Goose in the Rough (1963) Online

The more that is seen of the "Beary Family" cartoons, where a few are decent (especially the first two cartoons directed by Jack Hannah) but even more of them are horrible, the more my initial statement of saying in my reviews for the first two cartoons that they weren't bad for the Lantz studio's final series (based on memory admittedly) becomes less true.

While not quite one of the worst "Beary Family" cartoons, it's a little better than the unbearable 'Charlie's Mother-in-Law', rough is a very apt way of describing 'Goose in the Rough'. It is indicative of when the studio and Paul J. Smith were at their worst the cartoons were very weak at best, coming from a big lifelong animation fan who tries to be quite lenient when watching and reviewing it. Even the weakest Chilly Willy and Woody Woodpecker cartoons were as bad as the worst cartoons from this series, and some of the later Woody Woodpecker cartoons in particular were not good.

Saving graces are only a couple but they are there. One is the music, which is energetic and lushly orchestrated, succeeding in single-handedly giving the little energy the cartoon has. The other is Paul Frees' voice work, much more subtle here and he shows his ability to create a likable character with good comic timing, despite his lacking material and less than inspired situations there's something about Charlie that makes him easy to like and relate to when the series makes an effort to (which this cartoon does better than most Smith-directed "Beary Family" cartoons).

However, the animation is not good. Time and budget constraints shows in a lot of the animation, which is very rushed looking in the drawing and detail wise it's on the simplistic and careless side with colours that lack vibrancy and a fair share of goofs. The story is not much of one at all and what there is is sloppily timed and without anything surprising or imaginative, predictability is non-stop. While no supporting character in a "Beary Family" cartoon will be as insufferable as the mother-in-law, the goose is neither interesting or funny this time and his chemistry with Charlie has been fresher elsewhere.

Again 'Goose in the Rough' is not funny, unlike the first two cartoons in the series directed by Jack Hannah. There are a lot of gags, but here they are far too noisy and chaotic, irritating for the sake of it, and are memorable for their lack of taste than their wit. Hannah's efforts had none of those faults when it came to the humour. Occasionally the dialogue amuses in a cracking a small smile sort of way but it's hardly what one would call great.

In summary, very rough. 2/10 Bethany Cox