Pig-a-Boo (1952) Online

Famous Studios' cartoons are not for all tastes, but my opinion is that their early stuff and some of the early 50s output are good. While they were very formulaic they were always well animated and voiced with some funny parts, some poignancy and decent characters and their regular composer Winston Sharples could always be relied on to write a great and often outstanding score.

Admittedly though, by the mid-50s through to the late-60s Famous Studios' cartoons did get repetitive. While Sharples' music still shone and the voice actors did their best the animation suffered due to lower budgets and tighter deadlines, the humour became more tired and slow in timing than sharp and funny, the stories became increasingly predictable and rehashed and some characters started losing their initial spark, this is particularly true of most of the later Herman and Katnip cartoons.

'Pig-a-Boo' is a nice Casper cartoon, and while 'The Three Little Pigs' story has been done numerous times in cartoons before and since and admittedly much better too it's a nice take on it. Certainly nowhere near among the worst of Famous Studios' output, being closer to the quality of their early cartoons while showing a couple of signs of what would happen later. Story-wise it is repetitive and very more of the same, if you have seen any Casper cartoon it won't take long seeing more that you're watching basically the same story or structure but with variations. The dialogue also falls on the wrong side of twee and out of all the things when thinking about 'Pig-a-Boo' it is the dialogue here that is the least memorable.

The animation on the whole, if a little rough in the drawing occasionally and the wolf looked a bit odd somewhat, was well done. thankfully being closer to the very fluid and detailed animation style of the early output rather than the sparser and flatter style of the studio's later cartoons. The colours are vibrant and atmospheric, it mostly looks smooth and the backgrounds are meticulous in their detail. Winston Sharples' music score here is typically merry and whimsical, it's beautifully orchestrated, energetic and adds so much to the mood, his music has always been one of the best assets of the Famous Studios cartoons and it's not an exception here.

While not one of the funniest Casper cartoons, the humour is amusing and gentle, while the reactions towards Casper are nice and varied with some imaginative visuals, especially the priceless one of the wolf's. The chemistry between Casper and the pigs is very endearing and the wolf is a very good threat in an exciting climax where one really does wonder whether the wolf is going to win or not. The voice acting is strong, with the standout being Sid Raymond (anybody familiar with the character of Katnip will immediately recognise the voice, which is slightly reminiscent of Bert Lahr).

Overall, nice cartoon that is better than the rating indicated here. 7/10 Bethany Cox