This was the Fleisher Bros. one real effort to compete with Disney on Disney's own turf - "revising" a classic story for American tastes - and this in itself led to the film being dismissed by many critics as "imitative" of the Disney technique. This is not really fair, because the Fleisher's had a keen sense of the culture of the 1930s that the Disney people consciously decided to ignore - the depression; growing concern over the unstoppable march to the Second World War; an American pop-music culture adopting African-American motifs more and more; and a growing sense that working-together could provide us with a brighter future than rigorous individualism. All these elements of '30s American culture receive positive comment in the film, and thus make it more directly American than anything comparable by Disney.
But the film has real problems - these began virtually at the beginning of production, when the Fleisher's decided they would keep costs down, despite the ambitions of their project. This involved some shoddy dealings with their animation crews, and effacing creative credits other than their own whenever possible. Bad production strategy and tactics show forth in a certain blandness to the background of the animations (among the least interesting background art in the Fleisher catalog) as well as a curious lack of unity to the story - for instance, the three spies, while providing excellent comic relief, seem to come from some other film entirely, and the plot twist they provide could have been constructed along other, more innovative lines.
Still, there is certainly nothing objectionable here, the music is rather interesting, and the story is pretty upbeat - on the whole, it succeeds at entertaining, and is short enough not to be dragged down by its flaws.
Pretty good for children, and not all that bad for adults.
But the film has real problems - these began virtually at the beginning of production, when the Fleisher's decided they would keep costs down, despite the ambitions of their project. This involved some shoddy dealings with their animation crews, and effacing creative credits other than their own whenever possible. Bad production strategy and tactics show forth in a certain blandness to the background of the animations (among the least interesting background art in the Fleisher catalog) as well as a curious lack of unity to the story - for instance, the three spies, while providing excellent comic relief, seem to come from some other film entirely, and the plot twist they provide could have been constructed along other, more innovative lines.
Still, there is certainly nothing objectionable here, the music is rather interesting, and the story is pretty upbeat - on the whole, it succeeds at entertaining, and is short enough not to be dragged down by its flaws.
Pretty good for children, and not all that bad for adults.