User Reviews

This is one of the weakest of the revived Screen Songs. The first series, begun by the Fleischers in the 1920s, introduced the well-remembered bouncing ball, was filled with jokes and gags and frequently featured famous singers and musicians. The series ended with the 1930s until revived by Famous Studios -- the Fleischers' successor -- in the middle of the following decade.

It also featured gag sequences, but while the original series offered the jokes at a rat-a-tat pace and often overlapped them, the new one had a more deliberate pace. In the first, if one part of a joke didn't amuse you, the next would. In the new series, the pace was more deliberate, less wild and not as funny.

In this one, that weakness is clearly revealed. The opening sequence concerns jokes about prisons, from breaking rocks, to Edward G. Robinson jokes. Then there is a left turn into the song, which is "Give My Regards to Broadway", sung by an anonymous chorus.

It is a mediocre cartoon, rendered annoying by the memory of it being done right. It's no fun for me and I don't think you will enjoy it.

Have found a lot to admire about much of Famous Studios' earlier work and while the Noveltoons series is an uneven one it is worthwhile with some very good and even great cartoons when the studio was at its peak. Their best decade being easily the 40s, then by the mid-late-50s it started to feel like a different studio and not for the better. That is not to say that every 40s Noveltoons cartoon was good, there were lacklustre ones. The studio did a number of Screen Song cartoons.

Of which 'Fresh Yeggs' is one of the below average ones, speaking as someone that generally found the Screen Songs a mixed bag. It is also an example of not every 40s cartoon from Famous Studios or of their Noveltoons series being good. If anyone likes good animation and music with moments of charm, 'Fresh Yeggs' has a little appeal. For anybody wanting anything resembling a story or any funny material with moments of freshness, it's probably best looking elsewhere.

It's the animation and music that save 'Fresh Yeggs'. Especially the music, which was consistently of a high standard throughout the studio's run even in lesser efforts. The orchestration has a lot of energy and there are some truly luscious sounds throughout. The song is very catchy and doesn't get annoying, will admit to singing along. The animation was not as consistent for the studio overall, with the quality declining when the studio did but throughout the 40s to mid-50s it was a strength. As one can tell, to me it was one of the compensations here, nice colours and the attention to detail in the backgrounds was admirable (also fitting the gags and the song arrangements beautifully).

There are a few cute moments and a couple of too far and between very mildly amusing ones, like the referencing to Edward G. Robinson (an actor caricatured a lot in animation).

'Fresh Yeggs' however does suffer from a very weak story, even though one doesn't expect a story that blows the mind not many people would expect to find some so non-existent and little more than a routine stringing along of very variable gags. The gags were not enough and pretty much all of them were stale and old well before this was produced, a couple amuse slightly but generally they were not funny and tended to be too corny.

Did find 'Fresh Yeggs' quite repetitive as well and none of the characters are interesting or appealing. It was quite low on the energy and just resorts to over-cuteness and stale humour and while it is not always easy making something funny within a prison setting, with it being the bleakest of places, not enough is done with it (what happens here could happen in any setting).

All in all, pretty lacklustre. 4/10.