The Gentlemen of Titipu or The Mikado is a charming story, and the operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan is one of their best works. Add Anna Russell to the mix and this animated version could have been good, even with any cuts or whatnot. What we had however was a disaster, both as an adaptation of the story and operetta and on its own. I know that this was only 45 minutes, but I don't see that as an excuse to be as poor as it was. The structure of the story jumps around and skims over so much with none of the fun, heart or charm, even when I was familiar with the story I sometimes did have trouble following what was going on. It also manages to do what I deemed impossible and make G&S's music unappealing and almost unrecognisable even, the orchestration is so 70s synthesised music and did not fit with the story or animation style while of the singing voices only that of the Mikado's(rich and resonant, made me wish there was more for him) did much for me. On its own, it is every bit as bad. The animation is very flatly coloured and choppy, while most of the characters are decidedly bigger-than-life than you could possibly imagine, Katisha I can understand but Ko-Ko? The dialogue is not witty or funny in the slightest, it sounded awkward and like improvised mugging, the lyrics also managed to have a very repetitive feel. I didn't care for any of the characters, the funny characters(ie. KoKo) were embarrassingly unfunny, Nanki-Poo and Yum-Yum are far too bland to the point that they don't feel like they exist and Katisha is incredibly cartoon-ish with none of her character complexity coming out. You'd think Anna Russell would be good as Katisha, on paper she was perfect for the part but here she plays the character as too much of a parody and speak-sings all the way through her music(or what she has of it). All in all, really bad on its own as well as an adaptation. Sometimes you'll find something that has so-bad-its-good value, but there are also times when something comes along that is much too infuriating to be classed in that way and The Gentlemen of Titipu is one such example. 1/10 and only for the Mikado's singing voice. Bethany Cox