This is going to be similarly worded to my previous Baby Huey reviews, because the strengths and flaws are pretty much identical in all.
Generally am not a fan of the character of Baby Huey, a rather one-joke character and especially in his later Famous Studios cartoons annoying. When it comes to Famous Studios' cartoons, there is a general preference for the Popeye, Casper and even Herman and Katnip cartoons. Although they all in all fairness had not so great cartoons in their later years, which was due to an overall decline in quality for Famous Studios due to what seemed like tighter deadlines and lower budgets.
'Clown on the Farm' generally is one of the better Baby Huey cartoons. Not great still, but a step up from the previous two Baby Huey cartoons 'Party Smarty' and 'Scout Fellow', due to the animation being a little better here and that while never hilarious there are a couple of mildly amusing moments while the other two strained to get a laugh.
The animation is rich and colourful, with very meticulous and beautifully drawn backgrounds, even if some the drawing lacks finesse in parts, though not as badly as previously. The voice acting is good from Sid Raymond, Mae Questel and Jackson Beck in types of roles they were famous for and excelled at. The fox is an amusing and interesting villain character, and the most rootable character in the cartoon ironically, he and Baby Huey do have spark together. There are a few amusing moments, such as the axe-on-the-head gag, the cannonball gag and the dumb but harmless line.
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.
However, Baby Huey himself is a large part of the problem. There is less of the big heart and good intentions that made him tolerable in his debut cartoon 'Quack a Doodle Do' and even more of the stupidity and dim-wittedness, he is annoying here and to be honest found myself rooting for the fox, a more interesting and funnier character.
Dialogue is simplistic and forgettable at best, and the story is very predictable and takes a good while to get going. Too many of the gags are pedestrian, paint-by-the-numbers and repetitive, apart from the odd mildly amusing one, and manage to take the fun out of the violence, laying it on too heavy with the execution and pacing it too literally. Consequently, the violence is more mean-spirited more than it is well-engineered or fun.
Overall, not bad Baby Huey cartoon but just average. 5/10 Bethany Cox