User Reviews

This was the last Van Beuren cartoon as the studio closed its doors. This after Walt Disney left United Artist for a distribution deal with RKO, which had distributed the Van Beuren shorts. The cartoon's real star was the chronically ill-tempered Mr. Bang, who was told by his doctor to get some peace and quiet. But peace and quiet, unfortunately for the aforementioned Mr. Bang, was for all intents and purposes, a foreign concept, as a picnic at the beach was anything but. The trolley in which our man Bang rode in, was soon crowded with many more passengers. From then on, it was all downhill for Mr. B. Everything went wrong. As this last Van Beuren cartoon draws to a close, Mr. Bang gives the doctor a piece of his mind.

The Van Beuren Company did three "Toonerville Trolley" Cartoons in 1935 - 36, before they went into oblivion. The first one was called THE TOONERVILLE TROLLEY, and I reviewed that one earlier today. It and the other two cartoons are currently on YOU TUBE. The second one was TOONERVILLE TROLLEY AHOY which gets it's name from a sequence involving Katinka's creating a sail to power the trolley when they find there is no electric current to move it. Actually that is only a small incident in the cartoon, and it would have made more sense to entitle it TOONERVILLE TROLLEY - THE BET, as Skipper (the trolley's conductor and motorman) bets the explosive customer Mr. Bang $10.00 that he can get Bang to his train to the city in time.

The last of the cartoons was TOONERVILLE PICNIC, which again is slightly wrong. It would have been more sensible to call it TOONERVILLE TO THE BEACH. Again Mr. Bang appears here. I don't know if the bad tempered Bang was a regular in the Fontaine Fox original comic strip, but his repeat appearances were probably in line with the appearances of characters like J. Wellington Wimpy in the Popeye cartoons (a character in the original "THIMBLE THEATER" comics who was transposed with Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto into the cartoons).

Bang in TOONERVILLE TROLLEY AHOY was constantly yelling and arguing with people. Here he first goes to a doctor about his health, and the doctor advises him to go away for a rest for awhile. He ends up agreeing to go to the beach. Admittedly he takes a picnic basket with him for lunch, but he also is wearing a swimming suit (circa 1936) as well as a folding chair. The Trolley loads up with all types of people who are going to the beach (including Katinka and Skipper) and a dog who takes a dislike to Bang. Soon that gentleman finds that the beach trip is not restful at all. He finds that his beach chair keeps getting tangled up and also entangles him once or twice. He finds the dog growling at him, forcing him to give the dog parts of his lunch as a bribe. A wave soon takes the basket away - and an octopus is soon gobbling it up. The octopus also is soon assaulting Bang (when he tries to reclaim his lunch). Bang even gets trapped inside the trolley car by the Octopus.

The basic story is easy to take - too easy possibly. Once you see that folding chair Bang brings with him you know it is going to be troublesome to him. The bits with the Octopus are the best parts of this cartoon. Possibly the best description of it is that it is well made but run-of-the-mill. Again, as I said in reviewing THE TOONERVILLE TROLLEY cartoon, I really wonder how far this series would have lasted under happier circumstances for the production company.

THE THIRD AND final installment of the adaptation of Fontaine Fox's TOONEVILLE Comic Strip was this one. It has all of the fine ingredients that went into the previous productions; as far as animation, musical score and color work. t also seems to be a conscious attempt by the Directorial team of Burt Gillette and Tom Palmer to break from previous constraints and liven up the short a little.

AS USUAL THERE are just three characters from the Comic Strip featured; those being Mr. Bang, Katrinka and the Skipper. This time, the town Doctor prescribes that Mr. Bang would be healthier and better in control of his temper, if he'd try to get a little recreation in the country.

THAT MEANT RIDING the Trolley to the lake, where Mr. Bang has seemingly unending parade of trouble with other citizens, their kids, their dogs and a very unfriendly octopus (ever seen a friendly one?). Skipper & Katrinka come to his aid, of course; but In the end, the it is the town Doctor who both fields Bang's protest and the good Doc also has last laugh.

SIMILARLY TO THIS three picture deal, the Van Beuren Cartoon Studio had a similar experience with Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll's AMOS & ANDY Radio characters. Van Bueren had a deal to adapt them to animated cartoons. The partnership lasted for only two picture; THE LION TAMER and THE RASSLIN' MATCH, both 1934. It seemed that the vivid characterization of Radio's sound only didn't translate to cartoon visuals.

BUT NOT ONLY was this TOONERVILLE PICNIC the last in its series; but also the final production of the Van Beuren Studios.

THERE WERE OTHER reasons for this; but that, my dear Schultz, is another story.