User Reviews

As I watched this cartoon from Van Buren, two things came to mind. First, why didn't they simply make it a haunted house cartoon...why make it under the sea? Second, wow this is an ugly cartoon compared to the likes of Disney or the Fleischer Brothers and their output in 1930!

When the story begins, two characters are flying through a storm. Then, and I have no idea why, they jump into the ocean and take their plane with them. Then, you see skeletons and spirits dancing about...for no apparent reason. And, the characters didn't seem to nee to breathe....for no apparent reason. And then, characters started singing and dancing...for no apparent reason. In other words, what happens on screen just seemed random and slapped together with no sense of the story. Additionally, the animation quality was very poor. So what's to recommend this film? Not much, actually.

These are the kind of outrageous sight gags I like to see and helps make this "Aesop's Fables" DVD a worthwhile disc. This cartoon features "Waffles and Don," two cats who are flying their airplane and also using it as a musical instrument and tap dancing at the same time. (Don't ask: you have to see it.) I loved the music as well as the humor.

Then a nasty dark cloud, which transforms into a face and then into a lightning bolt which is in human form - rains on the guy's musical airplane parade. It's almost too insane to describe, but it sure is fun to watch.

Soon, the airplane sicks into the ocean where the fliers meet up with an octopus in a tuxedo who sings. I told you this is crazy all of that is just in the first third of the film. Most of it involves the guys swimming over to Davy Jones's sunken boat where ghosts and skeletons and all kinds of bizarre sights freak them out.

The last third of the "movie" turns into a musical and still is fun, although it can't live up to the wild and crazy first two-thirds of the film.

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.

'The Haunted Ship' is one of the best Aesop's Fables cartoons and also to me one of Van Beuren's best overall. It may not be a masterpiece or a cartoon classic, but it is so much more entertaining than most Aesop's Fables/Van Beuren cartoons and it is one of the few in the series to do almost everything right and not suffer from all, or most of, the usual flaws.

As what tends to be the case with Van Beuren, while it is actually one of the better looking cartoons in the series, the animation is less than brilliant. It is more detailed and more imaginative than most Aesop's Fables cartoons, but there is a lack of finesse and overdose of over-simplicity.

While still fun, the last third of 'The Haunted Ship' doesn't quite have the energy of the other two thirds and tonally it jars ever so slightly.

However, 'The Haunted Ship' goes at a snappy pace and not only manages to be one of Van Beuren's strangest and absurdist, a good thing as that's their style of humour when they do it right, but also one of their overall funniest. There are a lot of gags, all of them well timed and funny, as well as wonderfully insane.

Don't expect it to make sense, it doesn't. The difference is that so much is executed so well it is much easier to forgive than with most of their efforts that don't excel anywhere near as much. Likewise with minding as to whether the story is flimsy, you're just having too much fun to care. It is also one of their scariest, there is a real creepiness to the atmosphere and some deliciously kooky characters.

Best of all is the music score, it is typically peppy and great fun to listen to. It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and full of lively energy, doing so well with enhancing the action. Synchronisation is nicely done.

Overall, lots of haunting fun. 8/10 Bethany Cox

If we put aside the idea that cartoon characters can breathe under water, this is quite entertaining. The two principles lose their plane in a storm and go to the bottom of the sea. What ensues is the usual musical stuff, but a bevy of wonderful undersea creatures, each with their own talents. This includes a barber shop quartet of turtles and some dancing skeletons. The sophistication is starting to happen now.