Toy Time (1932)

Wonderful character development!

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

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.'Toy Time' is not just one of the best 1932 Aesop's Fables/Van Beuren cartoons, it's to me one of the better ones up to this point and in the series in general. It may not be a masterpiece, but it did show that Van Beuren did have some imagination and ambition in them when they had the resources to do so and tried extra hard.Admittedly, the story is pretty formulaic and structurally on the thin and slight side and, while 'Toy Time' is actually one of the better-looking early 30s Van Beuren cartoons, the character designs are still sloppy and awkward, with particularly primitive character designs for the two protagonists.However, the backgrounds are very imaginative and elaborate for Van Beuren and the Aesop's Fables series and the toy shop setting makes one feel like a kid again in a good way. The two protagonists are more appealing and more interesting than most protagonists in the series, their chemistry is very sweet without being overly-so, the toys are great fun and the cat villain adds some fun conflict.Charm can be found all over the cartoon while there are more gags than is mostly found. While not the most inventive or absurdist, they do amuse and don't fall on the wrong side of cute. Synchronisation is neat, the pace is lively and as always the music is splendid, beautifully orchestrated and full of energy.Overall, pretty good for this series with a lot of improvements made compared to what is often found. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Toy Time (1931) *** (out of 4)This animation film shows a lot of imagination and especially when you consider it's basically just a mice versus cat type of story. The film takes place at Christmas time as a mouse and his girlfriend decide to go out and look at presents in the home and it doesn't take long for the mean cat to show up. I really thought this short featured some good imagination and especially during an early sequence where the mouse is trying to get a piece of cheese off of a trap so he has to use a way around getting caught. Things really turn fun once the cat shows up and the mice have to use various gifts to try and fight it off. This here leads to some really good stuff including a blown up cat that helps put everything to an end. The male mouse has a strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse so I'm a little surprise that Disney didn't have an issue with this. The animation style was quite impressive and really dragged you into the fun of the situation. The copy of this that I viewed came from a TV print with the title THE TOYLAND CAPER.

This "oldie" had a clever gag in the first minute when a mouse (animators have always loved mice, for some reason) is confronted with a trap and a piece of cheese. Since he's in a toy shop, the mouse goes for a toy truck that has a hook and ladder and uses it to grab the cheese. Then he puts a "detour" sign up next to the mousetrap and heads off in another direction, to the front door of the shop to let his girlfriend in. How he manages to open the big (for him) door also is clever.The little mice use the Toy Store as an amusement park and a chance to show off their musical skills as they use all the instruments lying around. A story, of sorts, finally happens in the last couple of minutes when a mangy cat spots the mice the rodents use their ingenuity to evade the feline.Overall, this was decent. For its time period, this probably hot stuff, still fairly new and inventive and entertaining for kids and adults 75 years ago. Now it looks pretty dated but still offers adequately-intelligent gags and a certain charm. It''s part of the "Aesop's Fables"" collection from Van Beuren Studios.