Just watched this Van Beuren Little King cartoon on YouTube but I seemed to have missed some beginning scenes since what the previous poster mentioned happened I didn't see. The scenes in prison were pretty amusing like when the King feeds one of them some peanuts as if he were some monkey which with it's face (which is white as there is no racist humor here) somewhat looked like one and acted like one when he took the rest of the bag! Then there's another one who plays Tic-Tac-Toe and doesn't even get any x's or o's three in a row which makes him cry. There's an effeminate one who sews "father" on his handiwork and hugs himself. One prisoner that the King fingers a circle around a side of his head to indicate "cukoo" cleans his room while managing to take one of the window bars off for dusting! It's when the king encounters two prisoners in separate rooms playing checkers that he inadvertently starts a riot when he gives one of them a move which results in that one to lose completely. So he literally breaks out and threatens the Little King who gives him the keys. The resulting skirmish results in an amusing ending I won't reveal here. The version I watched, I'm giving a 6. If I ever see the completed version, I add some words to reflect that. But even abridged, I'll recommend Jolly Good Felons.
3 Reviews
Jolly Good Felons was another pretty funny Little King cartoon for Van Beuren
tavm1 December 2009
Warning: Spoilers
The Little King goes to prison
TheLittleSongbird31 January 2018
Van Beuren cartoons are extremely variable, especially in the number of gags and whether the absurdist humour shines through enough (sometimes it does, other times it doesn't), but are strangely interesting. Although they are often poorly animated with barely existent stories and less than compelling lead characters, they are also often outstandingly scored, there can be some fun support characters and some are well-timed and amusing.
'Jolly Good Felons' is the eighth of eleven Van Beuren cartoons based on Otto Soglow, and the sixth to star The Little King. It is for me one of the better The Little King cartoons, even if the first two Van Beuren/Soglow cartoons with Sentinel Louey 'A.M To P.M' and 'A Dizzy Day' were more successful in being faithful to Soglow's humour and visual style (the closest The Little King cartoons gets to that is 'Jest of Honour' perhaps).
It's flimsy in story, not unexpected in a The Little King cartoon, the material is standard and occasionally a little too sweet and pace-wise it's not one of the livelier The Little King cartoons, dragging a little when The Little King is journeying.
Actually though, there is a huge amount to like about 'Jolly Good Felons' and it vastly outweighs the flaws. It demonstrates why Van Beuren's cartoons adapted from Soglow's work are among the studio's better, more ambitious and more entertaining efforts.
One expects Van Beuren cartoons to generally not be well animated. That's not the case with 'Jolly Good Felons', the studio's Soglow adaptations come to think of it were all among their better-looking cartoons and showed more detail and crispness. It may not quite be as imaginative visually and have the ambitious human character designs of 'The Fatal Note', which introduces The Little King, but for Van Beuren this animation is surprisingly good.
Music as always with Van Beuren, very nearly always the best thing about their cartoons and sometimes the only good thing, is lively and beautifully and cleverly orchestrated. The gags are amusing, well-timed and charming, if not quite as subtle as in the first two Van Beuren/Soglow cartoons. The ending is cute and amusing and the second half of the cartoon is when the pace does pick up and the material gets even more interesting. The Little King is appealing as a lead.
Overall, another pretty good The Little King cartoon. 7/10 Bethany Cox
'Jolly Good Felons' is the eighth of eleven Van Beuren cartoons based on Otto Soglow, and the sixth to star The Little King. It is for me one of the better The Little King cartoons, even if the first two Van Beuren/Soglow cartoons with Sentinel Louey 'A.M To P.M' and 'A Dizzy Day' were more successful in being faithful to Soglow's humour and visual style (the closest The Little King cartoons gets to that is 'Jest of Honour' perhaps).
It's flimsy in story, not unexpected in a The Little King cartoon, the material is standard and occasionally a little too sweet and pace-wise it's not one of the livelier The Little King cartoons, dragging a little when The Little King is journeying.
Actually though, there is a huge amount to like about 'Jolly Good Felons' and it vastly outweighs the flaws. It demonstrates why Van Beuren's cartoons adapted from Soglow's work are among the studio's better, more ambitious and more entertaining efforts.
One expects Van Beuren cartoons to generally not be well animated. That's not the case with 'Jolly Good Felons', the studio's Soglow adaptations come to think of it were all among their better-looking cartoons and showed more detail and crispness. It may not quite be as imaginative visually and have the ambitious human character designs of 'The Fatal Note', which introduces The Little King, but for Van Beuren this animation is surprisingly good.
Music as always with Van Beuren, very nearly always the best thing about their cartoons and sometimes the only good thing, is lively and beautifully and cleverly orchestrated. The gags are amusing, well-timed and charming, if not quite as subtle as in the first two Van Beuren/Soglow cartoons. The ending is cute and amusing and the second half of the cartoon is when the pace does pick up and the material gets even more interesting. The Little King is appealing as a lead.
Overall, another pretty good The Little King cartoon. 7/10 Bethany Cox
How do I describe The Little King?
llltdesq6 November 2006
Warning: Spoilers
This is one of a relatively small series of shorts done by the Van Beuren Studios which starred a comic strip character named The Little King. It's a reasonably good short, but it's difficult to describe. Because I will be discussing some details, this is a spoiler warning:
The Little King is a difficult character to describe because, in many ways, he's very bland and unexciting. In general, he doesn't speak (the only short I've seen where he does speak was a Fleischer Studios appearance in a Betty Boop short and the voice is a bit ridiculous). He's very child-like, almost to the point of being annoying.
In this short, he has a trip scheduled to visit the state prison. The funniest part of the short is his preparations to go to the prison and the trip there. He's aided by a butler to get ready and then slides down a long bannister, at one point getting off to allow the butler to get ahead of him in sliding down in order to catch him when he reaches the bottom (the butler misses him).
On the way to the prison, the Little King gets distracted by flowers and winds up falling out the window of the carriage. He tries hitching a ride, finally finding a bicyclist who carries him on his head until they reach the carriage, where the coachman and footman are searching under and around the carriage in vain for their king. Everything-Little King, bike, cyclist-goes into the carriage and off they go.
When they reach the prison, the Little King is allowed to wander off on his own and he finds two inmates playing a game of checkers. He suggests a move to one which naturally causes him to lose the game immediately, whereupon the inmate breaks out of his cell and begins chasing the king, who timidly gives him the keys to the prison. The obvious happens and a riot breaks out. The ending is a bit predictable, but still cute anyway.
This short is well worth seeing and can be found on the DVD The Attack of the '30s Characters. Recommended.
The Little King is a difficult character to describe because, in many ways, he's very bland and unexciting. In general, he doesn't speak (the only short I've seen where he does speak was a Fleischer Studios appearance in a Betty Boop short and the voice is a bit ridiculous). He's very child-like, almost to the point of being annoying.
In this short, he has a trip scheduled to visit the state prison. The funniest part of the short is his preparations to go to the prison and the trip there. He's aided by a butler to get ready and then slides down a long bannister, at one point getting off to allow the butler to get ahead of him in sliding down in order to catch him when he reaches the bottom (the butler misses him).
On the way to the prison, the Little King gets distracted by flowers and winds up falling out the window of the carriage. He tries hitching a ride, finally finding a bicyclist who carries him on his head until they reach the carriage, where the coachman and footman are searching under and around the carriage in vain for their king. Everything-Little King, bike, cyclist-goes into the carriage and off they go.
When they reach the prison, the Little King is allowed to wander off on his own and he finds two inmates playing a game of checkers. He suggests a move to one which naturally causes him to lose the game immediately, whereupon the inmate breaks out of his cell and begins chasing the king, who timidly gives him the keys to the prison. The obvious happens and a riot breaks out. The ending is a bit predictable, but still cute anyway.
This short is well worth seeing and can be found on the DVD The Attack of the '30s Characters. Recommended.
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