The Cricket in Times Square (1973 TV Movie) User Reviews

A beautiful and timeless animation!

[Tobeshadow · 8/10 · 30 October 2021]

I remember watching this endlessly as a child, and there's something wonderfully striking about Chuck Jones' beautiful images, invoking a bygone era of New York with a soul and a purity that's sadly lacking in a lot of modern animation.

A great introduction not only to the genre, but to the power and majesty of music in film. Lovely!

It's all About the Violin Legs

[BabelAlexandria · 7/10 · 4 May 2022]

Both kiddos loved the book, so I got a DVD of this old TV short from the 1970s. It was nothing special - the plot was heavily cut, the animation clunky, and the images of Time Square disappointingly nondescript. One nice thing about the short not in the book is that the cricket's legs often "play" violin solos, performed by Israel Baker.

Artistic, beautiful, a classic that belongs in every child's movie library

[drhazeem · 10/10 · 13 May 2014]

This was a cartoon from my parents generation and they lovingly introduced it to me as a child. I was a flaky kid and I never sat through anything... However I sat through this one. I think I loved everything about it. The music, the art, the voice acting. There was something kind of sophisticated about it considering it was a cartoon... but I loved the feel of it and I can not quite describe it...

It was created in the early 70s and stars a little cricket brought to NY and separated from his home in Connecticut. While I love everything about it, I feel the thing that really captivated me was the music.... I have always loved music. This cartoon stars music. I can not give everything away.. but the music captivated me and calmed myself and my wild brothers.

I just have to say, see it, especially if you have energetic kids. it's a very calming film.

Chuck Jones Makes A Classic Movie

[jeremycrimsonfox · 10/10 · 5 November 2019]

When a cricket named Chester tries to get a meal from a picnic basket, a rainstorm traps him inside and he is trapped in the Times Square subway station. Adopted by a newspaper seller named Mario Bellini, and two friends in a mouse named Tucker, and his friend, Harry, a cat, Chester discovers he can use his wings like a violin, which he uses to help Mario sell his magazines,

This is a good classic film. Made by Chuck Jones, who is one of the greats in animations (as he did a lot of good animated stuff, like Looney Tunes shorts, and even the original How The Grinch Stole Christmas), he manages to make a good adaptation of a classic novel. Also, the film has classic voice actors (like Mel Blanc voicing Tucker, and June Foray voicing Mario's mother). This is one classic to show to your kids.

Totally amazing story

[sadie_m_lady · 10/10 · 30 November 2020]

Release release its to good to be left in the can let's get it out for all to enjoy

Only one aspect/character was convincing

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 28 August 2017]

"The Cricket in Times Square" is an animated short film from 1973, so this one will have its 45th anniversary next year. The director is Chuck Jones and this is one of his later (but not latest) works and this one is already despite the age from way past the Golden Age of Animation. This is also easily visible if you take a look at the runtime, the story and the frequency of voice acting, not necessarily visible in the animation which shows you how much the 1940s were ahead of their time with regard to that. Anyway, the big problem for me here was that I found the central character relatively forgettable. And I believe this is also the main reason why this never became really famous. Crickets may not be the very best characters to headline an animated film to be honest and the plot won't make up for that deficit. Much more interesting to me was the mouse character, but this is not much of a surprise really as it was voiced by the incomparable Mel Blanc. June Foray, who died less than 2 months before her 100th birthday recently, is in here too. And Les Tremayne voices the title character and that actor is certainly more known for his acting and not for his voice acting. Jones and Blanc were both already in their 60s when they worked on this short film based on a work by George Selden. It's a pretty harmless little film in which even cats and mice live together in harmony and there are 2 sequels to it. As for this first entry, I am sadly not impressed as Blanc is (like so many other times) the only standout here. The ending was okay too, even if the emotional aspect certainly wasn't as successful as they wanted it to be. Don't watch.