This was another entry in Thadblog's "Your Saturday Bowl of WTF". This was a rare Terrytoon short that wasn't a series entry with regular characters. Three animal friends stowaway on a moving van. When the driver discovers them, he makes them move the furniture out of the house he goes to. Now, while the ending didn't make sense, this was a very amusing cartoon that made me laugh at the randomness of how these three characters go about moving the furniture in very creative ways though not always successfully. Just one visual gag after another that go so fast that you just can't help yourself giggling at the speed of them all. So with that said, I highly recommend A Truckload of Trouble.
2 Reviews
The hitch-hikers
TheLittleSongbird11 February 2022
Terrytoons' output, overall and individual years, is inconsistent but is also very interesting for anybody wanting to see something different from the more famous studios, something that is older and lower in budget. While there are quite a lot of cartoons of theirs that are mediocre or less, there are also quite a lot that are very well done. 1949 for me was not a great year for the studio, with a few exceptions. Even their overall best theatrical series, that of Heckle and Jeckle, wasn't at its best that year.
Didn't care for most of the small handful of non-recurring character cartoons from Terrytoons' 1949 batch. Despite its low rating, 'A Truckload of Trouble' gets my vote as the best of that handful and one of only two or so that were above average. It's also in my view one of the better Terrytoons cartoons from that year, one of the funnier ones and one of the few that didn't feel repetitive and tried to do something different compared to the rest of that year's cartoons.
'A Truckload of Trouble' is not a great cartoon. It does run out of gas towards the end and the ending indeed doesn't make any sense and for my tastes on the too cruel side.
It also went a little overboard on the bulldog's toughness, to the extent that sympathy is completely for the trio of animals he bullies regardless of their actions.
However, a lot is great here. Two elements are particularly good. One is the animation, the studio's most improved component. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is on display, the colours are a mix of vibrant and atmospheric and fluidity of drawing and movement has improved such a lot for the studio. The haunted house setting has a real eeriness to it. Even better is the music, it is beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is terrific fun to listen to and the lively energy is present throughout, doing so well with adding to the action.
Furthermore, 'A Truckload of Trouble' has one of the highest gag counts of the 1949 Terrytoons cartoons and it is one of the few that year that has almost every gag hitting to very amusing effect. It is one of the funniest 1949 Terrytoons cartoons and has more variety and creativity in the use of the furniture moving than most of that year's output. Most of that year's cartoons felt like a stringing along of tried and tested gags, but it didn't feel that way here. Yes, some of them are random but that was part of the fun. The story is slight and not very surprising, but this is more than compensated by the constantly lively (sometimes relentless) pace and the gags. The cat, bird and dog are amusing and likeable enough characters.
Concluding, surprisingly good and one of the few hits from Terrytoons' 1949 output. 7/10.
Didn't care for most of the small handful of non-recurring character cartoons from Terrytoons' 1949 batch. Despite its low rating, 'A Truckload of Trouble' gets my vote as the best of that handful and one of only two or so that were above average. It's also in my view one of the better Terrytoons cartoons from that year, one of the funnier ones and one of the few that didn't feel repetitive and tried to do something different compared to the rest of that year's cartoons.
'A Truckload of Trouble' is not a great cartoon. It does run out of gas towards the end and the ending indeed doesn't make any sense and for my tastes on the too cruel side.
It also went a little overboard on the bulldog's toughness, to the extent that sympathy is completely for the trio of animals he bullies regardless of their actions.
However, a lot is great here. Two elements are particularly good. One is the animation, the studio's most improved component. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is on display, the colours are a mix of vibrant and atmospheric and fluidity of drawing and movement has improved such a lot for the studio. The haunted house setting has a real eeriness to it. Even better is the music, it is beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is terrific fun to listen to and the lively energy is present throughout, doing so well with adding to the action.
Furthermore, 'A Truckload of Trouble' has one of the highest gag counts of the 1949 Terrytoons cartoons and it is one of the few that year that has almost every gag hitting to very amusing effect. It is one of the funniest 1949 Terrytoons cartoons and has more variety and creativity in the use of the furniture moving than most of that year's output. Most of that year's cartoons felt like a stringing along of tried and tested gags, but it didn't feel that way here. Yes, some of them are random but that was part of the fun. The story is slight and not very surprising, but this is more than compensated by the constantly lively (sometimes relentless) pace and the gags. The cat, bird and dog are amusing and likeable enough characters.
Concluding, surprisingly good and one of the few hits from Terrytoons' 1949 output. 7/10.
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