User Reviews

...which was an actual song sung by Eddie Cantor in reaction to the insane popularity of the 1920s novelty song that is the subject of this Famous Studios Screen Song.

It follows the format of the series revival in the late 1940s: three minutes of blackout gags with some sort of linking device, followed by a song with the fondly remembered bouncing ball. Here the theme for the gags is that the produce section is putting on a show, with Irish potatoes as cops, and similar hackneyed gags; it's amusing enough if you're a child, and that was the audience for this cartoon.

'Vegetable Vaudeville' is the first of Famous Studios' Kartunes theatrical series, comprising of twelve cartoons. The series is surprisingly worth watching and is a little more consistent in quality than the longer running and better known Screen Song series. There is a lot in common actually between the two series, almost all the cartoons in both series being non existent in story and hit and miss in the singalong portions but very well animated with outstanding music.

That is all obvious in 'Vegetable Vaudeville'. Which is a very strong, surprisingly so seeing as the premise doesn't sound interesting on paper, start for the Kartunes series and much more entertaining than the synopsis looks like and makes it sound. As far as the series goes, 'Vegetable Vaudeville' is among the better cartoons of it and on the same level as the best of the Screen Song series. Which is a quite big compliment.

It is non-existent in terms of plot.

Did think also that although the song "Yes We Have No Bananas" is catchy the singalong portion is too cutesy and not as inspired as the rest of the cartoon.

Luckily, 'Vegetable Vaudeville' succeeds a lot more than it fails and the successes are large in quality. It is beautifully animated. The colours are vibrant and there is meticulous attention to detail in the backgrounds. If there was one aspect that was consistently good in Famous Studios' 1940s and 1950s output, it was the music scoring. And it is outstanding here. The orchestration has a lot of energy and there are some truly luscious sounds throughout.

Furthermore, the vaudeville acts are visually inventive, full of energy and don't come over as cutesy. The gags are on the corny side, but they are also plentiful and to me they were very amusing. The use of the vegetables was interesting and clever and they have a lot of personality. The climactic conga is a lot of fun and is extremely energetic, like the cartoon itself.

Summing up, very enjoyable and one of the best of the series. 8/10.