrappy backgrounds and didn't get that) and while there is the lack of finesse in places the drawing is generally smoother than before.
Winston Sharples provides yet another outstanding music score, even in mediocre or worse cartoons Sharples' music was never among the flaws (if anything always one of the strengths or the best asset). Also love the lusciousness of the orchestration here and how characterful, haunting and whimsical the music was without going overboard in either, even better was how well it fitted in the cartoon and how it merged with the action. The pirate song is extremely catchy too.
The gags are not hilarious, but, rather than falling flat or suffering from over-familiarity or the violence being too heavy and mean-spirited, they are pretty amusing. Even though the outcomes are not surprising in the slightest, the visual invention and crisper timing compensate. The ducklings are cute and the fox is a fun, menacing and interesting adversary, his character design more consistent than it tended to be in previous cartoons. The cartoon uses the pirate theme to great advantage.
Voice acting is very good, Sid Raymond and Jack Mercer are typically fine but Jackson Beck comes off best.
In summary, actually pretty good and a strong contender for the best Baby Huey cartoon. A pleasant surprise for someone who enjoys a lot of Famous Studios' output but has never had that much love for Baby Huey. 7/10 Bethany Cox
By all means it isn't perfect. The story is very over-familiar and basically you've seen the same story before in other Baby Huey cartoons with not an awful lot of variation story-wise. The dialogue is simplistic and forgettable, Baby Huey's catchphrases were of the kind that were amusing the first couple of times but are very predictable and worn now. Baby Huey himself is funnier than he usually is, mainly because the material is better than it usually is, but is still a bit annoying.
'Swab the Duck' has a good deal going for it. It is one of the better looking Baby Huey cartoons, which is remarkable seeing as generally in the late 50s the animation in the Famous Studios cartoons had declined significantly due to the deadlines being tighter and the budgets smaller. Here in 'Swab the Duck' the colours are lovely and vibrant, the backgrounds nice and detailed (was expecting very sparse and scrappy backgrounds and didn't get that) and while there is the lack of finesse in places the drawing is generally smoother than before.
Winston Sharples provides yet another outstanding music score, even in mediocre or worse cartoons Sharples' music was never among the flaws (if anything always one of the strengths or the best asset). Also love the lusciousness of the orchestration here and how characterful, haunting and whimsical the music was without going overboard in either, even better was how well it fitted in the cartoon and how it merged with the action. The pirate song is extremely catchy too.
The gags are not hilarious, but, rather than falling flat or suffering from over-familiarity or the violence being too heavy and mean-spirited, they are pretty amusing. Even though the outcomes are not surprising in the slightest, the visual invention and crisper timing compensate. The ducklings are cute and the fox is a fun, menacing and interesting adversary, his character design more consistent than it tended to be in previous cartoons. The cartoon uses the pirate theme to great advantage.
Voice acting is very good, Sid Raymond and Jack Mercer are typically fine but Jackson Beck comes off best.
In summary, actually pretty good and a strong contender for the best Baby Huey cartoon. A pleasant surprise for someone who enjoys a lot of Famous Studios' output but has never had that much love for Baby Huey. 7/10 Bethany Cox
